Tales of the South Pacific - Taioha'e, Nuku Hiva

Cruise Day 45

Wednesday, November 12, 2025

Today is a disappointing day for us; even though we have been to Nuku Hiva before, we were looking forward to visiting it again, but due to my illness, we’ll be staying on board.  This is our last port of the trip and we’ll be spending it on the ship.  Nuku Hiva is the largest of the Marquesas Islands in French Polynesia and has a population of around 3100.

 

We are anchored in the Taioha'e Bay.

There is not much to say about today, I spent the day resting and feeling sorry for myself.  Our breakfast lunch and dinner were from the Neptune Lounge as I still didn’t have much of an appetite.  Also, because of my coughing, it didn’t seem like a good idea for me to be out and about on the ship.

My fever broke in the afternoon and when I went down to the medical center to have my blood tested; the white blood count had dropped down to 11, and that made both me and the doctor very happy.  I talked to the doctor for quite a while discussing various ways to make it easier to sleep with the constant coughing going on.  She gave me some more codeine which does the trick, but I don’t like to take it as it leaves me groggy and not feeling well in the morning.  She also gave me some throat lozenges and a nasal spray to help. 

I have to say that I felt very down when I visited the medical center, I wasn’t feeling very well and thought I might be getting worse but hearing that my blood count went down and my temperature was gone made me feel a lot better, I just have to have a more positive outlook.  I usually do have a positive, optimistic outlook, but unfortunately that doesn’t carry over to when I’m sick and usually think about the worst case scenario.

Our experiences on cruise ships have been a bit mixed with doctors, some are very good and some not so much, but the two doctors we dealt with on this cruise have been very good and we are very appreciative of them.

Poor Val was left on her own again and she did go to trivia and the casino but otherwise kept me company.  Tomorrow, we start six straight sea days before ending our cruise in San Diego next Wednesday.  We also move the clocks ahead another half hour tonight as we leave Nuku Hiva, so we get a half hour less sleep tonight.

Pictures from our balcony, these first two are looking out of Taioha'e Bay.

 

Looking in at the town of Taioha'e.