Cruising the mighty Pacific on the Aranui 5 is not a holiday for the sedentary or slovenly, writes
Nikki Macdonald.
dance lessons and karaoke.
The ship is the passenger/cargo hybrid Aranui 5, which every three weeks gathers in the 1400 kilometres of open ocean between Tahiti and the dramatic Marquesas Islands – Pacific paradise of choice for Kon-Tiki adventurer Thor Heyerdahl and painter Paul Gauguin.
The passengers are mostly Kiwis, Aussies and French. Mostly older, adventurous types keen to look beyond Tahiti’s palms-and-white-sand atolls to one of the world’s most remote island clusters. A landscape of volcanic peaks and misty spires; of bird and pig dances and traditional tattoos.
The two-week round trip is long enough to make friends and enemies; to make and break stereotypes. There’s the guy in the Aston Martin T-shirt who drives a Porsche. The Belgian boy who doesn’t eat chocolate. The bignoting Kiwi who dispenses property advice while scrolling his phone for selfies with important people. And ‘‘captain leary’’, whose roving eyes fix on legs leaving dinner.
No doubt our motley crew of four have also earned nicknames – the blond man-magnet; the Samoan Michael Jackson; the high priestess of cool and me, the hapless hanger-on.
We’re the rowdy bunch always cackling at dinner, drinking and dancing with the crew, rocking to Just an Illusion – the cheesy tune that’s become our theme song since an awkward first-night serenade by the bare-chested entertainment director.
But that’s part of Aranui 5’s charm. Owned by a Tahitian family, this ship and its predecessors have been delivering passengers and cargo to the far reaches of French Polynesia for 33 years. Unlike the united nations of mega cruise ships, the crew is predominantly Marquesan or Tahitian, meaning you don’t have to leave the ship to get an insight into the culture.
Somewhere in the vast roll of ocean between Tahiti and the Marquesas,