Prepared Tuesday evening, October 28th. I exhausted my remaining 24 minutes of Internet attempting to publish this post with no luck. Instead I am paying $10 for all day wifi at the Vaima Shopping Center by the Pacific Princess in Papeete.
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Moorea is clearly visible from Papeete, Tahiti, just 21 km away across the Sea of the Moon. The 125 sq mile island is actually the surviving south rim of a volcano that was once 3000m high. Moorea is twice as old as Tahiti, and the weathering is noticeably more advanced. Several mountains on Moorea top Bora Bora's Mount Otemanu, with Mount Tohivea over 3600 feet tall. 16000 people live primarily along the coast, with the southern part of the island being more residential and the northern part where most of the larger resorts are located.
Source: Moon Tahiti Guide
Though not a virgin island for us, we were up on Deck 11 at the front of the ship to watch as the Pacific Princess sailed into Opunohu (O-poo-NO-hoo) Bay, one of two large bays on the north side of Moorea. I was reminded of my first visit here on the Sapphire Princess in 2004; that nearly new ship briefly lost power and drifted towards the reef for what our captain later described as the "longest four minutes of his life". Divers were sent down, and damage, thankfully, was very minimal. Today lacked the drama of that first visit, but I eyed the barrier reef surrounding Moorea with a healthy respect. When all one sees for miles and miles are waves crashing on coral reefs, it's amazing these ships find any passes to sail through.
We were once again blessed with a sunny day, one so hot that even the locals were fanning themselves saying, "tres chaud, tres chaud". Yes, it was hotter than Hades today but for water sports or picture taking, the weather couldn't have been better.
We had no definite plans for the day but, despite the heat, were leaning towards a land tour instead of a water activity. We're trying to space those out a bit, and have had two days in a row in or on the water. Instead, after breakfast in the Club Restaurant (I was shamefully hungry after last night's feast and had a plateful of assorted fresh fruit, a big dollop of cottage cheese AND two slices of six grain toast) we left the ship dressed in shorts and Ts (instead of swimwear)
Let me take a moment to talk again about the sun, specifically the intensity of the sun. In the Caribbean, we're always careful to wear sunscreen on our faces, chests and backs, and our Tilley hats become a permanent part of our anatomy, and those actions are usually enough to be sun safe. Not so down here. Every square millimeter of untreated skin quickly burns. The little valleys between toes, the inside of a knee, knuckles on a finger...while the recommended shot glass-full of sunscreen seems like overkill in most of the rest of the world, here it is just a starter dose. I have yet to wear a swimsuit without a long sleeved SPF 50 rash guard covering it; G has, at least temporarily, abandoned wearing sandals and is leaving the ship in socks and sneakers. We're having to be extra cautious, otherwise our skin will be trashed in two months.
Our room with with a view on the Pacific Princess
The tender ride to the pier in Opunohu Bay was a longer one- maybe 10-15 minutes- though the pier was right around the hillside from the ship, simply because we had to pass back through and around the barrier reef to get there. Once on the pier, there were the expected musical greeting, samples of island fruits, tiare blooms and canopies under which were set tables selling all sorts of abalone and black pearl jewelry. There were also several tour options right on the pier: Hiro's snorkel with the stingrays and shark boat trip ($40 or $60 with a motu BBQ), Julienne's circle island tour (3500 CFP for 2 hours or 4500 CFP for 3 hours), scooter and car rentals and taxi services.
Our first stop, as usual, was the little grocery store near the pier. Not nearly as well stocked as Raiatea's Champion Supermarché, it did sell large bottles of cold Hinano beer, and G bought his fourth of the cruise. After wandering around and discussing our options, we decided to join Julienne's 3 hour circle island tour, but had about a 90 minute wait before she was returning from her morning tour. Those were 90 sweltering minutes, but we buoyed our spirits with the knowledge that Julienne's van was air conditioned and almost new, and kept rewetting the cool washcloths available on the tender pier with ice water being served there. I've never before seen the Philippino and Indian security and deck crews also cooling themselves off with the washcloths between tender boats; when the Phillipinos are hot, you know it's HOT.
