Day 5 Moorea

We awoke before 6 am today - our ship pulled away from the dock around 5 am, so we probably felt motion on the water. We went to the Terrace Grill - thinking breakfast started at 6 am - but we learned it wasn’t open till 7 am. They pointed us to the Waves Grill as it was to open at 6:30 am. We enjoyed eggs over easy and some muesli. 

We walked up to deck 14 to view the approaching island of Moorea!

Many ports on this cruise involve dropping an anchor - and tendering into port. These islands are not big enough to support the size of pier needed to dock such a large ship.  

We entered the theatre to find out the process to obtain tender tickets. In fact, you needed to be ready to walk off the ship as soon as you were provided tender tickets (though you could in fact wait for a few minutes till you were called)!

On our tender over we met a bit our first but the second couple from our home town!!  The first couple had rented a small vehicle and planned to hike, the second were scuba diving. The Marina had dropped anchor in Opunohu Bay and we took the tender a little west of that point to the village of Papetoai. 

We walked off the ship and were intent on finding a circle island tour. Dammon, an outgoing fellow approached us and showed us a map of where he intended to take a group on a driving tour. He had an air conditioned van and spoke good English and would charge us $50 pp. Sold. We just needed to wait till he sold the tour to another couple. We were joined by a delightful couple from St Louis, Missouri, and then a third couple from Tucson, Arizona.  Dammon provides us with lots of insights on the local flora and fauna and general historical information. 

We drove inland into the crater and up to Belvedere which is a lookout over Opunohu and Cook’s Bay. Here we met 2 buses from our ship where ship excursions cost about $150 pp!!

We circumnavigated the island clockwise, stopping occasionally to hear stories of the history, the geography and the people of Moorea. On the east coast we stopped for a view of the Sofitel Beach Resort to see how the rich lived!  

The Sofitel huts over the water are in the background here!

We continued south past Vai’are where our ferry landed two days ago. Then past the Lagoonarium where one could experience the fabulous snorkelling. 

Unfortunately the best weather was on the west side of the island where we didn’t do any stops, so our pictures don’t have blue skies. It rained on and off all day - still a lovely 30 C!

Once we returned to our starting point, I bought a pair of black pearl earrings. We were hungry for lunch so we tenderer back to the ship. J showered and we headed up to the Terrace Grill where we continued to visit with the couple from St Louis. 

After lunch, we read, prepared this blog and played a game of croquet!  Tonight dinner will be in the main dining room. 

I hope to check out the entertainment on the main stage tonight at 9:30 pm. Since the all aboard call is 5:30 pm - we will be pulling away from nearby land and therefore having an even tougher time trying to post the blog. With a day at sea tomorrow- it might mean the blog gets posted a day later!

Enjoying this fabulous cruise!!