Detailed Photo Review of Paul Gauguin 10-Night Cruise 9/6/17 Plus Moorea Pre-Cruise

[deladane]

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We stayed at the piano bar until it was time for the main show in the Grand Salon at 9:30pm. Tonight’s show was the first of two performances by a guest act called The Rolling Keys. They are a duo- Will plays the piano, and Sarah sings, and they were accompanied by the musicians from Santa Rosa. Sarah is a very energetic lead singer and she performs a fantastic show. I think this was their first and only time booking a gig on the PG, but I do hope they are asked to return because all the guests seemed to enjoy the show. They played a good mix of upbeat current songs from Bruno Mars and Beyonce, plus a few ballads from Adele and Alicia Keyes.

 

We actually got to chat with Will and Sarah throughout the cruise. Unlike cruises in the Caribbean where guest acts can easily fly in the day of their performance, sleep one night on the ship, and fly out the next port day from whichever other Caribbean island the boat docks at, the PG sails to remote places without convenient international airport access. Guest acts must stay onboard for the full duration of the cruise, and since we had a slightly longer cruise with 10 days, the guest acts each performed twice. They told us they had a few days with rehearsals with Santa Rosa, but otherwise were free to enjoy the ship and the ports just like the passengers. Not a bad gig if you ask me!

 

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When the show ended, we went upstairs to La Palette for karaoke, but the room was empty aside from the Gauguines. Eventually a small crowd formed and people took turns singing karaoke.

 

DH sang Sweet Caroline

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When no one volunteered to sing the next song, one of the Gaugines picked a song for us… John Denver, Country Roads. DH and another passenger (who we had not yet met) were good sports and took the lead, but most of the rest of us sang along too without microphones.

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At 11pm, they shut down karaoke and turn La Palette into a disco, so we took that as our cue to head back to the cabin and go to sleep.

[deladane]

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Sunday, September 10, 2017 ~ Rangiroa

 

Last night, we sailed northeast, leaving the Society Islands to spend a few days in the Tuamotu Archipelago. These are a chain of 80 islands and atolls in the South Pacific Ocean that encompass an area roughly the size of Western Europe. All the islands together have a land area of 328 miles, and are home to 16,000 residents, making this the largest chain of atolls in the world. We were now enroute to Rangiroa, the largest atoll in the Tuamotus (and one of the largest atolls in the world!), which is located about 200 miles northeast of Tahiti, and is home to 2500 people.

 

I’ll be mentioning this word “atoll” a lot over the next 2 port days, and I don’t know about you, but before researching this vacation, I had never heard of an atoll! So in case you were curious, an atoll is a ring-shaped coral reef with a rim of coral that surrounds a shallow lagoon. Looking at images of Rangiroa, I would compare that ring to Morse Code in that it looks like a series of dots and dashes with motus (tiny islands) separated by channels of water. The atoll rests on top of a continuously eroding extinct volcano, so the new coral must grow at a rate equal to or faster than the erosion for the atoll to maintain it’s surface above water. I hope that sort of made sense!

 

Ok, so back to our port for today… Rangiroa is made up of 415 motus which form the perimeter of the lagoon and span a maximum of 50 miles long by 20 miles wide. The lagoon has a maximum depth of 35 meters, and is so big that it has its own horizon! This lagoon is home to countless species of marine life, which makes Rangiroa a wonderful tourism destination for snorkelers and scuba divers. There was never a question that we would do a snorkeling excursion when we visited here on our cruise, but the fact that we only had 5 hours in port (this was the shortest port day I have ever had on any of my cruises!), coupled with the fact that Rangiroa is very small and does not have many tour operators for snorkeling excursions (I was able to find many more with scuba tours, but we’re not certified), lead me to book today’s tour through PG. We used some of our OBC to book the 1pm tour called “Snorkeling Rangiroa’sAquarium” for $89 per person. I thought that was a bit steep for pricing on a tour that only lasts 90 minutes, but we didn’t want to miss out on an opportunity to snorkel here and saw this as our only tour option. Here is the description of the tour from the PG website:

 

Rangiroa’s spectacular and diverse marine life is yours to discover during this scenic and memorable ride in the Tuamotu Islands. Depart the pier via local boat for the ride to Motu Nui Nui, a natural, open-water aquarium renowned for its marine life.Upon arrival, you will receive your safety instructions, then enter the water to explore your surroundings. Along the way, you will observe an abundance of colorful fish and coral and marine life. Your guide will offer assistance in the water and throughout the tour. During the tour, you will also have an opportunity to hand-feed the fish.

