A Day in Paradise
We started off our cruise in Tahiti and headed across the ocean to some outer islands, or rather atolls. We learned all about the life span of the South Pacific islands. Tahiti is one of the youngest in the island chain and thus is mostly mountains and land surrounded by a coral lagoon. But as the island sinks it begins to push the coral around it outwards and it begins to look more like Bora Bora, a mountain in the middle with smaller land masses around the lagoon. In the final stage, an atoll, the middle land mass has sunk and a ring shaped land mass remains surrounding the lagoon. So our first stop in Rangiroa was a big ring-shaped island with a huge lagoon in the middle, full of coral and fishes and sharks and the like. The lagoons were beautiful -- calm turquoise water that is no higher than waist deep for much of it and full of beautiful coral in the rest. We spent the first day in Rangiroa on a snorkel tour in the morning and then went to a pearl farm in the afternoon where we learned how they harvest the famous Tahitian black pearls. We spent the second day in Rangiroa lounging on the beach and enjoying the intense equatorial sun. Then we sailed off to Fakarava, another atoll, where our ship had a beach party barbecue which we enjoyed in the morning. They made these yummy drinks straight from the coconuts that were in the trees all around us -- they would chop off a portion of the coconut, empty out some of the coconut water, then added Malibu and banana liquor and lots of ice, and we could walk around sipping straight from the coconut! In the afternoon at Fakarava we did another snorkel tour and encountered by far the bluest, clearest water I've ever seen in my life and likely will ever see. I came face to face with a reef shark at one point but luckily it wasn't interested in me and swam away to rejoin its friends. I also saw so many fish, every possible color, size, and shape of fish you can imagine was probably hiding around the coral somewhere. It was incredible!
(I wore a sheer black tie cover up from Everything But Water over a black halter bathing suit from Victoria's Secret, a black and white striped beach hat, Ralph Lauren braided t-strap sandals, and a gold chain necklace from Topshop.)
