Moorea

Michele kicks off her mammoth trip on 9th January 2012. Read her roving reports from the High Seas to her journey Down Under. Keeping you up-to-date with all the news as it happens.
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Michele Monro
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Moorea

Post by Michele Monro » Sat May 05, 2012 6:31 pm

Once you explore Moorea, you’ll see why even its shape reflects this island’s nature: sheer perfection. It is formed like an isosceles triangle, who two mountainous sides joining at Mt. Tahivea. The other side is cut by two bays, Cook and Opunotu, each of which is a little over a half a mile in width. From the air it appears as a beautiful green butterfly floating over a tranquil blue sea. The sister island of Tahiti, Moorea is around fifteen miles away from the bustle and traffic jams of Papeete. Yet unlike the more modern Tahiti, Moorea is an un-crowded tropical island of dramatically jagged mountains, lush forests, turquoise lagoons, coconut fields and glistening white sand beaches. It’s no wonder that the Bali Hai parts of the movie ‘South Pacific’ were filmed here.

All around the 37-mile island the many beaches offer visitors a whole range of beautiful underwater scenery. Even in the shallowest waters you can marvel the amazing flora and fauna of the Polynesian lagoons. But Moorea’s beauty isn’t limited to the coast; at the heart of its mountains you’ll discover valleys and waterfalls as well as the remnants of the Moo’hi civilization’s archeological past. Maors and tikis are waiting for you surrounded by pineapple, banana and vanilla plantations. The island’s economy, once based on copra, coffee and vanilla now thrives on the pineapple industry. With its close proximity to Tahiti, Moorea’s lifestyle has been influenced by the events of the bigger island, mostly as a peaceful retreat from the more hectic world there. A leisurely drive around the island introduces you to the relaxed lifestyle of its inhabitants and provides you with countless vantage points from which to savor this island’s beauty.

At 6.30am Sea Princess went through the Tareu Passage and entered the Bay of Opunohu, where we dropped anchor ready for the tender service to begin. The weather was perfect: 87 degrees and not a cloud in the sky, the stuff picture books are made of. The tender took me across a small cove where the locals had set up a market selling mostly black pearls and pareo. In the old days, the pareo was made of tapa: tree bark pounded and decorated with local patterns, hibiscus or tiare flowers. This large rectangle of cotton fabric printed or hand-painted colourful and decorative is the basic cloth for all Polynesians. While woman tie it in a thousand-and-one different ways, men also wear it as a skirt or shorts. Most of the pareo on offer was locally made, some hand-painted with gutta and dyed and dried in the sun while others were screen=printed.

I opted for a lagoon cruise to Moru Islet Beach and our small boat chugged across the waters with the captain identifying points of interest. Moorea’s breathtaking views of the verdant mountains, lush valleys and fragrant plantation fields were mesmerizing. It was all so perfect and I didn’t want the journey to end. We pulled up at a sand beach landing where we were given four hours to swim and sunbathe. I edged into the warm waters to watch our guide hand-feed the numerous stingrays in the lagoon’s shallow water. I’ve never been so close to these creatures before and as they swam by nudging my legs their skin felt like velvet. Even though I’ve travelled to many of the Caribbean islands before, I’ve never seen waters this colour before or been able to see right through to the bottom of the bed, it was glorious. I spent most of the time sitting in the water lapping up the sheer decadence of the moment.

At midday our guide called us to an island lunch buffet that had been cooked and prepared since arrival and it was delicious. As I was tucking into barbecued chicken and fresh pineapple the colour of corn, a local trio performed Tahitian songs on guitar and ukulele and later we were treated to a coconut show. I so didn’t want to leave and was praying for a boat malfunction that would have allowed us another few hours but alas the vessel was in perfect order and took us back to the ship ready for its 4.00pm departure. Considering we now have five days at sea, it would have been nice to have stayed until sunset but maybe the port charges are too high. Nevertheless it was a perfect day in paradise and one of the highlights of the cruise.

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Lena & Harry Smith
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Re: Moorea

Post by Lena & Harry Smith » Sat May 05, 2012 8:23 pm

This sounds a Wish You Were Here experience, with this breathtaking scenery and the weather just perfect. Enjoying reading these updates.
Thanks for sharing with us Michele. :)

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