Moorea - Day 2
Well, our plans didn't work out quite as well as we'd hoped. The day started out wrong when we got to shore on the first tender, only to have Sandy realize she had left her leather knapsack with the video camera and some money in it behind in the Cabaret Lounge, which is the meeting place for first embarkation each day. We asked one of the shore directors from Renaissance to radio back and ask if it had been found - it had and was already being held at reception. Each tender run is 30 minutes apart, so for her to go back to ship and get it would take a full hour. Our 4x4 tour that we set up was supposed to start at 9 am, so we asked the crew people if they could send it over to us on the next tender. They said sure, no problem, and we quickly had it back, averting a major disaster. Renaissance again proved it will go out of its way to make things right for its passengers.
Bad news part 2 - our 4x4 tour was cancelled by the company we'd contracted, saying they didn't have enough people to fill the 4x4. So there we were, stuck with no activity to do. The fellow who took us to his black pearl shop yesterday was there, and saw we were having problems, and immediately came over and asked, "What can I do to help you?" After telling him we'd been cancelled, he went and talked to the young Tahitian woman running the rental cars and we were quickly signed up for a small Hyundai rental car for the day for 7500 CFP, about $63. She told us to only put 500 CFP worth of gas in it for the whole day - that's less than $5! So we headed west, quickly found a Mobil station and got gas, and then proceeded to make our own tour of Moorea.
As we drove around the shoreline we were constantly amazed at the sheer beauty of this island, and the multi-hued blue waters surrounding it. In may places the shore area is extremely shallow, and you can easily walk out 200 feet from shore in only waist-deep water that's a pale blue color. As soon as it gets deeper the color changes dramatically to a much darker blue.
We stopped numerous times as we drove along, taking photos and videos at every opportunity. On our map of the island (which we got from the car rental folks) there were only the major attractions and some roads marked. We wanted to get to the Belvedere Point for some shots of both bays, and took a dirt road that looked like we would end up in China somewhere as we followed it. But as doubt crept into our minds that this was the right road to follow, we thought, "Hey, life's an adventure! Just go with it!" We soon hit a bend in the road and a sign said Belvedere Point 3 Km ahead, so we were on the right track - just an unpaved one. The sights along the way were incredible, so it was all worth it. We came to one of the well-known maraes, the ancient religious places, which today are just some low stone walls about 3 feet high, and perhaps a dais of some sort at one end. There isn't much to look at but they are steeped in history of the islands. Further up the tightly winding road (honk your horn before each curve!) we ended up at Belvedere Point.
Panorama view of Opanohu Bay, Mt. Rotui, and Cooke's Bay click image to see much larger view
The view of both Cook's Bay and Opanohu Bay was spectacular. By now we were fairly hot and thirsty, so we drank some of our bottled water, and then bought a delicious coconut ice cream cone for 150 CFP from the refreshment stand at the Point. I've never tasted ice cream so good.
As we drove along the winding roads, we saw lots of variety of flowers I'd never seen before. The yellow ones above looked almost like popcorn. Our vase of flowers in the ship's cabin shows the huge variety of tropical flowers available.
There are also many beautiful protestant churches on the islands, and every one seemed to have a wall around it, either a picket fench style, or a low brick or cement wall.
We drove back down the mountain and were quickly back on the main shoreline road, which we followed around the bottom of the island at the south end going east. We could see Tahiti island across the water. About 3/4 of the way around the island the map had a waterfall marked, with a lone road going to it. We had to hunt for a while to find the road, but finally got directions from a local person where to pick it up. No signs were marked for it, so it was easy to miss.
We began driving up the road and quickly found ourselves in pure 4x4 territory. The road was just a car width wide, with big ruts and potholes in the dirt. The farther we went the worse it got. I was getting ready to turn around before we got into any trouble getting stuck, etc, when we saw another small car way up the hill, parked there. As we proceeded a 4x4 tour was coming back down, and when we shouted to them "Can this car make it up there?" the guide shook his head and said it was too rough. Well, we found our little Hyundai is a 3x4, but certainly no 4x4. We made it as far as the road allowed, and then I said we were turning around. Sandy talked me into parking and trying to walk the rest of the way. After considering the heat and humidity, I grudgingly agreed. So we started out, but just then some people were walking back down from the supposed waterfall. The heat and humidity was like a weight on your back, it just saps the energy from you. The people who were coming down had made it up the steep hill the last 300 yards only to find that the supposed waterfall was all of 15 feet high, and barely a trickle. Hardly worth the effort. So we quickly went back to the car, and headed back downhill (thank God!) to the highway. Our little car never failed us - I'll give it credit for that.
We continued our trip around the island, eventually coming back to our starting point by the dock. We had the car for all day, so we went back to the ship, grabbed all of our snorkeling gear and returned on the next tender to drive out to Hotel Sofitel, a fabulous resort with a huge long beach with very good swimming and snorkeling. This resort has about 30 of the over-water bungalows that you see in all the travel brochures. We grabbed a beach chair, got our gear on and were quickly swimming with the fishes. We wished we had brought along some of the fish food that is sold on the ship, as we had a swarm of small fish swimming around us. It is like swimming in your own aquarium. There was quite a strong current in the water, so we swam upstream and didn't go out from shore more than about 200 feet. We stayed in for about an hour or so, and then showered off under a fresh water faucet hooked up under a tree by the beach. We got back to the car rental office at 4:20 pm just in time to catch the next-to-last tender of the day.
After showering on the ship and getting dressed again we headed down for dinner at the Club restaurant on the ship - a very posh place that doesn't require any reservations.
We had met a very nice young couple (early 30's?) from Texas on a couple of the tender runs earlier in the trip, and by coincidence ran into then at the restaurant waiting line. We decided to sit together, and had a great time trading stories and personal histories, etc. After another elegant, delicious meal, we headed back to the room for a good night's rest. Sandy's learning how to fall asleep within two minutes of hitting the hay!
The ship had weighed anchor at 5:30 pm today and was steaming out to sea, heading for Huahine, our next island stop. The rolling and swaying motion of this ship, a flat-bottomed cruise ship, was fairly pronounced. It was funny to watch other people ahead of us in the hallway walking a crooked line like a staggering drunk as the floor shifted underneath our feet. As I type this travel log the ship is swaying quite a bit. Open doors swing back and forth, etc, but after a while it is almost soothing, like being rocked in a cradle.