Following your snorkeling session, you will be transferred back to the pier.

Please note: This tour is recommended for guests who are in good physical condition and used to snorkeling in deep water and strong currents. The Tuamotus are very remote islands. Although the guides used are the best available, they are not certified, and their command of English may be very poor; thus, narration will be very limited to non-existent. Your patience and understanding are greatly appreciated. Please wear a swimsuit under a cover-up, sunscreen, a hat, and sunglasses, and bring a bottle of water and a towel from the ship.

 

Here is the daily schedule for today:

 

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The ship wasn’t due to anchor in the lagoon until 12 noon, so that gave us a lazy morning on the ship. With no need to set an alarm clock, we slept until 8am, then gradually made our way up to La Veranda for breakfast. I really miss those glasses of half orange/half pineapple juice!

 

 

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[deladane]

As we ate, we could see the little motus not too far off in the distance. It looked like it would be a beautiful day in paradise!

 

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After breakfast, I spent a few hours sitting outside of La Palette, writing in the trip journal and staring out at the wake.

 

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Alex was hosting a game of Name That Tune at the Piano Barat 10:30am, so DH and I stopped by for a few minutes to see if we could guess any of the songs. He has an interesting way of giving the clues… instead of just playing the song and having us randomly guess the title, he wrote out a sentence and the song title filled into the blank. It was like Mad Libs meets Name That Tune. Maybe it’s a generation gap but I couldn’t identify any of the songs he played haha I do think part of the problem was that he played flowery instrumental versions of the song on the piano so it made it hard to recognize the music. If he just played the simple melody, then maybe I had a chance? This was the question sheet from the game. I blurred out our responses, but I honestly don’t even know if we got them right or wrong because we only stayed for half the game and then gave up and left!

 

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Part of the reason we left early was that we were due to sail through the pass and enter the lagoon staring at 11am and we didn’t want to miss the action up on deck! There was a party going on near the pool, so we stopped by for a few minutes, but decided we wanted a more straight forward view. From the pool area, we could see that we were lining up to enter the pass pretty soon!

 

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Now is when knowing about the secret deck is especially helpful as this was the perfect place to watch us sail through the pass! DH and I had the space all to ourselves as I don’t think anyone else on the ship knew it was there, so we spent about 30 minutes standing out there enjoying the incredible views!

 

The ship must pass through the narrow space between those two motus…

 

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[deladane]

Just after we entered into the lagoon, we were treated to something I have never seen before. Two dolphins jumped out of the water right in front of the ship, and proceeded to leap in and out of the water around the ship! I have seen dolphins in aquariums and Sea World, and we saw dolphins at the Intercontinental in Moorea, but I have never seen anything like this! If you look closely, you can see them just to the right of the middle of the ship…

 

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After all of that excitement, we went back out to the pool deck to listen to Les Gauguines and check out the views from inside Rangiroa’s lagoon.

 

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I tried today’s drink of the day, the Tropical Sensation, made with Bacardi Gold, Amaretto, Orange Juice, Pineapple Juice, and a Midori topper (which I think he forgot to add to my glass!)

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We try to take a photo like this on every cruise:

 

 

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[Bimmer09]

Dana, just stumbled on your review today and see I have 15 pages of fun ahead!

I am in the midst of writing a Regal Princess review but will bookmark yours for a future read.

The photos and detail are as always Top Notch! Do you have a new camera? Is it a Sony by any chance (just going by the in-camera effects)

Pop over and say hi on the Princess board when you get a chance!

.....and many Congratulations!

Norris

[deladane]

Dana, just stumbled on your review today and see I have 15 pages of fun ahead!

I am in the midst of writing a Regal Princess review but will bookmark yours for a future read.

The photos and detail are as always Top Notch! Do you have a new camera? Is it a Sony by any chance (just going by the in-camera effects)

Pop over and say hi on the Princess board when you get a chance!

.....and many Congratulations!

Norris

 

Hey Norris! Welcome to the party! So glad you found my review and I hope you enjoy reading it :cool: I did get a new camera for this trip, but it's not a Sony (my old underwater camera was a Sony, but I only used it on a few occasions on this trip to take panoramic photos because I don't like how my new camera stitches them together). The new camera is an Olympus Tough TG-5, plus the fisheye attachment. I bought it over the summer right after they released the new model, and I was very happy with the photos it took.

