Ryan Romps

Today the ship docked at Tonga. Tonga is the only Island in French Polynesia to be a monarchy. There was no tender today and we had an excursion booked. We met with the other people who were going to be on the excursion and we headed out to the bus. The bus took us to a bay where we checked off what we wanted for lunch and hopped into a two person kayak. We started our journey to another island. It was a fairly calm ride. When we got there one of the guides named Aloni told us that we were able to jump off of a ship wreck. She swam out to the shipwreck and climbed up to the top. I followed her. The ship had broken in half and the hull was sticking out of the water. There was a rope hanging over the side of the ship. It was absolutely terrifying. Once we got up there it seemed a lot higher. She asked me if I wanted to jump first or if she should. I told her she should she said “OK, 1, 2, 3” and jumped with no fear. I figured if she could I could to. I stood up and leaped off. It was...

Today the ship docked in Bora Bora. We had an excursion booked for today and I was totally nervous. We took a tender to shore and boarded a catamaran. The crew was very funny and they played us songs on the Ukulele and Bongos while we floated along. When we were nearing our first stop, we started seeing stingrays in the water. Once we arrived at our first stop we put on our gear and jumped in. The coral was very pretty and the fish were beautiful. We got back on the catamaran then headed to another place which didn’t have any coral. There were several other tour boats in the area. When we got in and looked down there were sharks. Lots and lots of sharks. Sharks weren’t the only things in the water. There were tons of stingrays everywhere. I was terrified. One swam directly under me and I quickly lifted my feet. When I looked back up there were two sharks right next to me so a pushed off of the bottom and swam away from them. Then a stingray bumped into me. It scared the living day...

Today the ship docked in Papeete Tahiti. There was no tender required so we were able to get right off of the ship. From there we wandered over to the tourist center where we asked if there was any chance of getting bikes to ride to the beach. We also said it would be fun to rent a moped if there were no bikes. The people there called some places but there were no bikes at the bike rental place and you needed a special motorcycle license for the moped. They provided directions on how to get to a different bike rental place which didn’t work out because we misunderstood. We thought we would be paying $120 for the bikes when we would really only be paying $12. So we left there and headed to some stands selling souvenirs and pearl jewelry. We didn’t buy anything but we did ask around for the directions to the bus stop. Eventually we got some directions and hopped on the bus. The driver only spoke French but a lot of people on the bus worked together to translate. Eventually we discovere...