Taha’a (Tah – HAH – ah) is a small island within the Society Islands, and they share a barrier reef and lagoon with their sister island Raiatea.  Taha’a is approximately 35 square miles and is home to just under 5000 residents.  They produce 70-80% of French Polynesia’s vanilla and is therefore known as the “Vanilla Island”, but they are also known for producing very high quality black pearls.

When you book a cruise with PG, they highly promote your day here in Taha’a as PG owns a private island here, called Motu Mahana. They set up a wonderful beach day for their guests, complete with a huge BBQ picnic for lunch, open bar with fruity cocktails served in coconut shells, and hundreds of lounge chairs spread out under the shade of palm trees (or out in the direct sun if you’d prefer!). This was a day we were greatly looking forward to as it sounded like an easy, relaxing beach day which would involve zero planning or out-of-pocket expenses (unless we opted to buy anything from one of the local vendors set up on the island, which we did not plan to do).

 Note that there is no lunch buffet served at Le Grill today, and there is no buffet theme of the day.  I think they assume that most guests will be on Motu Mahana at lunch time and they put most of their efforts and resources into that lunch instead of on the ship like every other day.

We woke up at 7:10am this morning, not because we wanted to, not because we set our alarm, but because we heard our neighbor’s alarm going off on the other side of the wall!  We never heard any sound for either of our neighboring cabins aside from this one time, so it probably had to do with how silent it was and that our bodies were nearly ready to wake up then anyway.  

When I peeked out our porthole window, it looked like we were still making our approach towards the lagoon.

 We got dressed and went upstairs to La Veranda for breakfast.  I don’t know why I bothered taking photos of my breakfast every day since I always ate the same thing, but it is fun to see our view out the windows this morning!

 When I finished eating, I stepped outside onto the deck that goes around the outside of La Veranda as it offered beautiful views of Taha’a and the outer motus.

 We could even see Bora Bora in the distance!

 The first tender to Motu Mahana leaves at 10:15am to give the staff some time to set up the island before we arrive.  That gave us a few hours of downtime after breakfast so I found a seat near the pool and took some notes in my trip journal.  

 At 9:45am, we went down to Deck 3 near the elevators where we usually exit the ship and there was already a line of about 10 people waiting ahead of us to board the tender!  PG uses a much smaller tender to access their 2 private beaches, and most people on board planned to spend all day at the beach today as there aren’t many excursions available, so we knew this first tender of the day would be in high demand. We hung out in the elevator area until 10:15 when they let us board the tender.  It’s a good thing we got in line early because they did have to cut people off when they ran out of seats!  

The ride over to the motu takes about 10 minutes, if that, and I was surprised to see us pull up to a brand new pier!  I remember seeing photos from previous reviews where the tender made a wet landing like we did in Bora Bora, but that is no longer necessary thanks to this beautiful pier.  There was actually someone working on the pier while we were here today, so maybe they are still finishing building it?  I took these photos when the second tender came in a little later, just to show you what it looks like…

 The green blob of leaves floating under the white umbrella is the floating
bar!  I had envisioned this as something they pull up and down the shore along the beach throughout the day, but it actually just stays anchored in that one spot. It was convenient though when you wanted to wade in the water and get a refill of your drink!

Les Gauguines walked out to the end of the pier to greet each tender as it arrived.

 Since we were among the first 50ish people to arrive, we had our choice of lounge chairs!

 If you walk to the right when you get off the tender pier, you will find a beautiful view of the PG floating in the lagoon.  I considered sitting here, but it was too breezy for my liking on this side of the island.

 There were also lots of tables if you preferred that over a lounge chair, but I think people only really used these to eat lunch.

 One of the reasons they weren’t ready for our arrival until after 10:30am was because the crew needed to climb up the palm trees to retrieve hundreds of fresh coconuts for our drinks!  These guys were slicing them open with expert precision!

 There were plenty of lounge chairs to go around (and they even had little tables between each pair of chairs!  What more could we ask for?!)

 Little tents were set up around the motu where the locals were selling their goods… jewelry, black pearls, pareos, and many other souvenirs.

 Motu Mahana really is an indescribably beautiful place!

 Back at the bar, there is a list of all the cocktails you can get inside your coconut!

 I started off with a Midori Colada

 Now THIS is paradise!

 Yet another one of my favorite photos from our honeymoon:

 At some point in the morning, the Gauguines gave a demonstration on how to open a coconut.

 Oops!  She spilled the coconut milk!

 After the demonstration, they passed around samples so we could taste a coconut at different ages.  I was not a fan of the older coconut- it had a spongy consistency and was not very sweet, but I’m glad I tried it!

 DH plays the guitar, so he wanted to learn to play the ukulele.