[deladane]

At around noon, we went inside to grab a quick lunch at Le Grill. Today’s theme was “American Buffet” but you could have fooled me! I thought it was a seafood buffet based on what they were serving… No complaints here!!

 

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Make your own taco station

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Our tour was meeting at 12:45pm to take the tender together to shore. It was maybe a 5 minute tender ride, if that. When we stepped off the tender, we walked just a few steps to clear a path for everyone else getting off the tender, then we waited as tender pulled away and the tour boats pulled in. Iliterally never walked more than 20 feet on land in Rangiroa today! There were 48 people signed up for our tour and there would be 4 boats, so the organizer told us to stand together if we wanted to be on the same boat as anyone, and then they loaded us onto the boats in groups of 12. Honestly, even if you get separated from a friend and you are put on different boats, it does not matter at all. We were on the boats for less than 5 minutes before we reached our destination! This photo will give you some perspective of where we went…

 

You can see the PG anchored in the background, and we tendered from the PG to shore, which is beyond the edge of the photo to the right, and then came right back to this spot on a different boat. Once all the boats arrived, we jumped in the water and spent the next hour exploring the marine life and coral garden. There is basically no opportunity to chat with friends on this tour, and the entire thing start to finish is only 90 minutes.

 

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Before jumping in the water, I looked out over the edge of the boat to see hundreds of little fish! And that was without the guides tossing food in the water to bait them!

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[deladane]

There were 2 guides on the boat with us, but “guide” is a generous term. They were really just there to operate the boat and they did not provide us with any tour information aside from warning us to stay within the perimeter formed by all the tour boats so we wouldn’t get swept away in the stronger current outside of that perimeter. We brought along the flippers that we borrowed from PG’s marina, so we put them on, put on our masks and snorkels, climbed down the ladder into the water. The coral garden here was quite large and there was a lot to see and explore. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves…

 

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[deladane]

 

 

 

And then this happened…

 

EEL!!!! It was so cool! I have never before seen an eel while snorkeling and I was so excited!! I immediately switched into video mode on my camera to capture this:

 

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I honestly think that experience made this whole excursion worth it. The snorkeling itself was good, but not as spectacular as I was expecting given all the hype I had read about the sea life in the Tuamotus. There was a lot of coral, but most of it was bland and possibly dead. There was the occasional interesting fish, but most of them looked like the same species we saw in Bora Bora and Moorea. Maybe I was getting jaded by this time of the vacation? Haha I think we would have felt differently about this coral garden had we visited here before the other ports.

 

 

[deladane]

I stayed in the water for about 40 minutes. I wasn’t really sure when we needed to come back to the boat, so I called it quits and headed back. Turns out I could have stayed in the water for 10 more minutes. I really wish the guides would tell us that kind of information before we start snorkeling so we know how to pace our time and when to return, rather than worrying that everyone is already back on the boat and waiting for me so they can leave (or worse, that the boat would leave without me!) Once everyone else was back, we returned to the tender pier by 2:30pm, and that was that.

 

I’m not really sure what to make of this snorkeling excursion. It really felt more like the water equivalent of taking a taxi from point A to point B, the taxi waits for you to do what you need to do there, and then it returns you to point A. There’s no interaction with the taxi driver, and hopefully you knew what you were supposed to do at point B because the taxi driver sure won’t advise you. I guess it just didn’t really feel like a tour. Looking back at the description PG provided, we were supposed to have an opportunity to hand-feed the fish but that did not happen (not that it mattered because I have done that before, but it may have made the tour a bit more exciting). I am glad we did the tour though because 1) I got to swim with an eel… so exciting!! And 2) There really isn’t anything else to do in Rangiroa if we did not do this tour. We spoke to a few people later in the day who did not take a tour, and they said there was really nothing to do here. There was just one or two shops and a small restaurant/bar near the tender pier, and that was it. If you do go to Rangiroa, definitely plan to take some kind of water-based tour since this is not a good island to just get off the tender and wander around on your own.

 

…Or is it??

