Tales of the South Pacific - Uturoa, Raiatea

Cruise Day 37

Tuesday, November 4, 2025

It was a bit of a rough night last night as, thanks to the codeine, I went right to sleep but woke up about two and couldn’t get back to sleep.  I should have just taken another codeine, but I really didn’t want to rely on those to sleep as I really wasn’t coughing.  Finally, around five I did take one but regretted it as it was very hard to get up this morning and I felt a little groggy.

Raiatea is another place we visited in 2013, so we hadn’t made any plans for today, but after getting ready and having breakfast, we decided to go ashore and walk around a bit.  Fortunately, Raiatea is one of the few French Polynesian ports that we are able to dock at, so we were able to just walk off the ship; it’s so much easier than tendering.

Raiatea is not very far from Bora Bora.

You can see how close Bora Bora is on this map.

We sail into Raiatea.

That is Raiatea's sister island Taha'a across the lagoon.  We have sailed through an opening in the reef to dock in Raiateas today.

I hate to keep talking about our health, but it’s playing a big part in the trip right now and while neither of us feel particularly bad, we are not normal either as we recover from our afflictions.  I am still taking my antibiotics and although they have done the job, they really make me feel sick after I take them, particularly in the morning so I really didn’t feel very good and after walking through the nearby market, we decided to just go back to the ship and take it easy.  Tomorrow is my last day to take the antibiotics, and I am really looking forward to that.

There are some shops and an information center right on the pier.

This was the extent of the time we spent in Raiatea today.  We went to the local market, but didn't even bother to take any pictures.

When you're on the ship it doesn't seem that big, but when you get off and walk beside it you realize just how big it is, and this is considered a smaller cruise ship.

Tomorrow we are going to be in Moorea, and we had a snorkeling trip planned there for tomorrow that we were really looking forward to, but after talking it over, we decided we needed to cancel it.  We are both still getting over our coughs, and we can’t imagine trying to snorkel while coughing.  Very disappointing, but it is the right thing to do.

We had lunch in the Lido and then relaxed for a while out on our balcony.  The view of Raiatea and its sister island of Taha'a is very beautiful.  Val and I went to trivia at four, but we were the only ones there as Donna was on a tour and, evidently, Arthur is still sick.

Raiatea and its sister island Taha'a.  As you can see they are very close and share the same lagoon.

We had great views off our balcony.

After trivia, it was time for the sail away from Raiatea and today was going to be a special one as we would sail out between the islands of Raiatea and Tahaa with commentary provided by Kristin, our port specialist.  I decided to go out to the bow for the sail away, but Val decided to view it from our balcony.  It was a beautiful evening, and the views of both Raiatea and Tahaa were wonderful, particularly of Tahaa, it’s just a beautiful, lush island.  As we neared the open seas after passing between the two islands, we could see the iconic silhouette of Bora Bora in the distance, what a wonderful sail away it was.  I went to the bow because I wanted to have a view from both sides of the ship, but it turns out, I could have joined Val on our balcony and had almost the same experience.

It was a beautiful evening and we really enjoyed our sail away from Raiatea.  We sailed between Raiatea and Taha'a, and all of the pictures are of Taha'a as that was the most scenic view.

That is the iconic silhouette of Bora Bora in the distnace.

We come out of the channel between Raiatea and Taha'a and head for the open seas.

We are heading through the reef and out to sea, that is Taha'a in the background.

Bora Bora as we pass through the reef.

Tonight, we have a special dinner in the Pinnacle Grill called the Tanarind.  The Pinnacle Grill is a specialty restaurant on board that specializes in steaks and sea food, and you pay a surcharge to eat there.  The Tamarind is a special Asian Fusion dinner they have there a few times during the cruise and we decided to try it out tonight.  

We were wondering how much we would enjoy it as our appetites haven’t been very good lately with being sick and the medications we’ve been taking, but it turned out to be quite good.  Afterwards we spent a little time in the casino and then called it a night.  After not sleeping well last night, I was very tired and went right to bed.  Tomorrow we’ll be in Moorea.

One last panoramic look at the Taha'a across the lagoon.