Explorers of the World

Woke around 6:00 this morning, it’s already light but there’s quite a lot of grey in the sky and the ground is wet – it’s clearly rained quite hard overnight. Breakfast begins at 6:30 – presumably because anyone who comes from the U.S. or further east wakes early for a few days while they adjust to the time difference. The advantage of an early breakfast is that there is plenty of choice, although we’ve only managed to find avocado on one day so far. The fruit choice looked good today so I loaded a plate with passion fruit, pineapple and mango, like so much here the colours and flavours are turned up to 11.

We were in reception at 8:00 for our pickup for today’s activity – a catamaran trip around the Lagoon that surrounds the island (this is Monday’s trip that we re-arranged to today due to bad weather). Our captain for the voyage was Arnaud. His mum, Odille, picked us up and took us to the boat. She’s lived here for 2 years but 40 years on various French overseas islands. She told us that after 40 years of sun, she wakes every morning hoping for rain. It’s a short drive to the catamaran, we’re lucky – it’s just the two of us today. We sail across the mouth of Ōpūnohu Bay and along the coast of the island, it’s still quite rough outside the lagoon so we stay on the calm waters inside. The bay has been accepted by UNESCO as World Heritage site and will be added to the official list soon. The views were amazing, on one side a clear blue sky and beautiful blue water, turquoise where it’s shallow and richer blue in the deeper areas. On the landside, the spike green covered mountains tower above the ocean, clouds swirl around the summits. Some sufers were waiting for waves next to a gap in the reef at the mouth of the bay.

After about 45 minutes, we stopped at a shallow area where rays and sharks congregate, this time there’s no feeding. We stood on the bottom while the sharks swam round us, although we’ve been told they are completely safe it’s still a bit unnerving. As well as the two big attractions, there are numerous smaller fish smimming around.

Back on board, we’re given a cool pineapple juice to refresh us before the next stop. This was a channel between two small islands, the water is incredibly clear. The area is protected so fishing isn’t allowed. The fish seem to know this and congregate in large numbers. There was a huge variety of colours, shapes and sizes – and they were much less timid than usual. Two rays seemed to enjoy swimming around us. The journey back is partly under sail – so peaceful to glide along across the beautiful water. Arnaud gives us a small Mai Tai cocktail and a plate of fresh fruit to keep us going. All too soon we’re back at our starting place, a very memorable morning.

We had a quick swim in the pool before walking into town for lunch, a slightly eccentric salad with couscous, cheese and tofu as well as some fresh vegetables. This wasn’t enough for Florence who had spotted a patisserie sign. We chose a banana cake and a pineapple cake to share. I also ordered an expresso. I added some sugar and took a sip – it was disgusting! Then it sank in – that was a salt bowl on the table not sugar. The clue may have been the two packets of sugar on the saucer – I’d thought that was odd. I ordered another and explained my mistake, they were very nice about it and didn’t charge me… but did tell everyone else what I’d done.

Back to the hotel, we took out a kayak for a paddle along the coast, there’s quite a strong current today so we went upstream first then back which should have been easier but somehow wasn’t.

Our next maritime adventure was to try out paddle-boarding. We didn’t go outside the hotel beach area but just had a go to see how it felt. It starts off very wobbly but it soon starts to feel okay, the hardest part for me was getting off without falling in.

Took a few photos around the hotel and watched the sunset – it’s our last night tonight. We then cleaned up for the evening and went back to the Moorea Beach Cafe for dinner. We had a very nice meal and bottle of wine by the sea, fish were jumping, crabs wandering on the beach.

Yet another excellent day.

We woke up before the alarm. It’s not really surprising, we went to bed sooooo early.

Breakfast has to be quick today as we need to be ready to go at 7.45am.

Yvette picked us up for our Nature and Culture tour. We hadn’t been in the car for five minutes when she stopped to show us the breadfruit trees – these are part of the Mutiny on the Bounty story that accompanied us today (some of the film versions were filmed here). More traditionally, after each birth, the placenta is buried in the garden and a breadfruit tree is planted. Think about that, and then look around… there are breadfruit trees everywhere.

