Day 82: Moorea

While breakfasts at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti were nice, it's hard to beat the fruit plate, cottage cheese and six grain toast served by the friendliest waitstaff anywhere in the Club Restaurant. It is nice to be back!  The weather today looked good, partly cloudy with a chance of passing showers and we decided to make it a water day. G really wanted to swim with the stingrays one last time. I enjoy it too, but, really, the black tipped reef sharks are my favorites. We decided to do Hiro's Tour again.

We've gotten to know Hiro and his staff, Celine and Maco and Bruno. I mean, we've seen them over and over since October. It was a nice way to spend our last day on Moorea. There was no BBQ lunch today, but instead we had an open bar and fresh pinapple on a motu, and the price was only 4000 CFP per person, about US $ 40.17. ;-). That's a great price for an almost four hour snorkel and motu experience. The funniest thing is that there were two boat loads of the Chinese crew members from the Yuan Wang tracker ship docked in Papeete already at the place in the lagoon where the stingrays hang out when we first got there. We don't seem to be able to escape that boat and its crew!  

Following the swim with stingrays and sharks we cruised over to a motu. While most people just enjoyed the beach and drank beers, I was right back into the water to snorkel. I went further against the current this time, and the snorkeling was much more impressive a little further away from the beach. I saw fish I'd not yet seen in French Polynesia, and that's always a thrill. 

An elephant fish???

I loved the multicolored head on this otherwise striped fish

We arrived back at the tender pier about 2pm and wasted no time taking a tender back to the ship. We showered and washed out our gear and lunch on the terrace behind the Panorama Buffet with beautiful Opunohu Bay as our view. We then sat in two loungers on the pool deck where G promptly fell asleep. I was tired, too, but, though I'm getting a bit better with naps, I'd have to be a lot more tired to nod off in public. 

At 5:30pm we had the Captain's Welcome Aboard Champagne Waterfall, which had to be held in the Cabaret Lounge instead of on the open deck because of a light rain that had started to fall. I finally was able to get one of the new chocolate truffle things on a stick (actually, Deputy Cruise Director Mike chased one down for me) because I had kept missing out on those. We saw the members of the entertainment staff (the dancers) that we'd not yet seen since we came onboard and it was great to get caught up. They are all disembarking in Los Angeles and are extremely excited about going home.  Some of them have already gotten their next assignments and they're excited about that, too. It is going to be hard to say good bye to everyone (but that's still 14 days away). We've grown very close to the people on this ship. 

Because this is a 16-night cruise instead of our usual 10 nights, we'll be seeing some different menus for dinner. Our first was tonight, and it had cioppino, my fav Italian seafood stew. I could live on that forever. Then, for dessert, there was key lime pie, another favorite. We ordered a bottle of Pino Grigio and happiness reigned. Today was my birthday, and I asked to put off the celebratory singing and cake until a night when the menu didn't feature so many of my favorite things. We were stuffed!

Speaking of that, thanks to many for the birthday greetings that popped up this morning when I checked my emails. It was very sweet to hear from friends!  And I was able to place a call to Mom (for free using Vonage!  Get the app!!). She's having another rough winter but she is a trouper and will get through it all. 

And, finally, on a unrelated note, as our tender was arriving at the tender pier this morning, I saw someone standing on the pier holding a sign with names on it. I looked at this guy, then looked again. 10 years ago last month, on my first visit to Moorea, a group of us did a tour with Captain Heifara, a young local who was into eco-tourism. Well, I recognized this guy as Captain Heifara. Sure, he had a little grey in his beard, but I knew it was him. I greeted him and asked about his family. He and his wife had just had a daughter when we met them. She's now 10 and they have a second child, too. So, anyone reading who was in that tour, too (Sissy?  Sheila?  Steph?), he and his family are doing well. 

The funny thing is that seeing Captain Heifara triggered more memories. I recognized the place we had stopped for lunch back then as a restaurant on Tipanier Beach, and the area between two motus where I snorkeled today is the same place we snorkeled with him ten years ago. When I had done Hiro's Tour in late October, I didn't remember any of that, but seeing Captain Heifara today brought it all back. I remember sitting at the restuarant and watching kite surfers, the first time I'd ever seen them. And one of them did a flip right over our boat, something that still impresses me. 

Ten years. I turned 55 today. In ten years I'll be 65. Please, time, slow down!!  It's all going so fast! 

Day 12: Moorea

I awoke about 4am today, and noted that the Pacific Princess was still docked in Papeete, but when G got up about 5:30am, we were en route across the Sea of the Moon back to Moorea. The day looked to be partly cloudy and not quite as warm as Tuesday, for which we were grateful.

