Moorea
Yosemite National Park from 38,000 feet
Our trip to French Polynesia actually started in Baltimore. In February, Sandy and I were there for Mickey and Allie's "surprise" wedding. We had a free afternoon so we went to the Inner Harbor with my brother Mike and his wife Kathy. After touring the (very crowded) National Aquarium, we had a long, leisurely lunch at Phillips Seafood.
Since I don't see my brother very often we used the time to catch up. In the process, we talked about tropical trips that we had done lately. I was telling about
Pool area at the Hilton Papeete
Since my sister Diane was also at the wedding, that evening we invited her and her husband Dave to join us on the trip. She thought about it for about a nanosecond and said they were in. Later we also called to invite my sister Lorri but her and her husband weren't able to join. Still, with three out of four siblings, we had a fun family reunion group for out trip. Since we are scattered all over the country we don't get together very often.
We picked Moorea as a destination because Sandy and I had been there several times and knew what to expect. Now that I had told my siblings how great French Polynesia was and talked them into a trip, I didn't want them to be disappointed. I figured everything out with Costco travel and Air Tahiti Nui. Then I sent them our itinerary and they just copied it. The plan was for us to fly down to LA and stay overnight near the airport. Next day we would fly to Tahiti and stay in Papeete for two nights. Then we would take the ferry to Moorea and stay there for five nights. Everyone got their travel booked and we were all set many months in advance.
Papeete market - how did I get stuck paying?
Or so I thought. A few months later, Air Tahiti Nui cancelled the flight that we were on. I spent a whole weekend on the phone with the airline and my siblings till everyone was transferred to another flight. It was quite a panic but eventually everything was worked out. Although I was excited about the trip, I vowed that in the future I would not volunteer to be the travel coordinator for a family trip.
The day for the trip finally came. On the flight to LA, the weather was perfect and I had a beautiful view from my window seat as we flew right over Yosemite National Park. I could clearly see all of the familiar landmarks around Yosemite Valley: El Capitan, Half Dome, North Dome, Glacier Point and Clouds Rest. Many of the places that I had been to in the park looked quite different from 38,000 feet.
We all met at the hotel in LA and had a nice dinner there that evening. There was no hurry the next day. We had quite a bit of time to kill as our new flight didn't leave till after 5 pm. There were no problems. Just a long wait in the airport and then a long flight and late arrival in Papeete. Fortunately the time change worked in our favor so we were at the hotel and settled into our rooms before midnight. Lieske's are all night people anyway.
No one goes to French Polynesia to stay on Tahiti. It's the largest and most populated of the Society Islands. That's where the international airport is, so you have to fly into Papeete, the largest city and main port of the islands. Since the flights usually arrive late at night you have to stay over at least one night. Then people usually travel to another, more remote island.
Steve, Diane and Dave in the cabana
On this trip we opted for two nights at the Hilton Hotel Tahiti. It's a large, four storey hotel. It's right on the ocean but there isn't a beach or good access to the water. It does have an impressive pool area with a view of Moorea. Unfortunately to the side you can also see the commercial harbor of Papeete. It's right in town. In fact, there's a shopping mall across the street. Not exactly remote but at least it was convenient for picking up some snacks for the day that we traveled to Moorea. Overall the Hilton was a nice hotel but not really a destination for a weeks vacation. I proposed the stay there as a relaxing day to get us into island time while the view of Moorea would get us excited about going there next. It was the appetizer before the main course.
After breakfast Sandy and I took a taxi into downtown Papeete. It's centered around the harbor so it's more commercial rather than touristy. It's not really all that interesting but it did have a market that we wanted to visit. Since it was Sunday it was only open for a few hours early in the morning, and some of the stalls didn't open at all. Still, there was some interesting stuff. We had a glass of fresh juice at a fruit stand. We also bought some bakery and fruit to take back to the hotel with us. Of course there were jewelry stands and Sandy found a nice gray pearl necklace with a set of matching earrings for a good price. Although it was short our visit to the market was a success and we were back to the hotel by late morning.
At the resort on Moorea and the sun has come out
The day was mostly cloudy which wasn't too surprising. We had planned the trip for the first week of November, which is the start of the rainy season. That means the hotel rates drop significantly. There is a a risk with the weather but on past trips we had still gotten quite a bit of sunshine in November.
Since the forecast for the day said there was a chance of rain we rented a cabana by the pool for the afternoon. There was plenty of room and all six of us could hang out there. We were sheltered when it sprinkled a time or two during the afternoon and we had drinks and snacks served to us without having to go get them. Very nice. Just how a tropical vacation should be. That evening we finished off our day in Tahiti with a good dinner at the hotel.
The next day our ferry wasn't until noon so we had a leisurly breakfast before checking out and getting our transfer to the ferry terminal. While waiting there the guy ahead of us in line was wearing an Idaho tshirt. It turned out he and his wife were from Boise. Small world.
The beach bungalows looked pretty cool too
It was another cloudy day and the ride over was rougher than usual. It's a big boat though, so it wasn't bad. About half way across it started to rain and when we arrived on Moorea it was pouring. Luggage is just brought off the boat on big carts which are left on the dock. Everyone just swarms over the carts trying to find their bags. Since there are hundreds of people on the ferry it's chaotic at best. Doing it in the rain was not fun at all. By the time I got on the bus that was taking us to the hotel, I was pretty well soaked. Good thing it's warm in the tropics.
When we got to the resort we repeated the "get your luggage in the rain" routine, but at least this time there were only a couple of people so it was pretty fast. We all got checked in but it turned out that there was a problem with our bungalow. At least the resort gave us a temporary room so we could change into dry clothes. Later that afternoon we did get into our bungalow so everything was ok, but it was worrisome for a while. We had dinner at the hotel since we didn't want to venture out and risk getting rained on again.