 

One of the guests on our cruise (actually, she was staying in the cabin right next to us!) has cruised with PG many times and she has been to Rangiroa before. We met her at the block party yesterday and she told us about a secret snorkeling spot literally steps from where the tender drops us off in Rangiroa. She was also taking the Aquarium Snorkel excursion, so she told us to meet up with her afterwards and she would show us where to go. When the tour ended, she guided us literally 20 feet away to the opposite side of the tender pier where there was a small wood pier going out into the water. She told us to leave our towels on the side of the pier and showed us where to enter the water because she said there was always great snorkeling here. It was kind of funny because we were just steps away from the tender pier and anyone could jump in the water here for free, but no one knows about it.

 

The entrance was very rocky and I did not pack my water shoes today (partly because I planned to wear my fins to snorkel in the current at the aquarium, and partly because I needed them to be dry for the following day in Fakarava). Once I got past the initial entry, the water was deep enough that I was able to swim (although in general, the water was relatively shallow and I could probably stand up in it if I needed to). No joke, the snorkeling here was BETTER than the snorkeling on the excursion that I paid for!! There were so many varieties of fish, there was another large eel, and lots of interesting coral. Again, I will let these photos speak for themselves…

 

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[deladane]

It was so fun not having a timeline and just being able to float on the surface and take my time. One thing I really learned on this vacation was how wonderful snorkeling can be when you don’t try to rush things. If you just calmly float in the water without actively swimming, the fish will come out from the nooks and crannies of the coral, and you get a chance to observe a lot more marine life. On top of that, by going slowly, I had time to play with the macro settings on my camera. It is incredible the details I was able to capture in this coral!!

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A Blue-Eyed Eel!

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After seeing all of this amazing free snorkeling, I can confidently say that if I were to return to Rangiroa, I would forgo the ship excursion and just snorkel at this spot for free! We stayed here for about 20 minutes, and got out just in time to catch the 3:30pm tender back to the ship. Of course, we took advantage of the short tender ride and sat upstairs on the outside deck!

 

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It was too early to get ready for dinner, so we went upstairs and hung out by the pool for a few hours. The buffet was closed, but we were able to order from the lunch menu so we got an order of sliders to share.

 

 

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[deladane]

By the time we finished eating the sliders, it was time for afternoon tea so we got a few sweets for dessert.

 

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Most of the reviews I read prior to this cruise said that no one ever uses the pool deck and it is always quiet up there because people are on their balconies (since 70% of cabins have a balcony!). Maybe our sailing was different because we always found the pool deck to be lively and busy, with most of the loungers occupied.

 

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Enjoying a Blue Hawaiian in the afternoon sun

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There is very limited shade near the pool, but you can usually find a spot in the shade as the ship rotates, either along the wall of Le Grill or on the opposite side closer to the elevators. We camped out at this table for a while, enjoying our frozen cocktails and listening to Santa Rosa band.

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[deladane]

Tonight, we had dinner reservations at La Veranda, the upscale French specialty restaurant on board. We planned it for tonight, knowing we would be back from our excursion early in the afternoon and would have plenty of time to get showered and ready. We usually like dressing up for formal nights on bigger cruise ships, but PG does not have a formal night so we decided to treat tonight like our own personal formal night!

 

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Our reservations were for 7pm and we were promptly seated at a table for 2. This was one night we were happy to eat with just the 2 of us as the dim lighting and elegant atmosphere created a romantic ambiance. As I mentioned earlier, tonight would be the first night of the new menus in La Veranda. I don’t think I had a chance to post this yet, but this was the original menu that we never got to taste…

 

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This was the menu we had tonight…

 

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Our waiter explained that there are 2 parts to the menu here. On the left side of the folio is Apicius, a menu created by famous French chef Jean-Pierre Vigato of the Paris Michelin-rated restaurant of the same name, and is designed to flow between the courses as one long meal. The menu on the right side of the folio is called the La Veranda, and has a similar a la carte layout to the menus in L’Etoile where you pick from several options for each course. You may mix and match between the 2 menus (ie: an appetizer from Apicius, an entrée from La Veranda, etc), but you may not make any changes to any of the dishes (no omitting ingredients, for example). I am a picky eater and I was nervous about finding something I would like without changing any ingredients, but I was shocked to see that every single thing on the Apicius menu looked good! I ordered all 3 appetizers and the mahi mahi entrée. DH opted to pick and choose from both menus. The food here was truly outstanding! I got a glimpse of what it’s like to be a foodie as I tasted things I have never tasted before.

 

This foie gras appetizer was possibly the best appeizer Ihave ever had!!