Finally, though, Julienne returned from her morning tour, and G and I along with two couples from New Zealand gratefully piled in her cool van and started the tour. Our first stop was to go up to the famous Belvedere Lookout, with its views of the entire northern coast of Moorea, including Opunohu Bay and Cooks Bay.
Let me inject, at this point, that I have bravelyo struggled to narrow down today's photos to an uploadable quantity. I could include at least 50 more, equally beautiful, but, of course, that's impossible...at least until I return home. I think I will eventually return to this post and embellish it with more photos of the breathtaking scenery we enjoyed today.
Opunohu Bay from the Belvedere lookout
Cook's Bay from the Belvedere lookout
We made our way back down the coastal road and started traveling clockwise around Moorea, with frequent stops for photo ops and fruit juice samples.
The Tetiroa marae (sacred site) near the Belvedere lookout. The mosquitoes were fierce here, the first we've personally encountered so far.
We thought we had viewed scenery as good as it gets...and then we started down the eastern side of Moorea.
OK, OK, OK. Must. Force. Myself. To. Stop. Adding. Photos. Will. Be. All. Night. Getting. Them. Uploaded (but do you see what I'm dealing with here? These photographic constraints are killing me!!).
Edited the next day: although our $10 all day wifi was not fast (not at all), I was able to add a few more of these photos, uploading one at a time. This post took about 80 minutes to publish today. But Moorea photos are so worth it!
We returned to the ship after 4pm, and had just a few minutes to put our feet up and admire our photos before we had to get ready for our final evening of this cruise. Our photo was on the front page of today's Princess Patter and we were surprised by the number of people who did a double take as they walked by us on the ship tonight (I guess people really do read the Patter, certainly more than I do!). It was our 15 minutes of fame; tomorrow, there will be all new people on board and we will once again blend into the woodwork.
We actually sailed a bit before our scheduled time of 5pm. I will say this about Captain Servillo: that man is prompt. We've sailed a few minutes early more often than not. Unfortunately, we were still getting cleaned up for the evening when we sailed, but that's why we do more than one cruise at a time. It simply takes us longer to have the same experiences others manage to squeeze into 10 days. We spent just a few minutes in the Elite lounge to say goodbye to friends who are leaving tomorrow and enjoy the still-stunning views of Moorea as we sailed on to Tahiti. It was nice to go to dinner starving; we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it had caught up with us.
I enjoyed the rest of the bottle of Merlot we had started last night, and decided that spaghetti and meatballs ordered off the children's menu would go best with it, but assistant waiter Gerald remembered that, just one time several days ago I had mentioned that I like mussels, and not one but two entrees was placed in front of me. This caused me to comment to G that, inevitably, we start every cruise thinking that we'll never have dining service as good as we enjoyed during our most recent winter at sea. Suttipong was like a son after two winters with him; Darko and his family are like family to us. I convince myself not to over expect, to be prepared to settle for less...but it never happens. Within a few days it's the same thing all over again...waiters who go way above and beyond to make each dinner a celebration, and it's one of the biggest reasons we return to Princess again and again.
We were lucky during dinner, to have Moorea on our side of the ship, and it was a beautiful thing to see as the setting sun cast shadows in that beautifully clear blue water. As we were finishing dinner, the lights of Papeete appeared off both sides of the Pacific Princess, and we could feel the thrusters spinning the ship into position aft first as it was docked. We overnight in Papeete tonight and tomorrow night, and don't sail until 4am on Thursday, with our first port on the next cruise being Moorea at 8am Thursday. We might have enjoyed walking off the ship for a bit tonight, but, once again, we arrived in Papeete after dark in a pouring rain, reminiscent of our arrival nine nights ago.
Instead we were happy to watch the production show Motor City in the Cabaret Lounge. We have missed it since we last saw it on the Island Princess in 2012...after countless viewings, it is still our favorite, and it was nice not to have it "dumbed down" to 30 minutes; shows are still nearly 50 minutes long on the Pacific Princess. It was also interesting to see Motor City performed with just six dancers and two vocalists, on the small stage on this ship.
After that, it was time for fuzzy water, blog and bed. Hopefully, the stable ship will allow me to get these photos uploaded (ETA: HA!!!); our number one plan for tomorrow in Papeete is to find fast, cheap wifi to get caught up with our lives at home.