On day two, we
took the ferry to Moorea - meaning 'Yellow Lizard'. Moorea is less
one hour from Tahiti by Ferry. Approximately 12,000 call Moorea home. Many people commute by plane (10 minute trip) or ferry to work on Tahiti. It offers
spectacular bays and white sand beaches!
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| Ferry to Moorea |
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| Mt. Rotui |
We rented a car
for the day. With it being Sunday, the juice factory was closed. We walked
around the Moorea Beachcomber, sister resort to where we were staying (we
thought the Tahiti resort was a bit nicer) and drove up to the Belvedere Lookout – what a beautiful panoramic view!
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| Intercontinental in Moorea |
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| Beer of Tahiti |
In Painapo, we went to The Other Place (http://www.painapo.com/painapo_restaurant.html) and had their
Tahitian feast. It was off the side of
the road (easily spotted by the gigantic warrior statue on one knee), and they put on a great Sunday brunch show! It is known well to the locals. Be sure to stop by on Sunday and take
advantage of the Ahima’a (underground) meal.
We had chicken, pork, fish, cabbage, veggies, breadfruit, fresh fruit,
coconut milk, and many Hinanos! We also
snorkeled right there off the beach.
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Cooking the entire meal Ahima'a (underground)
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| This 80 year old man did a coconut demonstration, then climbed the palm tree BAREFOOT |
The Roulettes
were a perfect choice for dinner that night, and very affordable. A roulettes are food trucks and all the locals
eat at them! If you want to blend in
with the locals and enjoy a great, inexpensive meal, try a roulette! We had pizza, salad, and the best homemade
crepes! That evening, we met our Cruise
Critic friends in the Tiki Bar at ICB – they were a great group of people!!! It was or first experience using Cruise
Critic. Since then, we always join the
forum/boards for our particular cruise.
We have met so many great people!
You can also get great tips, ask questions and research ports and things
to do. Visit http://www.cruisecritic.com/ , create a user
name and password, then click on Boards!
Since we had already been to Moorea, we decided to do a two tank dive.
It was arranged by the ship with Bathy’s Club Moorea (now called Topdive, http://www.topdive.com/moorea-diving.html). We were not overly
impressed with the dive outfit. In between dives, we had to swap out our own
gear. Most dive outfits will to this for you. They
offered no snacks or water offered to us. At the end of the dives, we had to
clean out and return their gear. This is probably a petty complaint, but there
was no customer service at all. The dive itself was great! Black tip sharks
greeted the boat as we anchored at the Opunohu Canyon site. Both dives were
45-50 minutes each. The deepest dive was
75 feet. We saw rose coral, a huge lemon
shark, and 3 turtles. 
