Saturday 17th February 2018
Moorea a dream tropical destination. With tranquil beaches and crystalline lagoons, the heart shaped island has been described as a ‘picture in a frame’ due to the reefs that encircle it. Inviting shimmering waters, famous bays and spectacular views of Moorea’s jagged vistas. Tropical landscapes and glimpses of the fascinating Polynesian culture.
Another ridiculously early start to be ready fore our tour of Moorea and it’s a tender port making for even more delays. Weather looking very promising for the day.
Once we had managed to get there we set off on our circumnavigation of the island in a rather old but adequate bus, can’t expect too much in such a remote spot.
First stop up a very narrow and winding road to the Belvedere overlook. Tricky hairpins where the coach needed to make 3 point turns to get round and only just room for 2 cars to pass without going onto the verge. Views down over Opunotu and Cooks Bays.
Cooks Bay misnamed as he actually anchored in Oponotu Bay. Lots of mountains all around including so called Bali Hi Mountain, it being a notable feature of the filming of “South Pacific”.
Appearances in films such as South Pacific and Mutiny on the Bounty seem to be a claim to fame for all this group of islands.
Returning back down the hill made a stop at a Marae, an ancient sacred site of the native islanders, the site of ceremonies and sacrifice, now out of use but still venerated and protected.
Passing some pineapple fields we rejoined the coast road and made a further stop at a nice coastal spot with views across Cooks bay.
Being a weekend large numbers of fishermen out catching their lunch!
Continuing on we moved to an overlook above a five star hotel, proper picture postcard view of the overwater bungalows of the hotel, shallow clear blue waters of the lagoon and view back across to Tahiti, amazing. Nice spot for a holiday, but at $1000 dollars a night and up without food a bit too steep for us!
As we continued to the other side of the island came across wet roads, bad sign, and by the time we reached our last stop, the obligatory shopping opportunity, the Black Pearl shop. Here we entered a proper tropical heavy rain shower, luckily didn’t need to venture forth.
All too soon back at the tender port, here local craft stalls to peruse and to enjoy a fresh pineapple juice before getting the tender back to the ship. Weather remained rather cloudy for the rest of our visit and the sailaway was decidedly unspectacular.
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