Tuesday, January 28th—Our 25th Cruise Day—Moorea

Tuesday, January 28^th—Our 25^th Cruise Day—Moorea

We left Tahiti about 3:30 AM on January 28^th, but didn’t go far—about 4 ½ hours later, at 8:00 AM, we were anchored in Opunohu Bay off the island of Moorea. Moorea is really just a satellite island of Tahiti, being only 10 miles away and a regular ferry takes passengers and cars back and forth between Tahiti and Moorea. But Moorea is far less developed and many Tahitians use Moorea as their vacation destination. The island is volcanic in origin, and is roughly heart shaped with two deep bays on its north side—giving the whole island the appearance of a three toed gecko footprint. The two bays are Opunohu Bay and Cook Bay, and ironically, it was Opunohu Bay where Captain James Cook first visited Moorea. However, which bay he first entered became muddled, and the second bay—which Cook did not visit—was later named in his honor. This error was never corrected, and continues to this day.

Since our ship was anchored, this was a tender port with the last tender at 4:30 PM. We were told that Moorea was a snorkeling and SCUBA diving paradise, so the ship excursion titled “Motu Beach Picnic and Ray Feeding” sounded like just the thing for us. This was a 5 hour excursion and we met as a group on-board the ms Amsterdam in the Queen’s Lounge at 8:00 AM--and soon were on our way.

First we took a tender ashore near the town of Papetoai, and immediately boarded a catamaran that was about 25 feet long. The catamaran first took us into Opunohu Bay where we had good views of our ship and of the steep and jagged mountains of the interior of Moorea. Next we traveled east along the north shore, until we came upon a fairly shallow reef where we all went into the water for some sting ray feeding.

And the sting rays came in droves when tempted with a few pieces of fish! These creatures were huge—perhaps three feet across, and although called “sting rays”, they were very friendly and even allowed us to touch and hold them. Apparently they can use their sting—actually a poisonous barb at the base of their tail—when threatened, something we were careful not to do!

And if that were not enough, schools of black tipped sharks began swimming around us while we were in the water! These sharks ranged in length from three to five feet with—as their name implied—black markings on the tip of their fins, most prominently on their dorsal fin. But although the size, number and proximity of these sharks was a bit intimidating, they seemed far more interested in the fish we were feeding to the rays than in giving us grief—something they certainly could have done had they been so inclined.

This encounter with sharks and rays was particularly nice since most of the time we were standing in waist to chest deep water—which meant that Pat was able to get into the water and enjoy the experience. (Pat is not a strong swimmer, and is extremely uncomfortable in water that is over her head.)

After our stingray/shark encounter, we re-boarded our catamaran, which took us further east along the north coast and past the Intercontinental Moorea Beachcomber Hotel. This style of hotel consists of thatched roof bungalows that stretch out in a chain over the water and are found in all of the French Polynesian Islands. And it is extremely tempting to want to stay in one of the bungalows—one can go swimming/fishing/boating right off the balcony, the thatched roof is just how one would imagine a Polynesian dwelling, and in the morning a snorkeler brings your  breakfast to you over the water. But of course the down side is the price—staying in one of the bungalows can cost anywhere from $500-1500 per night per person! And when our catamaran came close to the bungalows, we noticed that most of them appeared empty. But it was still fun to fantasize about staying in one of them for a week or two.

At the extreme northeast corner of Moorea is Motu Beach, and our catamaran anchored there between the beach and one of the offshore islands. We were told that we would have about 2-3 hours there, and it was a perfect place to spend the day. After disembarking the catamaran, Bill was able to go snorkeling over the reef, and stingrays came right up to the shallow water next to the beach where Pat was able to touch and hold them. Onshore was a lovely picnic area, and after about an hour and a half we had a wonderful barbecue buffet cooked right on the beach. Our guide showed us how to prepare “ceviche”, a dish made from raw fish marinated in lime juice and coconut water, and afterwards gave us a demonstration for how the husk could be removed from a coconut. Our good friends Jacob and Margaret George were with us on this excursion, and Jacob was chosen to assist our guide in the husk removal ceremony. After the husk was removed, the coconut was broken in half and the two halves were passed around for us to drink the coconut water inside. And finally, our guide showed us how to make shavings of the flesh inside the coconut—which again was passed around for us to sample.

But all too soon, it was time for us to re-board the catamaran that would take us back to the tender landing. The journey back took about 45 minutes, and when we arrived back in Papetoai, we weren’t quite ready to take the tender back to the ship. Next to the tender area were stalls where Mooreans were selling local crafts, but we had vowed to each other before we started this trip that we were going to restrict the number of souvenirs we would bring home this time (We brought home suitcases(!) full of souvenirs from our 2012 trip!), so we resisted the temptation to buy.

After disembarking the catamaran, Pat decided to rest on a park bench while Bill took a short walk into the town of Papetoia. Along the way, he passed the Papetoai Temple—also known as the “Octagon Church” due to its eight sided shape. Between 1822 and 1827, protestant missionaries deliberately constructed this church on the site of a former sacred “marae” in an effort to assert the new religion. Today just one spike-shaped stone remains from when it was a marae. Past the octagon church is the village of Papetoai—which had a general store where Bill bought some wine.

Returning to the tender landing, we boarded the tender and returned to the ms Amsterdam. Back onboard, we went to the sail away party on the Lido deck aft where we had some great final views of the beautiful island of Moorea. 

We departed Moorea about 5:00 PM and by the next morning, we would be at our third island in French Polynesia—Bora Bora.