Next stop on our two day Tahitian tour was Moorea, this island is located less than 10 nautical miles away from Papeete and separated by the Moorea Channel. It is also one of our few tender ports, which made getting off the ship interesting.

The island itself is looks like a triangle, with two sides being quite mountainous and the third side being flatter and having two bays cut into it . From the air, it is said that this green island looks like it is floating over a tranquil blue sea.

Unlike Papeete, which is considered the 'modern' island, Moorea has a laid back feel. Covered in lush rainforest, framed by its jagged mountains and surrounded by white sand beaches, it was the site for some of the filming of Bali Hai parts of the movie South Pacific.

This was another place Mum had been to and with our need to see some fish, we decided a snorkelling trip was required. We had signed up to do one of the ships tours and after meeting in the theatre and waiting for about an hour (one of the tenders was having problems, so there was a delay in getting people off the ship) we were on our way to the dock to join our snorkelling boat.

Our first water based stop was only a 10 minute ride away. In the lagoon near the Intercontinental Hotel, there are several resident stingrays and reef sharks that come on to a sand bank and swim around people . Now the Intercontinental is your typical Tahitian hotel, that is it has several bungalows that sit over the crystal blue waters of the lagoon. Unfortunately for the inhabitants, they are located next to a channel that is used by several boats throughout the day.

But back to the sharks and stingrays. When we arrived at the spot, it was very obvious that both animals were in the area. Several reef sharks were sighted swimming around the boat and several people expressed concerns about getting in the water – this I found interesting as the tour description clearly said that there would be an opportunity to swim with sharks and stingrays, I’m not sure that they realised the sharks would be 1.5m in length and look like sharks.

Surprisingly there are few rules for swimming with these animals – If you want to pat a stingray, do it on the top of their body and don’t pat the sharks. After taking a couple of photo’s from the boat, it was time to grab our masks, the underwater casing for my camera and hop in the water .

Since the animals were very likely conditioned to put boats together with food, there were quite a few swimming around checking us out. I decided that I didn’t really need/want to feed a stingray and instead walked away from the group to try to get some photos without peoples legs in them. I was successful, in fact I was so focussed on taking a couple of my photos, that I didn’t see the three reef sharks slowly swimming towards me. When I did notice them, they were much closer than I was expecting and I must admit I did let out a little ‘OMG! Sharks’ squeak before returning to my photo taking.

Once everyone was back on the boat we headed to our next spot for a little bit of snorkelling in another lagoon. While there were quite a few fish swimming around, the coral reef itself was looking a little stressed. A few of the bommies were covered in algae and a couple were very much dead. There were quite a few Picasso Triggerfish hanging around, which is unsurprising as the bottom was quite sandy . Thankfully they didn’t seem to be in nesting mode as they all seemed to keep their triggers down as I swam past.

Snorkelled out and getting a little bit pruney, we got back on the boat and made quick moves back to the dock. A quick costume change in the local bathrooms and I was ready to face the rest of the day in dry clothes.

The next adventure was finding lunch. While there were some food stalls at the pier side markets, the food didn’t really appeal to us. We eventually found a taxi that would drive us to a nearby resort where we could swim and eat for the rest of the afternoon.

While not one of the spiffier resorts, the place we went to was perfectly acceptable, in fact it was a place I wouldn’t mind staying at. It had everything you need – beach side bungalow, pool, beach, lagoon, food.

By now we were quite hungry and headed straight to the beach side café . Being in French Polynesia, we were hoping to have some local food. I opted for a chicken baguette, Mum had a seafood and fruit salad and we shared some garlic bread. While my baguette was lovely, the winner for presentation was Mum’s salad. It was presented in bowl that was half a carved out pineapple (oh la la). The garlic bread was memorable and I’m surprised they let us back on the ship. Not only was it buttery, it also had chunks of garlic all over it. Very delish but very pungent, I could smell Mums breath from across the table! Our meal was finished off with a cocktail for Mum and a banana smoothie for me.

Fed, water and thankful lunch only cost us each a couple of fingers instead of an arm or a leg, we headed back to the pier to check out the markets.

Checking our the markets could have been dangerous as most stalls were selling Tahitian Black Saltwater Pearls – by law the only pearls that can be sold in Tahiti are saltwater pearls and back home they are mucho expensive . We both showed restraint, I made it through the market only picking up a pair of pearl earrings and a single pearl necklace. Quite good I think, some people departed with multiple purchases and I think there may have been some discussions about spending habits later in the evening.

Having exhausted our time onshore, we got a tender back to the ship and prepared for say goodbye to Tahiti.

On the sail out through the channel, we were lucky enough to see a whale doing whale things. It had been hanging around that particular area all day and there were three theories as to why it as there – It was sick, it was dead (unlikely as it was moving around) or it was having a calf (the area is a popular birthing area). The conclusion we all came to was that it was probably calving.

Fun fact:
French Polynesia comprises 130 islands.