Chasing Summer –

December 27-29th

Mo’orea is another tender port, with a very dramatic landscape of pointy-tipped ridged mountains. It takes about 15minutes to get from ship to shore. One advantage of these types of docks is that the waters are cleaner close to shore. When we dock in container ports or busy ship ports, the water is not as clean, and I have to go further to get into the water. No ocean water is perfectly clean. I just need to look at my off colored swim shirt that started off as white. But less boat traffic means it’s as good as it can get.

From where we docked, there are two public beaches that are equally distant in either direction. The one on the east is a long white sand beach that is better for snorkelling but has a harder current. The one on the bay west of us is smaller but better for swimming and families. They are a 2-hour walk or a 10-minute taxi ride. Taxi meters cost about 2200-2500 XPF.

I fully intended to go to Te’mae, the snorkelling beach, but ended up joining a taxi with others heading to Ta’ahiamanu. It was lovely anyway, with bathrooms, showers to rinse off the salt water, palm trees, and close access to restaurants.

Personally, I am not much of a beach hangout gal. I don’t like sand and tend to burn easily, but slap on a face mask and flippers, and I’m good for a couple hours of chasing fish around the water. This beach had a lot of fish just off the shore. First thing was pretty cloudy water, but as the stormy skies went away, things got much clearer in the water.

I went on another snorkelling tour to swim with sharks, sting rays, and a coral garden, and I really noticed a rivalry between Bora Bora and Mo’orea. When we were in Bora Bora, we were told not to bother snorkelling in Mo’orea because it wasn’t worth it. On the tour in Mo’orea, they trash-talked Bora Bora. It is kinda funny.

My honest opinion, considering both days were overcast and we did similar activities, is that Bora Bora was overall better because of the animals, but my friend who did both disagrees with me. In Bora Bora, there were more stops and travelling time from site to site, which is a negative, but we saw more rays, including eagle and manta that I had never seen before. There were more sharks at the shark swim in Bora Bora, and I felt the coral gardens were better. The Mo’orea tour did allow us more time at the two main stops. The sting rays were more plentiful, and I got to touch and kiss one. The coral garden was still nice, and the tour operators themselves were more personable. The second boat all had hats woven for them, but my boat only had two hats, so the other guide was even better than mine. Lunch was the same, but the demonstrations included a ceviche making, medicinal plants, and sarong tying in Mo’orea. Mo’orea was also about $70 more for the same time on tour.

We started by heading out to a sandbar where black-tipped reef sharks and sting rays hangout. It was a larger sandbar than the one in Bora Bora, but also had way more tours and people who came out on jet skis, kayaks, and small boats. The water was pretty clear as long as I stayed away from the kicking feet of others.

There were a few sharks and stingrays that tended to travel together in loops around the legs in the water. People used to feed the stingrays, which caused a problem of overly friendly stingrays, so there is now a regulation against it. The fine is quite stiff if you are caught, but that didn’t stop one individual operator from holding some squid in one hand to get a stingray to stay near him so people could touch it. I even gave it a kiss, but no picture because my friend didn’t get the shots even though he tried.

The water didn’t seem quite as warm, and without the sun, I was actually shivering by the end of the swim. I’ve turned into a heat wimp.

We headed off to the coral garden not too far away. This is an area between two islands that are close together, where pockets of dense coral have been propagated and restored. It tends to be shallow, and a current runs through it, so I need to pay attention to any sharp-edged coral.

Here, many fish dart in and out of the coral, and snorkelling is a delight. As a warning, a person from another cruise ship was found floating dead the day before, so a swim buddy is a safety feature that should be used.

After 45 minutes floating around, we went around the bend to our lunch destination. Several tour companies have outhouses and small huts set up for their demonstration and an eating area. All food and drink are brought to the island in coolers, as there are no permanent residences or facilities here.

Our land experience started with husking and shredding the coconuts that we had picked up from the sea to make fresh tuna ceviche. There was some BBQ chicken, fish, rice, and veggies to round out the lunch.

After lunch, our guide and his partner from the other boat demonstrated how to weave a hat from palm leaves, five local plants for holistic healing, and how to tie a sarong three ways.

After two days of snorkelling and spending too much money on tour two, I was pretty chill on day three. The local juice and distillery free taste testing was more my speed on day three.

For fun, the crew of the Odyssey created a video of predictions for next year. They are hilarious and show why we love our crew so much.