Considered Tahiti's little sister, Moorea is the true vacation spot in the Windward Islands, according to their brochure. They have it all, except for traffic jams. There are accessible beaches, jutting mountain peaks, and nautical activities galore.
The road that circles the island is 37 miles, and there are over 17,000 residents. The island is 134 square km and the highest point is Mt. Tohiea at 3621 feet in elevation. This island is full of highend resorts – those with bungalows over the water. However not all of them survived Covid. Opunohu Bay is where we are situated this morning and although it is not as famous as Cook's Bay, it is the bay that Captain Cook first anchored in 1777.
The good news of the morning is that it's not raining….yet. On the other hand, there was little sun if any. Most of the shore excursions here are water-related such as a lagoon cruise in both bays, or snorkeling the reef. A ride around the island or a 4 wheel drive trek into the interior might have been better choices. They ran from $60 to $150. Also the selling of the Tahitian pearls is a major business here.
We have taken the island drive tour several times, as well as snorkeled the coral reefs. There is nothing like seeing the colorful tropical fish, then spot the sharks swimming under you….where your fins are dangling. Then you find out the access to the boat is not easy, and getting away from those sharks seems to take an eternity. Guess you can tell once was enough for one of us.
Most of the tour groups went off by 10am, and we followed them. When the open tenders were announced was the best time to go. The tender ride over was short and smooth, as the drivers go slow. Once off of the tender, we walked the pier to a welcome band as well as a pretty Moorean gal handing out tiare flowers to the ladies. The pier looked as if there had some improvements done since we were here last. For one thing, the souvenir building seemed to have expanded. The very first vendor we came across happened to be a local elderly lady who we have purchased jewelry from for several years now. Her face seemed to light up when she saw us, and she actually got up to greet us with Bonjour. We understand a little French, and her English was not the best. But we still managed to communicate, especially when it came to buying one of her seashell creations. No two were alike. Of course we did find a nice pendant and some earrings to match. She always gives us a deal when we add the earrings. And the collection grows….But we will not find these types of necklaces and earrings anywhere but in these islands. We know that she makes them because we always watch as she works on the pieces right at her table. We left by saying maruru or thank you. We hope to see her again someday. And we were secretly happy that she survived the pandemic.
Weaving our way through the crowd of guests searching for their tour groups, we walked up the road to the main drag. While doing some research on Moorea before we left the ship, we discovered that the Intercontinental Resort had closed their doors. That has always been our destination lunch spot after the walk long to get there. We did check this out online before we left the room, and it was confirmed they were no longer in business. Oh well, it was still a pleasant walk, and since it was not raining, we did it anyway.
The village where we tender to is called Papetoai where there are a few homes, a small convenience store, a post office, a couple of snack shacks, and a lot of roaming dogs. Walking a block or two, we passed by several local homes, roadside produce stands, and sleeping dogs. In between the bungalows we could see the lagoon and the reef where the waves break. This is the best spot for the snorkelers to see the fish, coral, sting rays, and even some various sharks. The guides tell you the sharks are harmless, but there is always the first time for everything. Going close to the lagoon, we actually spotted a single sting ray as it swam very near us. That is something we have never seen here.
We did pass by a home where the owner happened to be sitting in a chair under several palm trees. We did not see him when we took a photo of his flowering tree. He insisted we pick a flower, which we said thanks, and did pick one yellow blossom, hoping it was not full of ants. That is often the case with fallen plumeria blooms. Anyway, we continued up the road, watching the locals cleaning up fallen tree debris. They often dispose of it by burning the branches and leaves in a metal barrel. It does smell good and might even keep the bugs away. We have found this to be the practice in almost every island we have visited over the years. Others were selling the breadfruit, mangoes, pineapples, bananas and coconuts outside their homes. Easy money for them since the fruit is plentiful. There was work being done on some buildings as well.
We finally reached the property of the Intercontinental Resort and found the road closed off with a gate on one side and corrugated metal sheets blocking the other driveway. It was indeed out of business. Too bad since it was such a beautiful property with waterside bungalows and large units on the hillside across the road. All abandoned now. The Dolphin Center that is situated next to the resort is still operating. When a tour group arrived, someone came to open the locked gate. It was then we asked the gatekeeper what happened to the resort. He claimed it was the pandemic that shut it down back in March of 2020. It is a miracle that everything did not fold, since these islands were off limits to most every country for quite a while after the virus was getting better.
We did walk a bit further, but the road went downhill to some shops, so we headed back the way we came. It had been a long walk, but we did stop along the way taking more photos. What surprised us was how busy this road was for a Friday. But when there is only one main road, it is understandable. We got back to the pier by 1:30pm, just in time for a light rain to begin. We could not help but notice there were a lot of people milling around the tender boat area. A whole group of folks had on orange life jackets from the ship, so we assumed they had just gotten off of a tour. Little did we know, they had just been transferred from a stranded-on-the-coral reef tender boat. They had used a whale and dolphin tour longboat to take on the stranded guests and bring them back to the shore pier. From there, this group boarded the ship's tender back.
Looking out at the reef, we could see the stranded boat with the two skiffs from the ship helping them to get loose. Apparently it worked, because by the time we loaded on to the next boat, the tender was gone and the skiffs were speeding back to the ship. Surely we will hear about this incident when we get back. It sure brought back memories of the boat accident in Rarotonga back in 2016, except this one got resolved a lot easier we think.
Did we mention the rain began in earnest by the time we got back to the ship. Big rain, like we had in Bora Bora. It only got worse when we got to the room, as we could not see the land from our veranda. Ordering room service, we enjoyed excellent Cobb salads and a shared club sandwich. It wasn't exactly the resort lunch we expected today, but the price was right. And the food was excellent as always. The deluge did not let up much for the rest of the day.
Since we were so close to Papeete, Tahiti, the ship left the bay at 6pm, and sailed slowly to Papeete, where we were docked by 7:30pm. We did get a few photos even though it was dark. So we will spend Friday night in Tahiti, and also Saturday night. We will leave Sunday around 5pm.
At dinner, Ian announced that the ship was cleared and we were free to go shore. Not us…it was raining and it was dark with no where special to go. We can wait until tomorrow. So for dinner , we had doubles of crispy veggie egg rolls. Once again, several of these might have made the entire meal. One of us had the hake fish, and the other a beef fajita dish with rice and salsa, sour cream and guacamole. Both were excellent and just enough for dinner. No dessert again.
Now we pray that impending rainstorm goes away. According to the Captain, it will not be the best two days here, but that's what umbrellas are for right?
Bill & Mary Ann