 If you don’t want to carry around your coconut all day, they also serve drinks in plastic cups!  This time, I opted to try the Planters Punch

 The lunch buffet opened at exactly 12 noon.  They had a nice spread of chicken, steak, burgers, hot dogs, and bratworst grilled on the BBQ, a big salad bar, pork fried rice, and corn on the cob.  There was also a section with desserts including cookies, brownies, and fresh fruit.  Waiters were walking around with cans of soda and beer and bottles of water, and of course the bar was always open if you preferred something else. They served lunch from 12-2pm so you were free to come back for seconds if you wanted more!

 And of course, Les Gauguines were on hand to provide lovely background music while we ate.

 In case you were curious, the bathrooms are located just behind the picnic tables.

 After lunch, we waded out into the water to get a drink from the floating bar.  No coconut shells here so bring your own from the main bar if you’d prefer that (we were okay with plastic cups again!)

 The water was shallow and sandy, but the entrance back up onto shore near where they set up the floating bar was very rocky and slippery so be careful!

 Cheers!

 Palm trees make me smile!

 If you are looking for something to do that is more exciting than laying around on a lounge chair and drinking fruity cocktails all day, there is a volleyball court and massage station set up on the motu. They also have single and double kayaks that you can borrow to paddle around the island, or you can just go straight into the water to go snorkeling from the shore.  We wanted to try out the kayaks but all of the double kayaks were taken. There was one single kayak available, so we improvised and squeezed on together!  We all know I am not going to paddle anyway, so better to have a lighter/smaller boat haha

Notice how I don’t even have an oar!  Thanks for doing all the hard work, Hubby!

We paddled out a little ways from the shore and were able to look down on the coral from in the kayak.  No need to bring our snorkels along for this ride!

 We only stayed out for 20 minutes or so, then headed back because we wanted to walk the perimeter of the motu.

I think this was where they had the vow renewal ceremonies earlier today (2 couples on board participated in this, and they both were thrilled with the ceremony when we spoke to them later in the day)

 Palm trees everywhere!

 The motu is really quite small- it only took us about 45 minutes to walk around the perimeter (including stops for photos along the way!  We were probably only walking for 20 minutes, if that!).  We ended back at our lounge chairs and spent the next hour relaxing and enjoying every last minute of our time on Motu Mahana.

 Glamour shot of the PG in the late afternoon light:

 It was now around 4pm and nearly everyone had already tendered back to the PG.  

 This guy stayed behind to keep us entertained until the last tender came to pick us up.

 Oh boo, I see the tender coming.  Guess it’s time to pack up our bags and leave this tropical oasis.

 We arrived this morning on the first tender, and left on the last tender of the afternoon, giving us about 6 hours on Motu Mahana.  We definitely could have stayed longer if they let us!

Once back on board, we dropped our bags off in the cabin, then went up to Le Grill for afternoon tea.  I didn’t take any photos today, but they served the same sweets as always, with various cakes and cookies, plus a few finger sandwiches.

After our snack, we went out to the pool to watch Santa Rosa perform as we sailed away from Taha’a.

 Of course, I wanted to try today’s drink of the day: Gauguin Secret (vodka, strawberry liquor, triple sec, orange juice, and sweet and sour mix)

 As the sun started to set, we had a perfect view with Bora Bora in the distance.

 We ran back down to the cabin to get showered and ready for dinner before the 6pm dress code started.  Then we went up to L’Etoile for dinner and were promptly seated at a table for 2.

Tonight’s menu

 Seafood Salade

 Crespelle alla Ricotta

 Beef Ravioli

 Stirfry beef chow mein

 Aranchini di riso taormenese

 We skipped dessert tonight and went back to the cabin to rest before the evening show.  We had been lounging on the bed for at least 15 minutes before I noticed the cake sitting on our coffee table!!  DH is very romantic and he remembered that today was the 2 year anniversary of our engagement.  He met with Elise from the front desk and Stephano, the head chef, to create a special cake as a surprise for me, and they delivered it to our cabin while we were at dinner!  He said he actually met with them several times throughout the cruise… I have no idea when! Maybe when I kicked him out of the cabin so I could have space to shower and get ready for dinner each night??

You may recall that I mentioned we got engaged in a hot air balloon…

 The cake was really yummy, so it’s a good thing we skipped dessert at the dining room!  We ended up with leftovers, so we transferred it onto a plate and stored it in our fridge to finish it another time.

After our special dessert, we went upstairs to the piano bar until it was time for the 9:30pm show.  Tonight’s show was the second performance of The Rolling Keys duo, and we definitely didn’t want to miss it!  Sarah was energetic as always and put on a great show.

 We were both exhausted by the time the show ended, so we went straight to bed after that.