We drove around Cook’s Bay (Pao Pao Bay ) which isn’t the bay Captain Cook anchored in, of course and then Ōpūnohu Bay.  More driving took us to the Bounty Plateau – the 360° view is simply out of this world. Yvette told us legends about the mountains – king and princesses protecting the islands.

Back at the car, Yvette gives us passion fruit juice she made at home this morning. It is refreshing and cooling. The humidity today – combined with the sun – is a killer.

En-route to our next destination, she showed us many trees and flowers which have multiple purposes – they’re used as medicine, make-up, to make roofs and hats, boats and anything else you can think of.

Next, we visited farms. Pineapples and papayas. All around us are passion fruit trees and avocado trees. We helped her pick up fallen fruits.

Next, we drive to the Belvedere. The view is – well, it’s so easy to run out of superlatives here – not bad. Not bad at all.

For our next stop, Yvette warned us to put as much insect repellent on as we could. We walked in the forest to the marae (ancient temples ). The mosquitoes were so bad that she only let us look at one of them from the car. She explained that most of the cultures and traditions have gone. These were mostly oral and were lost when the missionaries forced them to abandon their culture. These were where chiefs made political, social and religious decisions. One has steps Mayan style. In some cases, sacrifices – human – were made to the war god – Oro. The light in the forest was stunning.

Yvette then took us to the agricultural school. They make jams there – we tried a few and then got sorbets – passion fruit and ginger for me. Andy settled for passion fruit and soursop – a sherberty flavour. And then we had a fresh pineapple juice. Yvette then brought us helpings of the avocado (the fruits are huge here, seriously), papaya and passion fruit we’d collected earlier on.

As we’re ready to go, I went off to have a little chat with a couple of cats. They had a lot to say, and politely answered any questions I had.

At the fruit factory, we sampled fruit juice and ready made cocktails.

This was a half day tour. We packed so much in. I don’t think there was a moment when Yvette wasn’t talking. She loves telling stories about Moorea, talking about the cultures. She is vibrant and a tour with her is priceless. She’s great.

Back at the hotel, we went for a swim in the sea, and then the pool. We seriously needed to cool off. After lunch, we went snorkelling around the bungalows. Andy went further out. I stayed close to shore and even just there, the variety of fish is staggering – yellow ones, orange ones, black ones, stripy ones, silver ones, hoover ones (on the seabed), flat ones, multi-coloured ones, fat ones and big ones (one was so big I did a double-take as it was coming near me).

Back in the pool – there’s hardly anyone there… so here’s a tip, so far the shoulder season has treated us well and if you avoid the weekend, you have the resort more or less to ourself.

We decided to explore the other side of town (turning right as we left the hotel). Many shops, banks, restaurants and another supermarket.

On the way back, we stopped at the Moorea Beach Cafe. The setting is perfect. We have drinks whilst we wait for our take-away goat cheese pizza. Andy had a local beer. I settled on a vodka martini… and I need to say at this point that cocktails here are strong. They certainly don’t skimp on the alcohol.

A great day.

Moorea is stunning. Everything about it.

I think I’m in love.

We woke up to an ominous sky. As we left our room, it felt as if we were walking into a steam room; the humidity today was around 80.

Breakfast was a hearty affair. As we were discussing the day ahead, the heavens opened. We looked at each other. That wasn’t the plan for today.

Andy went off to the activity desk, and managed to get today’s expedition re-arranged to Wednesday. Theresa agreed that this was a good move, and assured us that the weather will be lovely tomorrow. We lingered a bit longer, and had another cup of coffee.

The rain didn’t let off. We got back to our room and decided to make the most of today. Desperate times called for desperate actions. I made a list:

– Delete photos and make space on my laptops (the start-up disk is full so it’s near impossible to import new photos)
– Play games (the reception desk has a broad selection of board games)
– Write diaries
– Back up photos
– Mend bag
– Camera cleaning
– Change cameras’ dates and times
– Watch episode two of Apple Tree Yard
– Walk to town
– Swim

We started with the less fun tasks.

