French Polynesia, Tahiti
18 February 2026
Tahiti! I’ve heard of it all my life, or at least since I saw Marlon Brando in Mutiny On the Bounty in 1962. We spent today in Papeete, the capital city of Tahiti and French Polynesia, on the sea coast surrounded by green, steep, high volcanic mountains. As we walked off the ship there were local women handing out flowers to all of us. Unfortunately, I don’t have enough hair to support a flower the way the locals wear them.
It’s not exactly a colony of France. It is a self-governing territory with its own assembly, yet relies on France for defense, law and order, and justice. It has been part of the French Republic since 1946. So I guess it’s a territory of France just as Puerto Rico is a territory of the USA. The languages of the islands are French and Tahitian. All the road signs are in both French and English.
We spent a few hours wandering the streets of Papeete. Very crowded. Cars everywhere and all the stores are full of shoppers. There are a couple of smaller cruise ships docked here near us, so that explains a lot of the shoppers, but a lot of them are obviously locals. We considered renting a car and driving around the island, but decided it was too much trouble.
It was fun practicing some of my high school and college French, and it did help a lot with reading signs in the stores and on sidewalks, and ordering at a restaurant. We had lunch in a Vietnamese restaurant, and what we got was like a cross between Thai and Chinese food. Very tasty, and my local beer was cold and good. We had to practically twist David’s arm, because he really wanted to go back to the ship to get a hamburger, but he admitted that his Thai curry lunch was even better than a hamburger!
While we were waiting for our lunch to arrive, Chinese New Year dragons started bobbing and dancing outside the restaurant, then three dragons came INTO the restaurant! Before long there was a big one behind my chair, threatening to eat me. In my panic, my videos “didn’t take.” I’m hoping Linda can post some good ones. After about 10 minutes of drums, I looked at David and in unison we said, “OK, enough.” They went on another 5 minutes, then they set the dragon suits aside and they, about 15 people, sat down and had dinner beside us. Each dragon was “operated” by a couple of adults at the head end and 3 children in the tail end.
We left the boat at 9:30, and by 1 p.m. we stumbled back onto the ship. We’re learning that 3 or 4 hours walking, shopping, and eating is about all we can handle before we start thinking about a nap. Nothing wrong with that! I’ve decided that the only thing wrong with Tahati is that the missionaries made the women stop going topless.
OUR WELCOME TO TAHATI VIDEO PRACTICING FOR THE RACES VIDEO
NEW YEAR DRAGONS VIDEO DRAGON ATTACK! VIDEO
It’s about 80F/27C here, not bad in the shade but the sun is very hot, I suppose because we’re close to the equator. We had to wait out a couple of rain showers, but they didn’t last long. The prices we paid were reasonable. We paid with US dollars and credit cards. If we were here longer, we’d be better off to get local money using our debit cards at a bank ATM, but for a stay of a few hours, we did things the easy way. When David paid with US cash, he received French Polynesian franc coins in return, but Linda had no problem finding trinkets to spend the coins on!
Speaking of spending: without doing the math thoroughly, I bought the Cunard beverage package, meaning my drinks during this voyage are paid in advance. The problem is, I forgot that I bought the package (it was 6 months ago when I booked the voyage), so for the first 10 days I was mostly saving money by drinking water! A couple of days ago, I went to one of the bars and ordered a bottle of the cheap house red wine to keep in my cabin. That’s when the waiter ran my voyage card (that’s how we pay for things on the ship) and he said, “I’m sorry, bottled wine is not in your package.”
Package? Package! Now I remember, but didn’t remember the details/rules of the package. Upon investigation, it seems they take your money up front then look for every way possible to NOT let you use it. The waiter said I can get up to 8 glasses of house red wine/day “free,” but I can’t get a bottle. So he poured me “a double,” two wine servings in one big glass, and I was happy.
I went back to my room, sipped my double glass of wine, and realized that there’s no way I can drink 8 glasses of wine/day! I fall asleep after 3 or 4. Then I decided, I’ll get my money’s worth by ordering the most expensive wines by the glass they have. But no, tried that and found the more expensive wines are not in my package!
So, back to my room to drill down, finally, into the details of this package, something I should have done 6 months ago. I learned that their wine by the glass ranges from $8.50 for their cheap house wine up to $18.50 for a glass of their best (the really expensive wines are only available by the whole bottle). My package allows me to have any drink priced $13.50 or less. Luckily, the basic mixed drinks, like a margarita or a gin and tonic are under $13.50 (assuming you don’t want the premium tequila or gin, which I can do without).
So I headed back to the bar and ordered a glass of $13.50 wine, and hallelujah, they brought my wine and there was no charge! I finally figured out the system, and I don’t have to drink the house red anymore. It’s not bad, but the $13.50 wine is noticeably better. It’s a wine named B-Qā made in Lebanon, of all places, and it’s excellent!
