Today we reach our last stop on our South Pacific Adventure, Nuku Hiva. Both Herman Melville of "Moby Dick" fame and Robert Louis Stevenson, author of "Treasure Island", spent time on this island in the late 1800s. Although warm, it's partly cloudy today as seen through our stateroom window at 6am. It's another tender port, demanding that we're up much earlier than we'd like. As with the rest of our full day tours, they all start as soon as possi...

Finally, a day off. We have been up no later than 6:30am every day for the last week. This morning, no alarms, no schedule, nothing. We're still up by 8:30am but it's really 9:00am. The ship turned back their clocks one half hour last night. I've never heard of changing time in half hour increments. Apparently, we lose another half hour on the 10th. That change will put us only 1 hour behind PST. So we have our usual breakfast and, while I retreat to ...

According to our paperwork, we are going on the Pa'ati Reef Island Tour so we get up at 6:00am. This is a tender port meaning that we have to get a tender ticket for the first tender out this morning. We arrive at the tender ticket location with a half dozen people ahead of us. Since there's chairs for the first few, the Russian guy who we had dinner with and speaks little English grabs himself and Mom a chair while I go for coffee and a roll. It's 6:...

Yes, another water activity. These last few islands are said to be the best for underwater outings so we are concentrating on those activities as we wrap up our adventure. Today we are booked with Hiro's Tours. It's been cut from an all day trip to just four hours because weather conditions are restricting boats to the lagoon, staying within the protection of the reef. First, however, we must get off the ship to the shore. The usual drill: 6:30am wake up...

We arrive in Papeete today. Papeete is the capital of Tahiti and houses all the government offices as well as several historical landmarks. Our plan is to wander the cafes, shops, narrow streets and busy waterfront of this Polynesian paradise, which lured artist Paul Gauguin and writer Robert Louis Stevenson to its sandy shores. The heart and soul of the South Pacific, Tahiti is the largest in a chain of islands that make up French Polynesia. The name can either...