Days 48-50: Papeete and Moorea, Tahiti

Woman looking to the heavens

This is a place that I have been wanting to visit for most of my adult life, so I am happy to report that it did not disappoint! We had 2 days in Papeete, and a day in Moorea, which was a tender port, so getting off would be slow. We opted to exit the cruise for a night and book a hotel in Moorea so that we could book some SCUBA diving. We had to deal with Tahiti immigration, but it was pretty painless in hindsight.

We decided to take the ferry to Moorea for the day and hang on a public beach for our first day in Tahiti. The ferry’s leave about every hour, and it was a pleasant ride across the channel to Moorea. When we arrived, we dillydallied and went to grab a taxi, but they were all gone, with about 30 people waiting for one. Jessica managed to get a local guy who was dropping off his daughter to give us a ride to the beach. He was an American guy who had been in Moorea for 33 years and was a gem of a guy, showing us sights and taking us right to a nice spot. We entered the lagoon, which was like a bath with the most beautiful color. We spent a couple of hours and made our way down to the Sofitel hotel for drinks and snacks on the beach. Incredible!

As we made it back to Papeete, and were walking toward the ship, we ran into friends who were all dressed up and convinced us to join them. I felt a bit grubby but we jumped in the cab with them and ended up at a restaurant that was supposed to have a Polynesian show. Turns out the show was on Saturday and we were there on Friday. Oops. The place had live music so we danced some, and ate dinner before returning back to our hotel room on the ship.

On our second day in Papeete, we booked a SCUBA dive. Jessica recently got certified but I probably haven’t dove dice before Covid? I honestly don’t remember. Anyhow, they put us on a boat with another couple from Denver area and a woman who recently moved to Reno from Denver. The operation was most definitely French, everyone takes their time and smoke like chimneys. We dove a Coral wall, which was interesting. Fun to see a lot of the fish that I used to keep in my aquarium days! We had to cancel our 2nd dive because we were worried about missing the ferry, but we made it in time, and were sure to be first off the ferry and first to the taxi line to get a lift to our hotel. I thought it would be nice, but wow, it was fantastic!

We booked an overwater bungalow as a late valentine’s treat, and chose the hotel because of the dive shop where we booked SCUBA. Apparently this hotel was developed by the Bali Hai boys, from Newport Beach, who invented the concept of the overwater bungalow. Too bad they didn’t patent it! We loved the glass floor where you can see the fish below, and when you turned on the porch light at night, it also lit up the bottom of the bungalow. It was really comfortable and I enjoyed a Cuban cigar on the deck. It also has a swim platform for direct access to the lagoon. They also had a Polynesian dance show!

Sometimes when you sit in the front row, you get called up to be made a spectacle of!

The 2 dives we did on Moorea were one shark dive with the gentle Lemon Sharks, and another with the turtles.

Jessica was really nervous about the sharks, and let everyone know her fears. The dive master says that the sharks just chill out on the bottom and are really docile. Imagine our surprise when we arrived at the first spot and the sharks are circling the boat! The dive master says that never happens. Well I have to give Jessica credit for not completely freaking out and staying in the boat. She completed the dive and actually enjoyed it! We saw black tip and lemon sharks.

Our 2nd dive was near where the ship was anchored and was a dive with turtles. We had seen quite a few turtles the day before, but they were pretty shy. We saw a lot of turtles and a shark, which was rare, but near the end of the dive, Lenny, our dive master, was picking seaweed from the reef and the turtles would come right up and take it from his hand! There were a bunch of turtles swimming around us inches from us. I’ve never experienced anything quite like that!

After the diving, we savored the hotel property and grabbed lunch next door at a local beach bar. The heat of the day really took it out of us and we called a taxi to take us to the tender port, re-boarded the ship.

It was a perfect day in paradise!

After diving