Moorea - Tahiti

We set off at 4.00am in the morning for the 17 kilometer journey from Papeete to Moorea. Now you can drive 17 Kms in next to no time, when you are trying to steer a 113,000 tonne ship it takes a little longer. From port to anchor (there was no dock for us to tie up to) the journey took 3 hours. Being there was no dock we had to disembark using the ship's tenders (otherwise known as lifeboats - capacity 150 people) for the 10 minute trip to shore. After putting down anchor in a Cook's Bay (strangely enough not the bay where Cook anchored) there was soon a conga line of tenders taking passengers to and from the ship to the shore. After Papeete, Moorea was revelation. It was quite simply an island paradise. 

Those passengers who had booked activities on the island were ferried ashore first. As I prefer to get up at the crack of midday I made a concerted effort and headed ashore at 10.00am. There was not a direction you could look that didn't feature a spectacular backdrop. Lush tree covered volcanic mountains in one direction, the azure waters of the lagoon in another. With a population of just 20,000 people this is truly God's country. 

Moorea hadn't had a cruise ship call since April so the locals were happy to have the 3,000 of us turn up and inject some money into their economy. The islanders had set up various stalls to buy locally produced artifacts and there were a multitude of touts enticing us to join bus tours, open back 4 wheel drive tours, swims with rays and reef sharks or maybe take a dolphin and whale watching tour. Six of us banded together and hired an open back 4 wheel drive. The seats were comfy, the sites were spectacular and the driver come guide was excellent. 

We set off and visited yet another black sand beach. the views were amazing. We then headed up one of the mountains to take in a view of the two bays that Moorea has to offer. 

It was off to a pineapple plantation followed by some Polynesian ruins. The ruins were littered with that most French of mascots, the Feral Red Jungle Fowl. The ruins were surrounded by Macadamia and Chestnut trees and the chooks went crazy when our guide broke open a macadamia nut so they could feast on its contents. We finished the trip with a stop at a pineapple processing factory, and much more importantly a distillery. Here we sampled a variety of fermented and distilled pineapple products, many of them were spectacular. Now with a suitable buzz we jumped back on to the 4WD and headed back to the tenders for our trip back to the Crown Princess. 

At 5.00pm we upped anchor leaving behind the most amazing oasis for our five day sea journey to Auckland, New Zealand, our last port of call before home. 

I could definitely see myself coming back here to spend some more serious time.