Following breakfast (we're getting bacon now, too, for unknown reasons, but between the omelet and the fruit and the juice and the croissant and the baguette AND the bacon, it's a heckuva free breakfast), we walked down to the cruise ship pier to see the Paul Gauguin, which had come in early this morning. The Paul Gauguin is such a small ship that there's never a hubbub around it. People were disembarking today, but it was all very low key. And there was no tourist activity on the wharf at all, so nothing really to see.
We decided at that moment to take a high speed Terevau ferry to Moorea this morning. We checked the schedule...we had exactly 21 minutes to return to the hotel, grab our swimwear and get back to the ferry terminal. We flew, but we made it. For just under US $50 total, we bought two round trip tickets on the ferry. While the locals settled in the air conditioned interior seating, we were right up front on the open deck for the roughly 22 minute crossing of the Sea of the Moon.
Now, ferries are exciting things to us because we don't have them at home. In fact, my past ferry experiences are limited to Sydney Harbour, Australia; the Outer Banks of North Carolina; Lake Champlain; Port Angeles, WA to Victoria, BC; and between St. Kitts and Nevis. So the simple act of taking the ferry was fun.
Once we arrived at the ferry dock at Vaiare on Moorea, we wasted no time taking an Alberts Shuttle for the 5 minute ride to the Sofitel Moorea (500 CFP per person). There we first had lunch overlooking the water and then settled in by the infinity pool for the remainder of the afternoon. Oooohhhh, I needed today. Gorgeous views, gentle breezes, not too hot, tropical drinks and that incredible infinity pool.
We've visited the Intercontinental Moorea, the Hilton Moorea and now the Sofitel Moorea and the Sofitel was, without a doubt, my favorite. The setting with Tahiti right across the Sea of the Moon and a long, crescent stretch of beach is perfect, and its proximity to the ferry and Tahiti can't be beat. I'll be honest, we did check on bungalows at the Sofitel. The cheapest ones were about US $650 per night with no food. The overwater bungalows go for almost $1500 a night. They had nothing available until Monday night, which is the issue we dealt with when we first were looking at hotels for these ten days off the Pacific Princess. We're paying $150 a night with breakfast at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti; we simply can't justify an additional $500 plus a night, even for just two nights. We can go there from Papeete for the day for around $100. We may well go back, maybe even tomorrow. We enjoyed it that much.
We took a shuttle about 4:15pm to return to the ferry dock. The last ferry was at 4:40pm, and we didn't want to miss it. The roulottes were just setting up as we walked back to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti but we're worn out. After a full day at a beautiful resort, we're having chips and sandwiches washed down with beers on our balcony. Don't feel too sorry for us; we had a gorgeous sunset viewed right from our table.
There is a strange Chinese ship in port tonight, next to the Paul Gauguin. We've seen a lot of what look to be students from the ship walking along the waterfront. We suspect it's an educational ship of some sort, but are thrown by the many and huge satellites. G wants to knock on their gangway and ask if they can get any TV channels in English. ;-)
