Varun's Daily Diary

Friday 22 October 2010

happy birthday dear friend/brother ...

a decade ago, tim was slim, I had hair ... and jimmy looked dave (the producer)

TUESDAY:

So, an Inside Luxury Travel first … a cruise …

Yesterday I missed the diary as I was in a wifi-nogo-zone somewhere between Bora Bora and Taha’a.

I am living on ROA – a 72 feet yacht – which has 4 bedrooms (?) of which mine is the largest at just 20 square metres! The yacht (boat, cruiser) has 3 crew – Captain Teiva Tapare, Chef – Christophe and Steward(ess) – Vaihere … there’s a lovely lounge (the square?), kitchen (galley), bridge … and a plank (to walk off into the ocean). Set over 3 storeys, the ROA is 250 square metres in area …

So much to do, so much to see …

WEDNESDAY:

Ooops. Awoke to torrential rain!

We left Bora Bora and sailed 25 nm, two and a half hours to Raiatea. It was not a pleasant
journey. First Tim, then Brad, then James … all emptied the contents of their stomachs (then some) into the Pacific Ocean. I was – thankfully – ok … mainly due to these “sea bands” that I have been wearing on my wrists.

We arrived at this stunningly lush green island in what can only be described as “monsoon quality” rain. It’s not as if we could just stop working so, in the rain, we headed onto the island to meet with Maria Cowan – owner of Raiatea 4 x 4 – a local tour guide …

The island is dominated by a massive volcano crater … the volcano itself has been asleep now for 3 million years. The flora there is just lovely – hibiscus that changes colour during the day, mango trees, pineapple bushes …

We then went to Taputapuatea – one of the holiest sites for Murea (Maori) people. It’s from here that the religion travelled to the “Polynesian triangle” … Hawaii to the North, New Zealand to the South and Easter Island to the West …

It is a very understated place but actually made me feel quite emotional …

THURSDAY:

Awoke to rain! Quelle surprise! Thankfully it was not heavy or prolonged and after
breakfast we headed for Tahaa – just a 20 minute ocean voyage away. We landed and headed straight to “Perliculteur a Tahaa” - a pearl farm – the main one on the island.

I met with Aymeric Champon who showed the process of “culturing” a pearl … and then the final product. So the pearl must be a perfect colour (grayish), as round as round can be … and as FAT as possible to be the best … they had one pearl there that was worth thousands of dollars …

From there we popped over the road to Atger .. and Michael Hoi who runs a vanilla farm. There are 3 grades of vanilla … the lowest for spa products and highest for food. The actual bean is green and then is dried out to produce the nice brown smelly bean. The flowers are pollinated by the farmer in a very skilled manoeuvre …

Back to the boat and it starts raining AGAIN so we head back to Bora Bora and last night in a non-swaying bed.

The food on ROA was stunning, the staff superb … I am NOT a sea person … but I did enjoy my 3 day cruise

FRIDAY (TODAY):

Storms last night BUT bright sunshine today. Brad has “lent” me his cold so I am sneezing and wheezing …

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM … doesn’t look a day over 52 … (haha)

The boys picked up shots everywhere but we ended the day with Florian Mallet from Aqua Safaris ... basically a helmet dive! It was so much fun ... and it is a very stress-free way of exploring the ocean floor.