Around 3pm, the rain let off so we took ourselves to town. Turning left as we left the complex, one long street with a couple of hardware stores, a knickknack shop, a restaurant (which was shut) and a supermarket. Out of curiosity, we went in. There were hardly any vegetables for sale (I’m guessing that people grow their own. They certainly have fruit trees in their garden), but the wine selection was decent. We bought a couple of beers.

On the way back, we spotted crabs on the edge of the road, and eels in a river.

In French Polynesia, the point kilométrique (PK) markers start at PK0 at the airport and go around the coast in both clockwise and anticlockwise directions. A restaurant’s address for example would be the name e.g. Restaurant Andy, Maharaja, PK5.

We taught ourselves how to play dominos and then ‘Let Master’ – a kind of anagram game where you move your piece a certain number of spaces depending on wether you won the round, or lost it. The rules were in French. We played a version of the game. Who knows.

All day, it’s looked like the place was deserted, and then slowly people started to emerge from their rooms either stretching their legs or going for a swim. There are fewer people staying now that the weekenders from Papeete have gone home. The pool wasn’t really busy so I was able to do a few lengths. We settled by the pool with our books, and then a few pages in I realised that it was Happy Hour.

Time for rum cocktails and an early night. Not only it is tiring doing nothing, we also have an early start in the morning.

11 Hours sleep for me, things looked a bit better after that. Florence had already been up for an hour or so and been for a walk. Start the day with a buffet breakfast, lots of choice of fruit, bread, cheese, juice, etc. Our plan was to stock up on breakfast and miss lunch – didn’t look like that would be a problem. Local wildlife also helps itself to breakfast – a bird steals some rice form a neighbouring table, a couple of other birds try their luck on the cheese plate.

Stopped at the excursion desk after breakfast to book our activities for the next few days – we’re going to be busy!

Wandered back to our rooms and changed for our morning swim, read a bit while we dry off. Surprised to see people eating lunch already – where did the morning go? I think this is what they mean by island time.

Our first activity was a snorkelling trip. Moorea, like many of the French Polynesian Islands, is surrounded by a coral reef. We were driven round to the eastern end of the island which looks out towards Tahiti to meet our boat. On the way we have the sea to the left and the jagged green volcanic hill-tops to the right. Its incredibly beautiful, the colours of the flowers, the sky and the water seem to be turned up to 11. Florence described it as walking through a technicolour film.

It was a short cruise to the snorkelling point, there was already a boat moored when we arrived. This was a snorkel with a difference, we stayed in one place, hanging onto to ropes slung between buoys while scraps of fish were thrown into the water to attract sharks and stingrays. This dubious practice was worsened by the encouragement to ‘ride’ the rays by grabbing their mouths from above and holding on while they swim off.

Once the feeding finished the majority of people lef, leaving us in peace to enjoy many many varieties of fish. The sharks and rays still hung around, it’s fascinating to see them close up – very close up. The sharks are blacktip reef sharks, about 1.6m long, they pose little threat to people. They are one of the commonest sharks in the Pacific, they mainly eat small fish and crustaceans as well as occasional birds.

The stingrays are nearly 2m across, their eyes and gills are on the dark grey tops of their bodies, their mouths are on their white underside. They are a very impressive site as they gently wave their wings to move along.

Back to the hotel, we decided to carry on with our watery afternoon and went for quick snorkel off the beach. There were no sharks and rays to be seen but still a lot of many-coloured fish to entertain us.

Last night, the clouds built up in late afternoon removing any chance of a sunset but tonight we were luckier, not a huge flaming red sky but some beautiful pastel colours as the sun disappeared behind the mountains.

We celebrated our first full day here with happy hour cocktails, fruity rum concoctions that would be very out of place in London but went down very well here.

Yesterday was one of the least fun days we’ve had on our travel. But it had to happen. We’d been very lucky so far, all the travelling we’d done was self-contained. When we originally put the itinerary together, we toyed with the idea of breaking the journey and spending a couple of days in Buenos Aires (this would have been our third visit there, it’s an awesome place) but the airline schedules didn’t work out unfortunately.

And so it is what it is.

