Moorea - Day 1
In the morning the shipped pulled into Opanohu Bay and dropped anchor. The sunrise hitting the peaks of the jagged mountains of Moorea was incredible.
We had an early excursion to start the day off - Dr. Michael Poole's Dolphin Quest. Since Moorea has no major dock, all shore trips are made by ship's tender. The tender is actually the same boats used for lifeboats and can hold 140 people in an emergency, but only carry 80 maximum for tendering. We were on the first tender at 8 am to shore, where we transferred to another smaller powerboat.
A very attractive woman who is Dr. Poole's research assistant led the boat excursion out into the harbor in front of Cook's Bay and Opanohu Bay. We cruised around to areas where the small Spinner Dolphins congregate in pods. Soon we were seeing 30-40 dolphins swimming near our boat, occasionally jumping up out of the water with an acrobatic twisting motion.
After the dolphin watching we were taken to a shallow reef area where we could swim or snorkel for about an hour. Since we had been forewarned that this opportunity would be available we had brought all our gear along and were fully prepared. We saw some really beautiful dark blue fish swimming around a coral head, and some sea urchins. I took 5 or 6 underwater pictures.
When we returned to the boat they had fresh Tahitian grapefruit and coconut to eat, with limeade to drink. On the way back in we went over into Cook's Bay to drop off an ice chest at a dock, and then get gas for the boat at another dock. The ride around Cook's Bay was magnificent. The photos are all coming out great, and we expect the video to be also.
After cleaning up with a quick shower back on the ship and a nice lunch, we took the tender back to shore and did a bit of shopping in the local sales tents. A French gentleman whose wife is the jeweler for their family-owned black pearl business took us to his shop where his wife, Sabine, a beautiful Belgian woman, showed us the most gorgeous black pearl rings and necklaces. She tried very hard to convince me to buy Sandy a black pearl ring that was really beautiful for $1100, cutting the price down from her marked price of $1260. If I could afford it I'd have bought it but it was just too much money to spend. She showed us a necklace worth $11,000 that was beyond belief. She also let Sandy try on a strand of about 15mm pearls with a beautiful drop pendant, priced at $38,000 (see above!). Don't know a woman alive who wouldn't love to have that one!
I did buy a more modestly priced
loose black pearl as a Christmas gift for my mother -- an 8.83 mm Light Peacock
color pearl. It's a beautiful silvery shade with a tinge of pink and green in the right light.
I just had Sabine drill the pearl for mounting, and when I returned home to Michigan I
had a custom white gold mount made for it, and added a white gold flat serpentine necklace. The
result is really beautiful.
After wrapping up my purchase, we returned with her husband
to the docks to catch the last tender of the day. We relaxed a
while with a bottle of wine and some bread and cheese we had
saved from lunch, and then went down to a late dinner at 7pm.
After that, back to the room for a good night's sleep. We'll need
it - we're on a 4x4 trip tomorrow morning bright and early.