 

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[deladane]

After we took that photo, I dug in and it wasn’t until the next appetizer arrived that I realized I never got a good photo of my foie gras. I’m not sure if this will have the same effect, but this photo is zoomed in on the dish from the photo above…

 

Seared foie gras and tuna sashimi with fresh apple and ginger

 

Escargot with parsley puree infused Asian boullion and braised romaine

 

Blanc manger, peas mousseline, grilled shrimp, mint herbs salad

 

Steamed Mahi Mahi with white truffle sabayon and mushroom sauce

 

Lemon meringue tart

 

Chocolates and candies to accompany our desserts

 

 

Dinner took about 2 hours but it was well-paced with so many courses so the time passed smoothly.

[deladane]

After dinner, we went down to the piano bar until it was time for the evening show and tried a few of their after dinner cocktails. I ordered the Chocolate Martini and DH ordered the Brandy Alexander.

 

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At 9:30pm, Santa Rosa performed a set in the Grand Salon, and Les Gauguines were on the dance floor encouraging everyone to come dance with them.

 

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The crew talent show started at 10pm. Up first was a dance act to a medly of Michael Jackson songs…

 

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After that, one of the women in the crew sang a ballad, followed by a traditional Philipino dance act.

 

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It was all entertaining, but certainly far from the caliber of singers and dancers you see win shows like America’s Got Talent haha We left early because we were tired, and had an exciting day to rest up for in Fakarava!

[deladane]

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Monday, September 11, 2017 ~ Fakarava

 

Fakarava (FAH-kuh-RAH-vuh) is the second largest of theTuamotu atolls, and features a 430 square mile rectangular-shaped reef that has been designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve due to its diverse ecosphere. There are two notable passes that feed into the lagoon. Located on the north side. the Garuae Pass is the widest navigable pass in French Polynesia, and this is how the PG would enter the lagoon. Located on the south side, theTumakohua Pass contains a narrow underwater valley known as Shark's Hole, which is heavily populated with lemon, white cap and hammerhead sharks.

 

Prior to the cruise, I had read dozens of rave reviews about the Blue Lagoon tour with Ato Lissant of Fakarava Dive Lodge. I emailed him about a year before our cruise and he said he requires at least 8 confirmed people to run his tour, and he recommended that I recruit people from my Cruise Critic roll call. After a few months, I accrued a group of 14 people through our roll call, so Ato confirmed our tour and we were all set. We booked the full day tour with a pick up at the tender pier at 8:30am, and a drop off at 4pm, leaving plenty of time before our 5pm all aboard time in case of any delays. He said we would do some snorkeling, then go to the blue lagoon to eat lunch on a beach, and then we would snorkel again on our way back to the ship. That was all of the information he gave me, so I really didn’t know many details about our itinerary. I trusted the reviews of those who toured with him before me and hoped for the best! We were quoted a price of 9000xpf or $105 USD per person, paid in cash on the day of the tour.

 

Here is the daily schedule for today…

 

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We had a very early wake up time today a 6:30am to make sure we caught the first tender of the day. Last night before going to sleep, we placed the breakfast room service tag on our door, and it was delivered promptly. I love that you can order a full hot breakfast from room service because it does speed things along in the morning before an early tour.

 

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[deladane]

Good morning Fakarava! When we woke up, we were still sailing towards the pass to enter the lagoon.

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After we finished eating, we went upstairs to the lobby to meet the others on our tour at 8:15am. Before we left for the cruise, we sent lots of messages back and forth in our Roll Call to organize logistics for today. As the main contact person with Ato, I also became the organizer for today’s tour, so I made a list of everyone’s cabin numbers and we agreed that we would all meet in the lobby 15 minutes prior to the first tender so we could all exit the ship together. There was no way to know in advance what time the first tender would be, but regardless, we knew we needed to take the first tender if we were to meet Ato at 8:30am. Well, as it turned out, the first tender wasn’t even leaving the ship until 8:30am so obviously we would be late to meet Ato. I just hoped for the best, and assumed he would figure out that we were on our way when there wasn’t anyone else milling around the tender pier haha

 

After seeing how the tender process worked on other port days, I was very nervous about us all getting onto the first tender. PG gives priority to those taking ship excursions, and if they filled up every seat, there would be no space for us and we would have to wait until 9am to board the second tender. As it turned out, there was no need to worry because the tender did not fill up and we all easily found seats together. I think they actually may have run a separate tender earlier in the morning for people taking PG tours because we never saw them. I am not sure if this is normal for Fakarava’s lagoon, but that was by far the scariest tender ride of the entire cruise! The water was very choppy which made it hard to safely get on and off the tender, and I actually wondered if they would need to abort the journey and take us back to the ship because it was so rough. Luckily, that did not happen and we stepped foot on Fakarava soil 10 minutes later.

