Moorea: Day 10 - Last Day in Moorea...

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Well, today is our last day in Moorea. I have fallen in love wit this majestic place that we keep calling 'Valinor' (the land of the God's from Lord of the Rings that the Elves sail off to in the end). We have been to quite a few beautiful anchorages on this trip, but this is the first that has hundreds of flower heads floating in the water all around your boat.

We were treated to a nice full rainbow on our last day here.

Tomorrow, we have a short, over-night passage to Bora Bora (about 120 miles).

Moorea: Day 9 - God's Aquarium

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

After yesterday's failed snorkelling attempt, we decided to check out this place called 'Lagoonarium' that we saw in the Tahiti/Moorea brochure you can get here. It looks really touristy and crowded in its advertisement, so we weren't super keen on it, but it ended up being one of the best experiences so far on my trip. The snorkelling there bested even the great Galapagos.

We were expecting to basically be motored out to a good snorkelling spot and just getting dropped off for a few hours (as we didn't read into the Lagoonarium at all before going). What actually happens is, it's an all-day sort of thing. They motor you out to their little private island where you are greeted by some very friendly people and the island's dogs.

They take you for a short tour of the island before letting you run free.

Each party gets their own private little hut for the day to store items or to get out of the sun if need be.

There is a bar/kitchen area where they have free coffee/tea/water for everyone (no booze though, you have to bring your own), and they supply you with lunch.

And then there are really cool little sitting areas everywhere with hand-made furniture out of various pieces of driftwood.

And then finally, the island is surrounded by rich reefs that are densely populated with a huge variety of different fish, rays, eels, sharks. It's like being in a natural aquarium. They have a huge network of ropes that float along the surface, so you can pull yourself along and not have to swim against the current (the current is rather strong here). If snorkelling is not your thing, they also have free kayaks for your use.

And now for the snorkelling, there was this one ray that was almost like a pet to them.

He would swim right up to you, climb up on you, and allow you to pet him.

And here he is petting me.

There were huge schools of fish everywhere, surrounding you.

And the odd isolated unique looking fish.

And of course, my favourite, sharks. 

It started with just one shark hanging around, but by the end we had dozens swimming around us.

I even got to pet an Eel.

The crazy guy who worked there would hang on to the sting ray who would propel him around the reef. Unbelievable.

It was like God's aquarium in there.

We had a short break where they showed us different types of starfish. This one is really good for the reefs, eats all the junk off the ground. It is called a 'shark's pillow'.

This next one is bad as it eats the reef itself. It is also highly poisonous.

He kept wanting me to touch everything.

And just when you thought all the fun was over and you were being shuttled back, they bust out the body-boards.

And this was all for just $25.00 per person!! They could have been charging $100 a head for the experience. Saying it is a good-value excursion is a grotesque understatement. I could not recommend it enough to anyone visiting Moorea!

We also were treated to an amazing panoramic viewpoint on the way back. This is a view of the east side of the island.

Moorea: Day 8 - Belvedere Lookout

Monday, June 3, 2013

We rented a car today and tried finding a good snorkelling spot today. The spot we found ended up being pretty crappy. I saw just one ray the whole time, and a few unimpressive fish here and there.

The spot was beautiful though, so we rented some kayaks and just paddled around.

The current was really strong that day, so getting back took some serious work.

We decided to drive up to the Belvedere lookout before heading back and were glad we did. The view was amazing of the two bays and the sacred Mt. Rotui separating them.

Moorea: Day 7 - Church

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Today was pretty uneventful. We spent the morning running the water maker to fill our tanks and drinking water. Then we went to see the little church of St. Joseph they have here after hearing people singing their little hearts out from it all morning.

That's pretty much it, haha.

Moorea: Day 6 - Riddles in the dark

Saturday, June 1, 2013

I was woken last night to some massive hairy insect crawling up my leg at around 2am. I swatted it off and flicked on the lights to see what the **** it was. There was nothing in sight when the lights came on, so I jumped out of bed to get a different view point of my bed, which was about to become a battleground. After illuminating any dark corners with my flashlight, I finally came across it. The biggest, most disgusting brown cockroach I have ever seen hiding alongside my backpack. His feelers/ticklers were a good 4 inches long (which is probably the 'hairy' feeling I felt on my leg).

Now the last thing I wanted was to screw this up and have him escape into hiding somewhere in the cabin only to attack again at a later date (and to void me of any sleep until then). There was no question about it, I had to kill him. I looked around to find a suitable weapon, but could not find any rocket launchers, flamethrowers or nukes. So, I just grabbed the thickest shirt I had and lunged at him. I missed on the first attempt and he scurried off across my now bare bed at an incredible pace. I knew this was my only moment. This moment is what Eminem raps about. I took one final lunge at the little bastard and caught him firmly in the shirt with my right hand. I was not going to make the mistake of squeezing too light and have him scurry up my arm and into my shirt and then into my soul, so I squeezed as hard as I possibly could and held it.

