4th February 2008 Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands, French Polynesia
We chose again to take the cat to Mo'orea as we had such an excellent day walking the jungle on our first visit, but determined we would not repeat that exercise. Having had such a good time renting a car on Bonaire we decided this was the most cost-effective way to do Mo'orea; so we took a small motor for £60 for the day. A good decision.
Mo'orea, along with Bora Bora, is the jewel in the crown of French Polynesia - at least in terms of intrinsic beauty, classy resort hotels and excellent beaches. After the usual efficient 30 minute crossing on the cat - amazingly which no fellow MSVG passengers took - Mr. Europcar supplied us with a nice little air-conditioned Fiat and good advice on where to go around the island. We first went to an excellent local beach between the ferry port and the aerodrome where we swam in sight of the classy Sofitel resort for nearly an hour in beautiful warm clear seas with only a handful of other tourists. In fact, there were more locals manicuring the beach than punters. Next, we motored around the north of the island to the first of two fantastic indented bays the first known as Baie Cook - but not where the famous man anchored. We had seen this from the mountain track on the first of our visits but it was better close up. After a couple of short stops including a local museum (one room 10x12 and £2 for entry) we approached the second of the super indented bays, Baie Opunohu where we stopped for a second swim for half an hour or so. This time, there were only a couple of other tourists swimming in the sea with us which was, naturally, crystalline. This was where the aforesaid Captain Cook actually stopped over.
From the internal end of this bay we took off inland for the Belvedere which, apparently, was located on the jungle path we had followed on our first visit a couple of months previously. It was - but maybe a mile or so further on than we had managed to walk - but offered stupendous views of both bays and the intervening volcanic peaks. These peaks - and the freestanding individual peaks are known as aiguilles (needles) - constitute the defining beauty of Mo'orea. It is not particularly large, but the internal areas - three or four valleys excepted - is wild jungle with volcanic peaks whilst the outside is smart small settlements with a regular sprinkling of 5 star resort hotels. Since returning to the boat from this stop M has been playing with her photo software and has constructed a panorama of the view from the Belvedere using 5 separate photos (see pics).
We returned to the bay and moved to the northern end where Kevin - the guy who rented the car (not very Tahitian is it) - recommended we visit the 'juice factory'. As his earlier calls on the beaches and Belvedere were good we took him up on this. We were the only visitors along with a half dozen or so folk in a tour from Los Angeles. We were treated to a tasting of 5 local liqueurs ranging from 9% to 20% which was bad news for D who was driving but fine for M who fully enjoyed. We bought three postcards (75p each) to ease our consciences before moving on.
We then came to the busiest beach area with a half dozen or so flash hotels but moved on past there to a quieter village a few kilometres further on where we took lunch at a roadside burger bar. The American that served us, who turned out to be half Greek/half French (spent time in Hawaii), said he couldn't serve us a cold beer but advised we could get one from the supermarket 100 metres away. We duly had two excellent 'real' burgers and two ice-cold half litres of local beer from the supermarche for £14 which I can say without fear of contradiction was the bargain in Polynesia. Very few Brits could afford to holiday here.
