South Pacific is one of my favorite Broadway musicals.  Songs from that famous show have enchanted me for many years.  I also was fascinated by French Impressionist Paul Gauguin.  He visited Tahiti in 1891 and did many paintings about the life of the islanders including the famous two Tahitian women on the Beach.  

 The South Pacific  (also referred to as the Pacific Islands and Oceania) includes 15 countries such as American Samoa, Cook and Solomon Islands and Fiji .  The only part we will be visiting is the French Polynesia.  We will fly to Papeete (Capital of Tahiti), stay there for a few days, then board the ship Aranui 5 - a passenger and freighter cruise - with stops at the Marquesas Islands.  Aranui means "The Great Highway" in Tahitian.  For four decades, the Aranui ships were the lifeline to the islanders, bringing supplies to the villagers.

When the ship dock to load and unload supplies, we will have opportunities to spend times on each island to take in the history, the culture and local foods and the art work.  We also hope to attend several dance performers by local people.  We plan to do some hiking, snorkeling, canoeing and maybe learning a few dance moves.  

We will debark Aranui at Bora Bora - the famous blue water lagoons.  We booked a cabin over the water just like all the pictures on the cover of every travel brochures.  If you are interested in learning more about this unique way of traveling through South Pacific, here is the website for Aranui
 
http://aranui.ca

I hope to share our experience and the pictures on this journey with you but my understanding is that the internet may be limited on board so I will keep a journey and take lots of picture and send you the travel log when I can.  Come Aboard with us!