Magnificent Moorea 
(pronounced Mo-oh-ree-ah)
   

Moorea, in my opinion is THE most beautiful island of French Polynesia. Shaped like a heart, Moorea is rimmed with high craggy volcanic peaks, making it look prehistoric, like a partially submerged green dinosaur skeleton in a sea of blue.  It is here where they filmed both movie versions of Mutiny on the Bounty and the recently remade South Pacific television musical.  The most stunning peak, Mount Mouaroa, or the fictional "Bali Hai" mountain, looks like a shark's tooth.  If I came back to Tahiti, and had only the time to visit one island, it would be Moorea.  It is truly a paradise. 

Moorea has two bays, Opunohu and Cook's bays.  Both bays are deep enough to accommodate cruise ships, so we sailed into Cook's Bay and dropped anchor there.  The picture of the ship at the top of this page is of the R3 as it was anchored in Cook's Bay during our cruise.  We took the tender out early and made plans to drive around the island in a rental car.

The most spectacular views are up on Mt. Belevedere, where you can see views of both bays.  The drive up to the lookout point winds precipitously at some points, through the rainforest where you'll see lush tropical trees, flowers and the occasional ancient marae. We very fortunate to get there very early in the morning to take in the tranquil scenery without the busloads of tourists to ruin the quiet of this magical panorama. On our way down the mountain, we squeezed past the large air conditioned buses going up the mountain.

We stopped at the hotel Moorea Beachcomber ParkRoyale, in the mistaken assumption that we would swim with the dolphins at the Dolphin Quest center.  We bought and paid for the swim with the dolphins for later that afternoon, until we did the French Polynesian francs to dollar conversion and found out it would cost us over $500 US dollars for 4 people!  So we got our money back, but in the meantime we took a most refreshing dip in the hotel's beautiful lagoon.

Our next stop, and my favorite place on the whole islands, was the Tiki Village, a traditional Polynesian village.  Artisans who live and work in the village create the traditional wares of flower crowns and necklaces, baskets and hats, shell jewelry, and of course tattoos!  They also showed us how the famous black Tahitian pearls are created.  Again, our luck was amazing!  A couple from our ship were going to have a traditional Polynesian wedding with a tribal chief, tattooed fire dancers, "hula girls", and musicians and singers.  See the Tiki Village Theatre Brochure we picked up for more info.

Day 2: Snorkeling / Shark & Ray Feeding / Motu Picnic