We went to breakfast in the Club Restaurant as soon as it opened at 7am; we had a mission today.  We were on a ship's tender by 8:30am, packed for a day on the water. Our intention was to take Hiro's 4-5 hour tour, which included an introduction to Moorea by water, swimming with the stingrays and sharks, snorkeling and then a BBQ on a motu for the unbelievable price of US $60pp. We were the first ones to arrive, and so had a bit of a wait while more tours were sold and the boat filled up, but G took advantage of that time to walk down to the little magazin (store) for another big Hinano beer and this time also returned with a loaf of French bread (about $.55 and three feet long) in a narrow plastic bag (which cost more than the bread, about $.60). He said the locals were buying the bread four and five at a time, and simply walking out of the store with them held in their arms, but he's a little too germaphobic to do that. So he paid more for the bag than for the bread, but, in total, it was still a steal. It provided food for us and the fish, and was a great conversation starter. A bargain. 

About 40 minutes after we'd arrived, the boat was filled and we first cruised into Opunohu Bay for a photo op of the Pacific Princess at anchor and an introduction to a bit of island history and geography. Then we swung around to the west and cruised close to the Intercontinental Resort's overwater bungalows. Just off the coast of the Interrcontinental we could see a few other boats moored, and as we pulled up there the sharks and stingrays came rushing over. They obviously associate the sound of a boat's motor with food.  We got into the water (about chest deep) and were immediately swarmed by the rays. The sharks were a bit more aloof...but not much. They, too, swam around our legs but stayed closer to the ocean floor. 

We had swam with stingrays a few times before- on Grand Cayman and Bora Bora- and I've gotten much better about not being squeamish around them.  These stingrays were very friendly, and would swim up our backs and chests in search of the squid the tour guides were chumming them with. We had a good long time with them and then reboarded the boat (nice, easy steps in lieu of a narrow ladder) and continued west along the northern coast of Moorea until we pulled into a motu for a BBQ lunch. 

I took advantage of the time it took to prepare the chicken to snorkel just off the beach, and though it wasn't as "in your face" good as we saw in Tahaa and Rangiroa, there were some excellent coral heads and a nice variety of fish. While I was in the water snorkeling, it started to rain for a bit and I decided that 86 degree water felt better than being wet and cold on the beach. 

Definitely not "in your face":  this flounder nearly blends in with its environment

This coral would close up when it detected something near, then open when it felt safe again 

Eventually lunch was served:  BBQ chicken, pasta, rice, fresh pineapple and plenty of Hinano beer. Why does BBQ chicken taste so good served on a beach?  Also plentiful- live chickens running around everywhere. One of them hopped up on my picnic table and started eating the chicken off my plate which was just...wrong. They definitely had no fear!

After lunch, our guide, Bruno, entertained us with a pareo tying demonstration. The things they can do with the square of fabric are quite amazing!  Bruno, his wife and two assistants really made this excursion for us, and I can strongly recommend it. It has to be one of the cheapest things to do on Moorea.

http://www.hirotour.com

Email:  wtdmoorea@mail.pf

But you can just book it on the Moorea pier, too. They also had a table set up near the pier in Papeete yesterday, too, but we didn't want to commit until we saw the weather today. It was nice to have spent one day doing a land tour and another doing a water tour. If I was forced to choose, I'd have to say the land tour is more valuable for the first time visitor, and it would be difficult to schedule both in the same day. 

Some other things we've learned about Moorea:  the lagoonarium that we wanted to visit is on the opposite side of the island from where the tenders come in and might not be worth the taxi cost to get over there. The ferry from Papeete arrives on the southeastern side of the island, and shouldn't  be confused with where the Pacific Princess tenders dock. There are shuttles running to Tipanier Beach near the Intercontinental Resort for free if you're willing to first go to a black pearl store, or cheap if you're not. That beach looked nice and there were also some water toys there. It might be possible to kayak from there out to where the string rays and sharks are if the wind wasn't too strong. All in all, there are plenty of things to book right on the pier, and the ship also offers several tours on Moorea too (land and sea). 

We returned to the ship and started the process of washing and rinsing and cleaning us, our gear and our swimwear. I'm happy to report that my new mask and snorkel are doing perfectly. I haven't had a second of trouble from either one. And, for the first time today, despite the clouds we had most of the day, my face got a bit sunburned. I'd managed to limit any redness to legs and feet and hands but maybe I was simply more lax today about applying sunscreen. In fact, we've come up with new lyrics to an old song (no doubt influenced by Motor City two nights ago, and sung to My Girl):

I got sunburned

On a cloudy day

When it's cold outside

I have the warmth of May

I'd guess you'd say

What can make me feel this say?

Sunburn (sunburn) sunburn

Tahitian sunburn!  Sunburn!

Sung using large Hinano bottles as microphones, we laughed and laughed. (More Hinano anyone?)

By the time we were done showering, a steady drizzle had settled in. I took the time to start this post while G went to a Cruise Critic gathering. We were hungry, but caught in that timeframe where any snacking would ruin our dinner, and so just decided to stay hungry, a not unpleasant feeling on a cruise ship.  We briefly dropped by the Elite Lounge and then headed to dinner at our new table, a table for two by a window (yay!) with Jose from Portugal (we knew him from the Emerald Princess) and Aleksander from the Ukraine. It was a wonderful meal, but that side of the dining room is freezing, and I picked up an Americano coffee from the Club Lounge en route to a warm cabin and warmer bed. The show tonight is a repeat for us; I'm going to lose myself in a book instead.