Chilling out
Trip Start
Oct 11, 2009
1
47
57
Trip End
Mar 18, 2010
Where I stayed
Moorea, Society Islands, French Polynesia
Sunday, February 14, 2010
There is arguably more to see in the water than out on Moorea and we spent a delightful morning snorkelling with and feeding the rays. They are super tame and come and swim right up against you. Lots of black tipped reef sharks swimming around too. Far more amazing was diving and we did two spots - one at the entrance to the lagoon that goes into Cook's Bay. Two beautiful lemon sharks and pretty good fish life despite things still being very stirred up from the cyclone. The coral was badly badly damaged and will take some time to recover. The second spot was a grey shark cleaning station on the reef - the equivalent of shark dental floss using small fish. The sharks are so graceful and it was magical to be surrounded by upto twelve sharks swimming round - lots more black tipped reef sharks again too. They are shy rather than predatory... Two beautiful hawksbill turtles too, one of which swam right upto us, and some gorgeous schools of yellow snapper.
We did rent a car one afternoon and drive round the island - good views, strings of fish for sale and piles of fruit - there isn't a lot going on, although the fresh pineapple juice at the juicing factory is very good as is the sorbet at the agricultural school where many fruits are grown.
We spent our final afternoon in Tahiti doing a similar circumnavigation of Tahiti Nui - waterfalls, caves, botanical gardens and the like. It was good to see the Marquisan palm that had somehow passed us by on the islands themselves, as well as two forlorn Galapagos tortoises who struggled with the local vegetation in the botanical gardens.