 

These guys were playing music to welcome us to their island…

 

1710 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

Ato was standing to the side of the tender drop off point when we arrived. I walked over to introduce myself with the 13 others on the tour following behind like my little ducklings hehe Ato was prepared with a list of names to check us all off from his list as we paid our fare. Aside from the 14 of us, there was a second boat that formed because of so much demand to take this tour. Once everyone was accounted for, we walked a short distance over to where our boat was docked. First impressions mean everything, and just then, we were not impressed. The bat was very old and had just one bench plus a large area in the middle to store our bags. It did not look like there would be enough space for all 14 of us to sit safely (especially remembering how choppy the water was during the tender ride!) I felt so badly at this moment that these people had all trusted me to plan a fabulous day for them in Fakarava, and I was letting them down. As we were standing there staring down at this sorry-looking boat, one of them told me that my grade as a tour organizer was a C-!! What had I gotten us into?!

 

Ato hopped down onto the boat and took all our bags to stash them in the dry storage compartment. Then, he helped us all carefully step down to board the boat, with half of us sitting on top of the storage compartment. One saving grace was that the boat had a canopy over the top to provide shade (I try to give credit where it is due!). Once we were all settled as comfortably as possible, we took off for the 20 minute ride to our first stop. Maybe it was due to the windy day and choppy seas, but we were getting SOAKED with water! I don’t think any of us were prepared for that!! Ato told me to move over to the back of the boat on the other side from where I was sitting, and it made a huge difference. I was no longer getting pelted with water, but the trade off was that I lost my shade. I must say that Ato took excellent care of me all day and always made sure I was doing okay. Multiple times he thanked me for bringing all of these people to take his tour and he gave me a big hug in appreciation.

 

Soon enough, we stopped at what seemed like a random spot in the middle of the lagoon. How do these guides always know exactly where to stop?! I couldn’t see any landmark or buoy or anything… just water all around us in every direction! Ato said we could spend one hour snorkeling here at the coral garden. We thought that seemed like a long time, so he said we could leave early if we were done.

 

Within seconds of jumping in the water, I was in awe and thought I could happily stay here all day, just floating with the current. Fakarava’s lagoon has the best snorkeling I have ever done, with both incredible fish and colorful coral. There was also a shark and an eel, and the coral was both deep under water and also close up to the surface, depending on where you swam.

 

There are truly no words for how beautiful this place was, so I will just let the photos speak for themselves…

 

1714 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1731 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1733 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

Shark!

1737 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

[deladane]

1743 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1746 (2) by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

Playing with macro mode

1751 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1753 (2) by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1763 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

Happy as a clam

1770 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

[deladane]

1771 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

After about 45 minutes, I was tired and swam back to the boat. There is a ladder that goes down below the water surface so it wasn’t too hard to climb back on board. Once everyone was back, we headed off on another 20 minute ride to our next destination. I really liked how Ato broke up the ride with a snorkeling stop because otherwise it would have been 45 minutes straight of being on the speed boat from the cruise tender pier to the blue lagoon and that might have been a bit much.

 

1774 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

Taking a selfie with Ato as we rode to the blue lagoon

1775 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

The moment we crossed passed some coral and entered the Blue Lagoon, the water instantly changed from the deep cobalt we had seen all morning to a bright light shade of aqua. The water was stunning!

 

1787 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1789 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1790 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

[deladane]

Is this place for real?!?

1794 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1791 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

As we came to a stop at a shallow spot in the water about 50 feet from the shore, we noticed two large boats filled with people who were about to leave. We later learned that they were from one of the PG excursions, so it was amazing that Ato timed our arrival that we wouldn’t have to share the beach with all those people. It was now 10:45am and Ato said we would stay here until 1pm.

 

We walked from the boat to the shore in ankle-deep water until we reached a section of beach with dozens of palm trees to offer ample shade. There were a few picnic tables where we could drop off our bags, but aside from that, there was no sign of civilization or human influence on this motu. If we didn’t know better, I would have thought Ato just discovered this island today for the first time and no human had ever been here before.

