The South Seas
The Aranui Adventure Begins
June 14, 2003
I’ve always dreamed of journeying to the South Seas where giant coconuts drop
onto your head, emerald waters invite you to snorkel among iridescent coral
reefs, and bronzed Polynesian islanders beckon you to escape over the far
horizon in their hand-carved outrigger canoes. But I never expected these
larger-than-life childhood dreams to come true.
So when an unexpected opportunity fell in my lap to actually travel to my own
tropical “treasure island,” of course I jumped at the chance.
There I was on June 14, 2003 headed for a unique “journey to paradise” as it
was poetically described in travel literature. But this wasn’t a
traditional cruise on a five-star luxury liner or a stay in a romantic overwater
bungalow in Bora Bora. It was an invitation to sail aboard the Aranui III,
the famed “freighter to paradise.” This cargo ship labeled the umbilical
chord between Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands is the freighter that literally
is the lifeline to the people of these remote islands of French Polynesia.
My travel friend, Jean Krebs, and I had stumbled across a brochure about the
Aranui III published by the Companie Polynesienne de Transport Maritime and
couldn’t resist the invitation. We had settled on this freighter trip as
the next potential adventure after our recent challenging journey on the
Trans-Siberian Railroad to Mongolia and Siberia.
“Join us for an unforgettable South Pacific adventure, discovering the
intoxicating beauty of these lush, untouched islands,” the Aranui brochure
claimed. Immediately, I knew this had to be the realization of my
childhood dream.
Only, as it turned out, the description didn’t exactly match reality.
The
experiences we eventually would live through proved to be far different—but in
some ways, better.
But we had to get there to find that out.
On to the Next Dispatch
(All photos taken by Roz Hiebert
or at least with her camera under her direct supervision.)
(c) 2003 
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