19 February 2026
Today was spent on Mo’orea Island, just about 10 miles/17 km from the island of Tahiti, but a very different world. We had great views of Tahiti from Mo’orea today. If the town of Maynard was moved from Randolph County to Mo’orea, it would be the biggest town on the island. We decided yesterday to rent a car on Mo’orea and drive the 37 mile/60 km road that circles the island.
I popped out of bed this morning when it dawned on me: ship with thousands of passengers arriving today, car rental the most recommended thing to do on the island. I realized that all the cars would be rented before we got one, so I got online, found a car rental place near where the boat was anchored, and made a reservation. Just $140 for the day, including full insurance coverage, air conditioning and automatic transmission. Perfect. I made the reservation online and trusted that they would get the car to us, or us to the car (we were anchored several miles from the car rental location).
Luckily, when I called them they said they’d come pick us up near the ship terminal. We took “tenders” again today, with no Mo’orea port deep enough for QM2 to dock. A very friendly young driver picked us up and took us to the 6 or so miles to the rental agency. He very much enjoyed practicing his limited English with us, and we enjoyed the tour he gave us along the short drive to the rental office. When I walked into the office, the woman said, “Patrick Carroll?” So apparently I was the only rental on their list today! All my worries about getting a car were for nothing.
She only had three instructions for us: drive slowly because the dogs run free and they don’t want them killed, don’t park the car under a palm tree (coconuts drop occasionally), and she marked a speed bump on our route map around the island so we didn’t speed over it.
I was happy to see that they drive on the right in French Polynesia, though I’ve never had a problem with driving on the left in the British Isles. I drove about 30 mph/50 km/h all the way around the island. We were in no hurry. We pulled out occasionally to enjoy the views, and we made a stop at the local version of a Walmart, about the size of Harps in Pocahontas but they even sold kitchen ranges, dishwashers, televisions, and amazing fruits and vegetables we’d never seen before. Linda was amazed at the basket of tumeric they had.
We all agreed that Mo’orea is the most beautiful place we’ve ever been, even beating Hawaii and the Eleven Point Valley in Randolph County. We stopped at an 18-hole golf course that advertised a good restaurant, and we weren’t disappointed. We had to order with hand signals, my limited French and their limited English, but we made it fine. For the second day in a row, Linda talked David out of ordering a cheeseburger, and he was very thankful for the BBQ pork ribs and French fries he got. Linda DID get the cheeseburger, and said it didn’t compare well with burgers from Little Blue Market in Pocahontas (and I’ll give a plug for the burgers at American Made General Store, that are about as good).
We had just 2 goals before returning the car and heading back to the ship: drive up the mountain to Belvedere Lookout, and find ice cream. Belvedere is Italian for “beautiful view,” and it didn’t disappoint. The switchback road took us high enough for the air to be noticeably cooler, with beautiful views, including the tiny Queen Mary 2 far below us.
After gassing up the rental car, we stopped in a small neighborhood grocery and had “drumsticks,” the ice cream treats on a sugar cone with chocolate and nuts atop. I managed to drop ice cream all over my clothes. It was like being a kid again. I didn’t care.
The same young guy drove us back to the ship terminal, and after he asked Linda to please speak more slowly, they had a wonderful conversation. Linda asks things I would never think to ask, plus, of course, I would never ask anything. I don’t talk to strangers. I’m not shy; I just won’t go to the trouble of being friendly! Linda is like Patty Riffel, she never met a stranger!
OUR RESTAURANT AT THE MO’OREA COUNTRY CLUB VIDEO
CHILDREN ON MO’OREA VIDEO
MO’OREA CHICKENS AT A SPOT WHERE HUMAN SACRIFICES WERE ONCE HELD VIDEO
Today was much easier, more relaxed, less tiring, than yesterday in busy, crowded, hot Pepeete, Tahiti, mostly due to driving rather than walking, air conditioning rather than tropical heat, and zero stress. Linda and I agreed that, for what we spent on booking our world voyage, we could have spent a few months on Mo’orea and been perfectly happy! Tonight we weighed anchor and headed back to sea. As always, it was fun to watch the Pilot boat come up along side of us as we clear the port. The local pilot who guides us out of the harbor climbs down a rope from a door on the side of QM2 and jumps onto the pilot boat just as it lightly bumps our side. I gave him a short round of applause and he waved back at me, or maybe he was waving at the whole ship, but I like to think it was me. The ship blew it’s loud, deep horn, and the little pilot boat returned a little beep beep as it headed home to wonderful Mo’orea.
Now it’s 6 days at sea, heading for 3 stops in New Zealand. We’re leaving one of the most isolated places on Earth and heading for the crowded island groups between New Zealand and Australia to mainland Asia. We’re looking forward to hearing what lectures we can attend each day for the next week. Stay tuned…