 

We officially found paradise. This remote island in the middle of no where in the Pacific Ocean is one of the most beautiful placesin the world.

 

1802 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1804 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1808 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

As we continued walking through the trees, it opened up to another lagoon on the opposite side which Ato described as snorkeling in a swimming pool haha

 

1809 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

[deladane]

We explored the island while Ato and his crew unloaded a bunch of stools, coolers of food and drinks, and a BBQ (where did they store all of that stuff?!).

 

1837 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

I think there were 24 of us between the 2 boats, and we all spread out around the motu, enjoying the beach and the water.

 

1820 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1826 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1830 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

There was a little snorkeling here, but it quite unexciting when you compare it to the coral garden we saw just minutes ago.

 

1844 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

 

1850 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

[deladane]

1822 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1853 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

1856 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

Be careful of these little white and yellow fish… As I was standing in knee-deep water taking some photos, one of these fish swam up and bit me! It bit my calf and I jumped in shock, then it bit my knee! What the bleep?!? I wasn’t doing anything to harm or threaten him. Quit biting me!! I ran out of the water and avoided all of his little cousins for the rest of the day.

 

1815 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

While there wasn’t much coral or many fish in the lagoon, there were several hundred sea cucumbers! You really had to pay attention to where you were walking because it was hard to avoid stepping on them!!

 

1814 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

 

 

1845 by deladane, on Flickr"][/url]

[rmf11699]

You really had to pay attention to where you were walking because it was hard to avoid stepping on them!!

 

Do they sting, go squish?

[longhorn5]

AMAZING pics and review! I really feel like I am on the journey with you and am super excited for our upcoming trip!

 

Much to my husbands dismay and thanks to your review, I am considering purchasing the Olympus TG5. :) I hope you won’t mind answering a few (ok really a lot) questions about the camera. Some Amazon reviewers mentioned challenges with air bubbles between the camera lens and fisheye lens. Did you have any issues with this? Did you find the fish eye lens greatly improved the underwater shots? Did you use the fish eye for all of your pics or just underwater? As you can probably tell from my questions, my main quandary seems to be around the need for the fish eye lens - lol. Did you find it worth the extra expense?? I do have a couple non fish eye lens questions too....like you, I take a LOT of pictures. Did the battery typically last you throughout each days excursion or did you need a spare? How many memory cards did you take?

 

Sorry for so many questions but, you seem very knowledgeable and I will be using the camera for the same purposes as you :)

 

Thanks in advance!

Karen

[pghsteelerfan]

Hey Norris! Welcome to the party! So glad you found my review and I hope you enjoy reading it :cool: I did get a new camera for this trip, but it's not a Sony (my old underwater camera was a Sony, but I only used it on a few occasions on this trip to take panoramic photos because I don't like how my new camera stitches them together). The new camera is an Olympus Tough TG-5, plus the fisheye attachment. I bought it over the summer right after they released the new model, and I was very happy with the photos it took.

 

I was wondering if you had an Olympus Tough TG-4 or TG-5. Friends of our have one and so does another popular CC reviewer and I've love how the pictures look, nice and crisp and very colorful. But you have always gotten nice pictures, so it's not just the camera. I have a Kodak Z612 that is only 6 mega pixel and purchased in 2007 and it's on it's last legs, so much so that I didn't even take it to Hawaii as a backup. I also have the Canon D20 for underwater and I've been happy with it, but mainly for underwater. I also have a DSLR that, well, lets just say I like the camera but haven't been happy with the pictures but I'm finding out more that it's not the body of the camera, it's the lenses. Needless to say, I have the "kit" lenses that came with the camera, so if I want picture improvement, I need to spend some big $$$ on a "quality" lens. Since my Kodak point and shoot is on the outs, I need to upgrade and have been seriously considering the Olympus Tough TG 4 or 5. It would double as point and shoot AND underwater and with they examples of pictures I'm seeing (yours now have me SOLD), I think I could also start leaving the DSLR behind...until we get lucky and win a lotto. LOL!!!

 

 

But gosh, I am still following along and really, really enjoying your review and beautiful pictures. We enjoy snorkeling and, wow, just wow!!! It's funny, it was 9/9 that we arrived in Honolulu, so when you put the dates up before each segment, I'm also thinking about where we were and what we were doing on those days. I will continue to follow along.