Over the seas to Moorea

Wednesday was relocation day. Our shuttle to the 3 times daily catamaran that travels regularly between Tahiti and Moorea was at 11am. While waiting in the lobby there was an interesting sculpture, done by school children, of a whale with plastic bottles in its tummy. Not surprising as we have had plastic bottles of water pressed on to us on many occasions

When we got to Moorea we had a private transfer to the Intercontinental. The lovely (french) Morgane greeted us, and told us our room was not quite ready, so we headed to the poolside bar for a small snack and a drink.

Yes, Duncan really enjoyed the full strength beer, while I had a Panache

 Once we got to our bungalow, I had to ponder on the artwork for a while - but Duncan wasn't worried at all!

 The whole complex is lovely,and we get settled in, stock up the fridge, and book some tours. Our bungalow has a bedroom, bathroom, lounge, deck and small infinity pool. When I hop in it makes quite a wave over the edge!!

Next morning it is off  on our Adventure tour. We are picked up by an old jeep to explore the volcanic landscape.

I wailed -"my seat belt doesn't fit"- we were sitting in the canopied tray of  the jeep. "I will drive carefully" said our guide. But I was really worried about the state of the road - basically a concrete track. We went up and up and up. Finally we turned around and backed up and up. and More finally we got out and hoisted ourselves up a path with a rope to hold onto.

Backing up

 Now we were on top of the cone. Quite a bit of the walls of the cone have eroded, but in other parts there is still a large section of the volcanic wall.

The view out over the coral reef was magnificent.

Some of the eroded part

 Then we drove down into the cone where pineapple plantations had been established.

 The Polynesians could not see the benefit  of tending a plantation of pineapples so Chinese labourers were imported - now the Chinese are big in terms of commerce. After visiting the plantation we went to a pineapple distilling factory which sold a lot of cocktails in tetrapak form. We weren't tempted to get any.

 Some people (mainly half our age) had opted to explore on 4 wheel bikes

 Being a Volcano in the middle of the sea virtually all animals are introduced except for seabirds and marine mammals. The habitat is overrun by hens and roosters.

This is our mode of transport.

 Then we went to the remnants of a marae where manlihood was measured in terms of your archery prowess.

This is the remains of the marae area where the competitions were held. When Christians came they demanded that all the Marae areas be destroyed as the polynesians did have there own Gods.

 Next it was off to visit a vanilla plantation. I got some vanilla and pineapple concoction to put on our french bread at lunch times.

Vanilla Pods just before harvest and drying.

Being August the first - the day we met 49 years ago we went to the posh restaurant. It was appalling. My meat was not properly prepared so it had a tough skin around it. I couldn't cut it let alone eat it. We had wine by the glass - and Duncan's was corked. They offered us 10% off the bill, but it was our only bad experience in the trip.