French Polynesia continues to enchant. Lovely islands. Papeete was its usual commercial self but Moorea and Raitea are lovely, low keyed and beautiful with green mountains and so many different kinds of flowers. We leave late this afternoon for Bora Bora and will have tenders available from 6 to 11 so people can go ashore or go to Bloody Mary's for dinner. The following day we have a motu which we will be sharing with the Paul Gaugine. (That is not spelled right, is it?) It will be a beach day with barbque and all the great things a beach day entails.

Stan and I went to a medical clinic in Papeete on a Saturday and it was a cultural experience. The clinic was clean and well staffed but they closed at noon on Saturday so we would have had to return before then for the test results. They had not heard of the required test, could not FAX it to our doctor nor email it to the ship. We decided to wait until New Zealand.

We have had a variety of exotic meats on board. We have wild boar on the menu tonight and, of course, every kind of local fish imaginable. I am not a fish person. Only one "special" tea in two weeks which is unusual. Signatures changed its menu after ten days and now have the frog legs Stan enjoys. We miss Tobias but the German chef is doing an outstanding job.

Ardis