Moorea (Part 3) - July 3-12, 2009

We spent most of the rest of the week swimming, snorkeling, reading, and sunning. We also went on 2 scuba dives out off the reef. During the first dive, we saw 10 lemon sharks (which were up to 10 ft long!) and lots of black tip reef sharks. There were a lot of valleys and ridges where we were diving, so every once in a while we would be swimming up towards the top of a ridge, and a shark would be swimming up the other way, so we would be about 4 ft away from these huge sharks! Also an enormous moray eel (about the size of a dinner plate around!) and tons of fish. A lot of the fish are pretty similar to Caribbean fish - parrot fish, butterfly fish, trigger fish - but they have so many more varieties because the Pacific is such an older ocean. Some of our favorites were radial firefish, regal angelfish, scorpion fish, and all of the butterfly fish.
On the way out to our second dive, we passed through a huge pod of dolphins. They circled the boat around a few times and the dolphins played in the wake. A few were jumping out of the water doing twists, it was great! We saw a few more sharks but the main attraction was 2 hawksbill sea turtles. We spent about 5 minutes just following them around. There were also those suckerfish that attach onto sharks; they were really curious about us divers and at one point, one of them decided to travel around with Eric and suctioned onto his airtank for a while. My mask kept filling up with water because I was couldn't stop laughing. I wish we had an underwater camera!
I took a video of the view of the beach/resort from in the lagoon. The water was unbelievably clear, you could see so many fish just walking around in the water. I think some people fed the fish because there were some curious ones that would come and nip at your toes if you stood still for too long. There was also some beautiful coral in the lagoon, with some bright pinks and purples.

Another beautiful sunset that night, and then we were out to dinner. Most people don't have rental cars as they are too expensive, so most of the nearby restaurants would come and pick you up for dinner. Lots of French restaurants, Polynesian restaurants, and Italian/pizza places. I had a few excellent shrimp dishes and a great fillet one night, while Eric enjoyed fish most evenings (the marlin was his favorite). Most of the restaurants were right on the water, although we could not enjoy the views because the sunsets were so early. But the stars at night were unbelievable, I don't think we have seen that many stars since the Coromandel Peninsula.
We went and had a dessert crepe at our hotel bar out over the water on our last night. There was lots of action in the water - two small black tip reef sharks were feeding on some small fish, and a big moral eel was getting in on the action as well.
The last morning! We saw a black tip reef shark right by our deck while we were eating breakfast, and then we saw a huge stingray while out snorkeling. We were very sad to pack up and go, but it was an unforgettable trip and we were so glad we were able to vacation here!
Last views of Moorea from our little plane.
Then we were off back to Auckland!