A rainbow after the stormy night
That night there was a storm with some strong winds. It made me wonder just how sturdy the overwater bungalows were. It would not be fun if it flew off its stilts in the middle of the night and landed in the lagoon. By this time I figured my siblings were wondering why I had thought this trip was a good idea. Fortunately the storm passed without incident. The next morning the sun came out and it turned out that we had beautiful weather for the rest of our time on Moorea. So all was good.
On Moorea we stayed at the Manava Beach Resort. It has about fifty units. They're a mix of garden, beach and overwater bungalows. They were about the size of an ordinary hotel room with an attached bath, and thankfully they had air conditioning. There was a good sized patio with two lounge chairs that looked out over the lagoon, with a ladder going down to a swim platform so that you could snorkel right from your bungalow. Mike and Kathy were right next door to us while Diane and Dave were at the far end.
Happy hour on our patio - good French wine
Our overwater bungalows were a short distance from the shore, perched right where the bottom dropped off from about five or six feet deep into deeper water, maybe sixty feet or more. There was a wooden walkway that extended over the shallows out to the bungalows and connected them all to the shore. The shallow area was partly sandy bottom but there was also a lot of coral. Just walking to and from the bungalows we could see a lot of colorful fish among the coral, and sometimes even bigger stuff like moray eels or rays. From our patios we could look over the dropoff into the deeper water of the lagoon. The water was extremely clear so we could see all the way to the bottom.
I saw more marine life just walking to and from the bungalow, or sitting on our patio, then I've seen on most of the dive trips that I've done. Looking over the dropoff, we saw sea turtles and sharks many times. Most of the sharks were black-tipped reef sharks, maybe three or four feet long, but several times BIG sharks swam by. I've seen lots of sharks while scuba diving and they never worried me, but when I was snorkeling from our bungalow and an eight footer cruised by about twenty feet below me I admit that it spooked me a little. After that I did most of my sea life observation from the patio. The view was just as good anyway and we all spent a lot of time just hanging out on the patio in our lounge chairs looking out at the ocean and the marine life. Or napping. Lots of napping.
An octopus out for an afternoon stroll
One day a pair of whales came into the lagoon, an adult and a juvenile. They came within a hundred feet of our huts and stayed around for about twenty minutes, mostly right at the surface. It was better than paying to take a boat for a whale watching tour.
Another day I was on the walkway when I spotted a really strange lump of coral. It almost looked like some kind of animal rather than just a coral outcrop. I watched for a while and suddenly it moved. Turns out it was an octopus. Then I spotted another one right next to it. That was really unusual. I have seen an octopus before on dives but they are very shy and you usually just glimpse a tentacle buried deep in a coral head. I've only seen them free swimming one or two times before. These guys hung around for about half an hour and were plainly visible the whole time. It was better than any sighting I ever made while diving. We had enough time to alert everyone so that they could all come out and see them before they eventually disappeared into the coral. It was quite a show and I was able to take a lot of photos and even a video or two.
Dinner at the Moorea Beach Cafe
Speaking of diving, I did do one dive. Dave was interested in trying scuba so he had done his certification in Northern Idaho just before the trip. Unfortunately he got some ear/sinus problems from the flight over. We waited a couple of days for his head to clear and we did manage to do one dive. It was just a shallow dive in the lagoon, twenty feet maximum depth, but at least he got to do one fun, warm water dive. He had more sinus problems afterwards so that was the only dive we did on this trip.
Moorea isn't nearly as heavily populated as Tahite but there was a tiny village just outside the resort. There was a small market about a ten minute walk away. I went there every day to get essential supplies: Diet Cokes, snacks, fruit, bread and wine. There were also a few small jewelry shops and Sandy found another nice pearl necklace in one of them. Of course there was a tshirt shop, so I was able to get a couple of Tahiti tshirts. Add the logo hoodie that I got from the dive shop and I had my shopping fix.
Sunset from MBC
Food was good on the trip. The resort had a nice buffet breakfast. That, and snacks from the market, usually held us until dinner time. The resort had a nice restaurant but we ate at the bar/casual restaurant insted a couple of nights. We also went out a few times. One night we ate at a small place across the street called the Manuia Grill. The place is so small it doesn't even have a website, but the food was very good. Our big excursion was to the Moorea Beach Cafe. Dave and I had seen it from the dive boat and it looked like a cool place right on the beach. The next day I walked down the road to find out exactly where it was. It was far enough that we decided to take a taxi, which had to shuttle us in two groups. When we got there, I recognized that Sandy and I had eaten there on our last trip to Moorea in 2018. They claimed to have good food and the best sunset views in Moorea. They weren't kidding and we had a great evening. Since it was our last evening on Moorea we celebrated my brother's birthday a day early. The only way it could have been better is if they had a logo tshirt I could have bought.
Last view of Moorea from the ferry
Most of our time on Moorea was unstructured. Sandy and I spent lots of time with my siblings but were also on our own sometimes. Other than the one dive we didn't really do any activities. We took walks. Snorkeled in the lagoon. Sat on the patio and enjoyed the view. A very relaxed and excellent trip. All of my siblings agreed with us after our time there that French Polynesia is an awesome place.
It was time to head back too soon. After checking out we hung around the lobby waiting for a late afternoon transfer to the ferry dock. The resort was nice and let us use their transit room just before we left to shower and change for travel.
The ferry ride back to Tahiti provided better views now that the weather was good. Then we had our usual long wait at the Papeete airport for our flight. The high point was dinner at McDonalds. The flights to the US always leave about midnight and get into LA the next morning. As usual I didn't sleep much. Everyone made it home without incident.
Another wonderful trip.
