Jan 6 - Raiatea

After an early breakfast this morning we went ashore and met up with our new friends,  Cheryl and Roy.  The four of us selected an excursion taking us to a small pearl farm and to a sacred site, the entire trip took us about halfway around the island -- so beautiful,  green and filled with flowers!  Our guide had a colorful French accent and was very knowledgeable about the things we were seeing,  including the fruits and flowers. 

View of the sea

Another gorgeous view

The port -- taken from our balcony

Our first stop was the pearl farm where a lovely young woman provided a detailed explanation about the oysters used in the cultivation of Tahiti's black pearls.  She then took us step by step through the process used to start the pearls then the actual harvesting steps.   It was very educational!  While there we each ate a small, very sweet banana -- it had a taste our bananas at home don't come close to!

Roy with a huge oyster shell

Oyster and the equipment used to seed her

After leaving the pearl farm we traveled a distance inland them again along the shore to a sacred site.  It has been rebuilt,  however the intent of the original site can be easily imagined using the reconstruction as a starting point.  There were some people standing there as their driver's car had broken down.   After some animated conversation with our driver, a workaround was figured out for them,  and our group left the site for the ride back to the port.

Sacred site 

The four of us boarded the ship and went immediately to the dining room for a relaxing and cool lunch.  Afterwards we went ashore again to pick up a couple necessities before boarding the ship for the final time today.  Denny and I had a cooking class at 4 pm, so we went back to our room for a short rest.

The cooking class was a blast!  There were 12 workstations each with 2 students.  We all had a chef's hat and apron to put on plus a full station pre-set with all the equipment and food we were going to cook.  The instructor was excellent and would call us all up to the front to watch her prepare a dish before we were to make it.  Then we'd head back to our workstations and begin making whatever was assigned - for example lobster pad Tai.  Once we completed each dish we got to eat it!   

Chef Dennis

Chef Marilynne

Our workstation

By the time we were done after an hour and a half, we had very little room for dinner.  We'd already pre-booked a meal at Jacques,  the French specialty restaurant.  Since we were only allowed to make four specialty reservations,  one at each,  we didn't want to cancel or reservation,  so we "suffered" through it by eating small quantities.   The food was outstanding!

We listened to a classical string quartet in a lounge until they finished their pieces then went back to our room for the night.  We learned the quartet is playing again tomorrow night in the theater,  so that's on our to-do list.