Moorea (Part 1) - July 3-12, 2009

We recently returned from vacation in Moorea, an island just off the coast of Tahiti in French Polynesia. We had a wonderful time and it will be a tough vacation to top! However, it started off a bit rough - we landed in Tahiti at 2:30am and had to wait around at the airport until 7am for our little puddle jumper over to Moorea. That wasn't too fun. But after a quick 7-8 min flight, we arrived in Moorea, and after another 20 min ride, we reached the Hilton Moorea Resort (thanks to all of my traveling at WSP, we were able to use my Hilton points and stay for free!). The resort was located on the north end of the island, between the two main bays and at the foot of Mt Rotui. The lagoon was crystal clear and filled with fish, and we had an amazing view of the mountains behind the resort.
We were upgraded to a lagoon front bungalow, which was amazing. Our room was basically on stilts at the water's edge. We even had a glass panel in the floor in our room (although the water was only a few inches deep there so not too many fish to see!), and a deck, including a ladder right down into the water. Here is the view from our deck:
We spent most of the first day napping on the beach and swimming. We decided to eat lunch at the beachfront grill/bar at the hotel. We split a sandwich and fries and each had a delicious fruity drink, and then almost had heart attacks at the bill - about NZ$100!! In NZ, a dinner entree normally runs from NZ$20-25, and a drink is $5-10, so this was 2-3 times more expensive than NZ. So we decided that the next morning we would rent bikes and head to a local grocery store to get breakfast and lunch foods. Even grocery store prices were high, but we discovered 2 of the best things on Moorea - fresh baguettes and fruit juice. They have a juice factory right by our hotel, it is called Rotui and is awesome. I think we drank about 5L of various types of juice throughout the week. We had great views during our bike ride around Cook's Bay.
We spent the first few days just relaxing on the beach, reading, swimming and snorkeling. We had perfect weather most of the week - sunny, breezy, mid 80s. We could see dark rain clouds going over the mountains to the south but it was always sunny at the north end of the island!
On Monday we got a rental car for the day. It was weird to be back on the right hand side of the road! We started off with the Three Coconuts Tree Pass hike, which started from the Belvedere Lookout in the central portion of the island. There is some great hiking in Moorea, but few trails and they aren't marked well, so you usually need a guide. Many of the peaks on Moorea have never been summitted due to the shear cliffs and crumbly rocks (or people have died in their attempts). Luckily our hike was nowhere near that difficult! The views from Belvedere Lookout of Mt Rotui, the bays, and the other mountain peaks were amazing.
We hiked through forests filled with streams, flowers, ferns, bamboo, and other dense vegetation. The trees below are my favorite (we have the same kinds in NZ), they usually grow in wet areas and the roots branch out, but the parts that branch out are paper thin. Very cool looking!
We eventually emerged at the pass and the views were unbelievable in every direction. You could continue along the hike all the way until the road running around the perimeter of the island but we decided to head back. This hike made us very antsy to attempt Mt Rotui, but that required a guide, some rock climbing, and a big fee - maybe next time!
We finished up our hike and spent the rest of the day driving around the island. Many homes had fresh fruit or huge fish for sale in their driveways. But for the most past, Moorea was a pretty unpopulated island, and didn't appear to have anything other than tourism going on. We attempted to find some beaches on the west coast (they were marked on the map!) but that led to a fairly unsuccessful walk/trespass thru some private property. We decided that the nicest beach was at our hotel anyway! More great views of Cook's Bay on the drive home:
When we got back to the hotel in was close to sunset (which happened at only 5:30pm, since it is 'winter' in Moorea). Our room is the one on the right in the picture below. And then another beautiful sunset. We didn't see a green flash though - is that just in the Caribbean??
More Moorea in the next post!

Moorea (Part 2) - July 3-12, 2009

Part 2 of Moorea! We just had way too many pictures to fit into one post! We took out kayaks a few times during our stay. For the most part the lagoon was shallow and clear (we could clearly see fish and coral, even in water that looked to be about 40 ft deep), but as we approached the bays the bottom would just drop out of site. Other times, we would suddenly find ourselves in less than 1 ft of water, weaving through the coral back to deeper waters. We could hear the loud crash of the waves breaking out on the coral reef about 400 m offshore, but it was very calm within the lagoon. Here is Eric relaxing in his kayak, and a few other pictures of the scenery.
Up ahead are the over water bungalows at the Hilton, and in the second picture you can see our bungalow on the right.That night we went out to the Tiki Village Theater. It was started over 20 yrs ago and there is a whole village where many of the performers live and work. It is considered to be one of the most authentic Polynesian show in the Pacific. We started with a tour of the village and learned a bit about the different handicrafts, from jewelery making to basket weaving to wood carving. We also learned about black pearls, which French Polynesia is well known for. I saw some really cool jewelery, including a great coral cuff bracelet, but I restrained myself. We saw the opening of the ground oven, and then it was time to eat! They had traditional Polynesian food - I think the coconut bread balls was one of our favorites, although the mahi mahi in coconut sauce and the chicken/pineapple dish were also excellent.
After dinner was the big show, 1 1/2 hrs of singing and dancing. At the beginning they pulled up people from the audience to teach them some of the dances. Eric and I were both pulled up but we won't scare you with those pictures. Here are some pictures from the show:The fire dancers were one of the best parts, they were amazing!
Towards the end of the show I remembered that I could do video on my camera, so I taped a few of the different dances. Here is one of the clips:

We loved the show and would recommend it to anyone visiting Moorea!