I remember hearing about how cockroaches are nearly invincible and can withstand great amounts of crushing force (among other things). So I stood there for awhile, maintaining maximum squeeze, trying to think what would slay this demon for good. Fire? No...too risky. Could I drown him? No...what if he got away... I decided to release my grip only slightly to see what condition he was in. He was still moving his thick, spikey, disgusting legs. I reacted in the only way I knew how. I grabbed his head with my other arm, ripped it off, then ran up to the cockpit and threw both pieces overboard, sending him back to the hell from which he came.

How long has he been living in my cabin? Has he been venturing on my bed nightly and this is just the first time I noticed? Has he been on my face?!

Moorea: Day 5 - Our boat's a dragon!

Friday, May 31, 2013

My night in charge of the boat went well, not a single problem. I picked Gary and Jan up at the crack of noon at the U. Berkley dock. It was supposed to be a quick 15 minute dinghy ride to get them and then back to the boat. We ended up stopping at this American boat that newly anchored in the bay to say hi. They invited us aboard, gave us rum, and invited us below into their air-conditioned cabin to chat. They were great people and are on their 5th circumnavigation of the globe (unbelievable!). We stayed down there talking for an hour before going topside again to head back to our boat. We noticed the anchorage looked different, every boat was located in a different spot relative to ours since we went below. This was really confusing...

We stopped by Offshore on the way back, an Australian family that we befriended in Tahiti, to say hi again. The Captain, Will, kept joking about our boat dragging in the last hour and how he and Mike (another friend from a power boat) rescued it from sliding into the reef. The Australian accent always sounds sarcastic, so we kept taking it as a joke. Then he started joking about this gorgeous brunette who dove in the water from shore when she saw the boat dragging, power-swam to it like a super-hero, and then supposedly was asking for me by name on the boat. Again, we took it as a joke. I haven't really met anyone here in Moorea. After Will repeated it a few times, we finally caught on that our boat actually did drag and that he and Mike did have to save it from hitting the reef. 

We thanked him, then booted over to Mike's boat to thank him and his wife Lynne as well. But then they started going on about this beautiful brunette who hero-swam to the boat to save it and knew who I was and met me in Galapagos. They thought she was French, which made the whole thing even more mysterious, because I haven't really met any French people on this whole trip let alone Galapagos.

I'm racking my brain trying to figure out who this Wonder Woman is, until we finally get back to the boat to find a note from Angie (a good friend that Minnie and I met and hung out with in Galapagos) that she was on the island and wanted to say hi. (Angie is blonde and not French, which is why I never thought it was her). Oh, and she wrote the note before swimming and kept it dry in her mouth while swimming over. What a hero!

What are the odds the anchor would drag and all this happen in the hour we were below deck on that other boat and finish before we came topside again?  After I spent the entire night before babysitting and watching for an anchor drag? What are the odds Angie would be on that exact shore and then swimming to the boat as it started to drag? What a strange day of coincidences!

Moorea: Day 4 - Pearl Necklace

Thursday, May 30, 2013

We went to one of the pearl shops today. Jan is looking to buy an authentic Tahitian black pearl. I can understand the allure, but it's hard to get past the fact that they are grossly over-priced. The romantic-mystique is somewhat lost when you learn that they are not native to this area and are farmed. It isn't some native in a loin cloth that dives down on naturally occurring clams and fishes them out. They insert little rounded balls of clam guts into living black-lipped clams that are set up in a huge farm, which grow to your black pearls over a two year period. They have HUGE supplies for these and yet they sell for hundreds or thousands each (depending on quality). It's hard to find value in something that local kids are playing marbles with in the school yard (note: this doesn't actually happen).

The salesman was a good guy though, not at all pushy like Canadian jewellers. He gave us the whole story on the pearls.

Gary and I spent the time looking at the cool artifacts and decorations they had in the shop. Like this huge blowfish.

And this shrunken shark head.

This is Jacko, the pearl shop guard dog, on duty. (His name is not actually Jacko. I don't know his name, nor if he works there.)

We went for lunch after to this nice new little beach-side restaurant called Moorea Beach Café. It was pricey, but the food was amazing, and so was the view.

Gary and Jan are spending the night tonight at one of those 'over-the-water' bungalows. I am in charge of the boat for the night and am really hoping that I don't have to repel pirates and the anchor doesn't drag on me.