We left Los Angeles at 22.40 and flew to Tahiti with Air Tahiti Nui. Everything about this airline is fun. They give you flowers; the crew dresses in floral uniforms, the branding is all pastel colours. The flight was uneventful. Andy slept most of the way and when he didn’t, he chatted away to the crew in Spanish, and the hostess would then turn to me and ask me – in French – what he’d said. Bless.

We landed in Papeete at 5.05am. Get this. There was a band and dancers to welcome us, and we were presented with a traditional flower lei. Immigration was a doddle – very few people on the plane were Europeans, and so we breezed through the E.U. queue – please spare a thought for poor Andy who will have to use the non E.U. queue in the near future!

With all the paperwork done and the luggage collected, we left the terminal, went to the cashpoint… and checked in at the domestic terminal. We had just over 3.5 hours to our flight to Moorea.

The last leg of the journey was precious however. We could see our destination clearly from the runway as we boarded. As we we were seated, we had the announcement about making sure we put our seatbelt on, and then there was an announcement to say that we were preparing for landing. Our flight duration was eight minutes :-).

Seating on the left of the plane afforded us amazing view of Moorea and its jagged mountain peaks and its lush jungle. This place was on my must see list and I’m thrilled to bits to be here… 31 hours after we left Panama City.

The island feels familiar and yet so different from the scenery we had grown accustomed to. The hills are rugged and the flora’s different. The temperature’s pretty much what we’re accustomed to by now. Hot and sunny… maybe a tad too humid. But let’s be clear, we’ll take this. We’re travelling here during the shoulder season and we were told that rain would not be uncommon. This is the risk we took. The alternative would have been to come here half way through our New Zealand trip and so it made more sense this way. So far, so good.

Our transfer to the hotel was easy. The hotel reception greeted us with ‘Ia orana, maeva’ (hello, welcome). With the end in sight, we both started thinking about taking a nap on arrival… but our room wasn’t ready. Bummer. We seriously needed some TLC by then. Undeterred, we rummaged around our bags to get our swimmies and hit the beach. The water was warm, the sun was out… and just by swimming for 15 mins or so, we saw an incredible amount of fish. Easy snorkelling around here we reckon. Swam in the sea, loungers, infinity pool, loungers, swam in the sea, loungers, infinity pool… repeat.

We got our room at 2pm and laughed. I had deliberately asked to get a standard room – as opposed to a bungalow over the sea as there is quite a lot to do in Moorea. I’d anticipated that we’d never leave the bungalow if we stayed in one. Our room is amazing – spacious, the hottest water we’ve had since leaving London, a massive bed and an outdoor private balcony.

We are staying  at the Manava Beach Resort and Spa Moorea and it’s not too shabby… let me tell you! The staff are incredibly friendly. The place is beautiful, the water is potable and it’s run as an eco-friendly place. The bungalows over the sea are located over corals rescued from the lagoon. There is a man who goes round checking on the health of the coral (pollution, global warming, tourism), and he brings unhealthy coral back to the resort and tries to restore it to full health. This, in turn, brings in an crazy variety of fish which you can see really well (this is the clearest water we’ve seen on the trip yet).

We can’t wait to explore the island further. It is supposed to be unspoilt. With so much to do and not much time, we sat down to draw of a list of the activities we’d like to do. As we were busy planning, there was a knock on the door, and when I opened it I was faced with a man with a pineapple in his hand. A welcome gift.

We played three games of table tennis and I lost all three. True, I was getting distracted by the view but also some of my shots were shockingly bad.

Ah yes, the view. No photos today I’m afraid. Too tired to function, but full service will resume tomorrow.

For dinner, we opted for the resort’s themed buffet (‘food of the world’). At 5900 CFP (Franc Cours Pacific, or the Pacific Franc) per person, which is roughly £42 a head, it’s not cheap, but we’re too tired to go and explore. Also, we’d seen the menu in advance and there was tons of salads. Imagine, salad we could finally eat without the fear of getting unwell! And we sneaked in a tiny bit of salmon for an Omar lookalike cat.

At 8pm, there was a dance performance by the pool. It was great to see some Polynesian culture… for ten minutes. All the travel finally caught up with us and as good as the dancers were, we left. Because… bed.