Moorea is a volcanic island which originally was a single volcano, but over a million years the walls of the volcano have eroded away leaving eight mountains that were part of the lip of the crater. So Moorea is beautiful to look at and of the islands we have visited, perhaps it is in the top two for a nice view from the water!
Our day was a lagoon tour which was booked independently with Albert’s Tours for $80 US pp (or less if one pays in XPF - the French Polynesian Franc). It was a big pontoon boat holding about 40 people. By now we knew a number of people on the boat after taking various private excursions. The people who do private excursions probably account for 15% of the boat population so we quickly have made friends with many of these folks! And as this tour involves snorkelling again - the tour attracts other snorkelling fans. We caught a tender that put us on shore at 8:25 am and we were to meet at the boat at 8:30 am.
Some early views of Moorea.
We toured through Opunoha Bay and Cooks Bay to see some of the landscape (and other ships). We often joke that Holland America should offer a shore excursion that allows us to visit other ships in port so we can see what they look like inside! Somehow I don’t think that would be a big seller with the cruise lines though! There was a Paul Gaugin and a Windstar ship tendered in one of the bays.
We then went to a snorkelling site where we could see rays up close and personal. As the weather was expected to closely repeat yesterday’s, I didn’t want to get wet and then spend another 3 or 4 hours in wet gear while hanging out on a beach for a picnic lunch (without any sun to dry off) so I watched from the boat with a few others and took a number of photos! The guides from our boat allowed the snokellers to touch the black top side of the stingrays. J saw a tuna so that was a fun sighting!
J with V and R (permission granted to post!) during the sunny part of the day!
We then headed to our motu for our picnic lunch. We wisely chose a long picnic table under cover, expecting it to start raining. The guides played music, demonstrated how to make ceviche, tie pareos and danced. Lunch consisted of ceviche, rice, bread, pineapple, chicken and fish. A hearty meal to fuel all the shivering we did later. After lunch a number of us went snorkelling on the far side of the island and drifted around back to our beach. I decided not to repeat the snorkel (though it was pretty), the current at the end was quite strong, so I though it best to stay on land.
A string ray!
All of a sudden J and four others who were snorkelling on the far side of the island returned. I asked J why he walked back, rather than snorkelled around and he said they were called in from the water, by one of the guides. Then the rain began to fall in earnest! I mean, crazy hard. And the guides asked if we wanted to return to the ship - and we all said yes! So we boarded our boat an hour early and slowly returned to the tender. The slow speed was appreciated because it was cold enough with rain coming into our faces from all directions on the boat. The southern US people I was seated with compared this weather to what a hurricane is like! Somebody else asked if they get typhoons in this area - and yes they do!
So we were glad to return to the safety (and warmth) of the tender. And then we learned later that not all tenders were so safe! One of them ran aground on some coral around noon - and the passengers and crew had to ‘stay put’ until they could be rescued about an hour and a half later! At the Captain’s 5 pm announcement he said today was the most challenging day they had at sea!
During supper the ship pulled away from Moorea and travelled for two hours to get to Papeete, Tahiti by 8 pm. So now we are secured fastened to the pier in Papeete and people can go ashore if they wish. And it is still raining! (But we aren’t shovelling snow!)
We received an email tonight from our tour provider tomorrow, and they said due to the challenging weather, they are cancelling tomorrow’s tour. After two days in the pouring rain, I appreciate the proactive call. J and I will enjoy walking around the city tomorrow seeing the sites independently!
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