South Pacific Treasures

Sooty Shearwater joining us in the Equator crossing.

Crossing both the International Dateline and the Equator on a cruise across the South Pacific Ocean is still difficult to process ... but I can't ponder the amount of ocean I've covered without feeling majorly "one-upped" by the incredible birds and whales that regularly travel such distances by their own strength and inherent abilities to ride winds and waves. While we must prepare for weeks for such a voyage, often needed a few days to adjust to the conditions found on the open sea, these incredible creatures (that I've had the joy of rattling on about onboard the immense Celebrity Solstice cruise ship) are perfectly at home in even the roughest weather.

Meet the locals.

In New Zealand, we were greeted by the robust figures of Bottlenose dolphins leaving the blue green surface of the waters surrounding the bay of islands. Having arrived after a large storm, we were amazed by the color and variety of shells that had been thrown up to cover the shorelines. Many of the treasures we inspected reminded me that even the small creatures that we can easily overlook are amazingly adapted to their habitat.

The spinner dolphins of Moorea went along nicely with the romantic profile of all things Tahitian, as they carried on swimming close and rhythmic, sometimes turning belly to belly, even in our presence. The magic continued with rays, fish, coral, and other reef life we found in abundance in the lagoon of Bora Bora. On the last days at sea before our arrival in Hawaii, we were joined on our equator crossing by the some of the same species of birds that we'd seen in the distance spanning between New Zealand and French Polynesia! What a feat indeed!