It was Easter Sunday the day we were in Moorea and despite it being a semi-overcast day we enjoyed it very much. We spent the morning on the water looking for spinner dolphins.  The marine biologist who led the tour knows all 150 of the local area dolphins on sight and has a 95% success rate locating them.  We were in the 5% category.  Despite almost going all the way around the island we did not see a single dolphin. We did see some fabulous scenery.  Dr. Poole, the marine biologist, said that Michener was wrong when he said that Bora Bora is the most beautiful island in the world.  “Bora Bora has the most beautiful lagoon,” Dr. Poole said, “But Moorea is the most beautiful island.”  And it was lovely; with knife-edge peaks jutting up all over and thick vegetation covering every inch.  Not to mention the glorious colours of the lagoon.  Really spectacular scenery.-

After our tour was over we wandered around the pier markets for a little while – the nearest town was a distance away from our tender berth. After dinner we attended the inter-denominational Easter service led by a Catholic priest.  He asked John plus four of the children in attendance and the Captain (who was from Owen Sound, ON) to do the readings.  The cruise director plus some other members of the senior staff were there as well.  It was a short service but we really appreciated the opportunity to worship on the special day. The captain never directs the ship into a harbour or port.  There are harbour pilots that come out to the ship on a small boat and literally hop aboard the moving vessel to sail the ship in. The process is reversed when the ship sails out as well.  The pilot will direct the ship until it  has cleared the harbour then the pilot boat will come along the cruise ship and the pilot will hop from one vessel to the other and head back to shore.   They get very good at jumping from one moving object to the other.    We set sail for Honolulu which was four sea days away.  The ship would be in Honolulu for two days as the last day of the 17-day cruise from Sydney, Australia included a day in Honolulu.  The next day the 17-day cruise guests disembarked and the 13-day cruise guests that were going around the Hawai’ian islands then to Seattle and Vancouver embarked.  We just stayed put. We were blessed with a beautiful sunset on the Lord’s day of resurrection.