I woke up and went to the buffet this morning and got some cereal for breakfast.
I watched the sail into the island. I was hoping that the ship would dock near the ferry terminal, but it docked in a small bay in another part of the island. The ugly brown water is fresh water runoff from the rain that brought mud with it into the bay.
The trip to shore required a short tender in the life boats to a small pier which is used by the other cruise ships. More local musicians to welcome us to the island.
My first tour of the day was a 4×4 adventure. It was in a pickup truck that had a bench in the back and we had a total of 8 passengers in the vehicle, while it was more than the previous 4×4 tour it was still enough room.
The truck first took us up Magic Mountain. It was a very steep, bumpy road, but the view was spectacular. The bay was a bit brown due to the mud the rain swept into it.
The next stop was a pineapple farm. The trucks had to drive through a deep stream to get there.
Although I have been to Hawai’i a few times I never stopped at the Dole pineapple farm, so this is the first time I saw a live pineapple plant. The guides gave a very good explanation telling us that it takes about 18 months to get the first pineapple and then after the first one there are bunches growing that can be picked not too long after and after a few years you are picking pineapples nearly every day. After four years the soil needs to be turned and they have to start the process over again. They also mentioned that the government leases one acre to a family that lives on Moorea and that the family has to have lived on Moorea for at least five years, so it is not possible for families from Tahiti or other islands move to Moorea and immediately start farming pineapples.
The pineapple farms were inside the volcano, which offered some amazing views.
The next stop was the Belvedere lookout. It offered yet another spectacular view (and the road was passable by buses). Our guide must have stolen a pineapple from the farm as he cut one up and offered it to us. The pineapple was very delicious.
I took a picture of an avacado on a tree, it looks like a pear.
On the way down we stopped briefly at Marae Ti’i-rua. It was the most magnificent Marae yet. There was a bright green moss on the stones and it was well preserved. This was the only Marae that we stopped at despite several being in the area according to the map.
The next stop was an agriculture school which had a tasting of jams and was also selling ice cream. Everyone was more interested in the ice cream than the jams.
And of course we couldn’t finish the tour without a stop at a gift ship. I just took some pictures outside.
The next stop was a rum distillery. I tasted their alcoholic drink and it was okay, but nothing special that I couldn’t live without.
I managed to take a tender back to the ship and eat a very quick lunch in the buffet. I grabbed a slice of pizza, fries, papadam, beef and some roast pork.
The next tour was an island tour. The tour guide cleverly taped a map to the TV screens.
I took some pictures of the scenery from the bus.
The first stop was the Tiki Village. Unfortunately most of it was closed so they could install Christmas decorations. There was one building with reproductions of Paul Gaugin paintings. They did give us a glass of rum punch in the theater by the sea, but there were no performers. I was hoping to see something more than one small building that was a replica of the historic houses.
They did have the fire pit and one of the tour guides did talk a little about how they use it to cook on Sundays.
I took some pictures of a Catholic church and the mountains as we drove to the next stop. There were a couple of waterfalls visible on part of the mountain.
The next stop was probably the best, it was overlooking the lagoon and the Sofitel resort with the over the water bungalows. The water was perfectly turquoise.
More photos of the mountain as we drove along.
Here’s a marine biology museum we drove by for the second time, but didn’t get to see.
The bus then went up to the Belvedere lookout. I took a short video of the clouds moving across the mountain. It was not very busy now as it was getting close to dusk.
I took a few photos of the ship before I got on the tender to go back to the ship for the last time.
While on the tender I took a few more photos of Moorea.
I had dinner in the main dining room tonight. I had the coconut shrimp and Italian meatballs for my starter and sauteed chimichurri beef for my main.
I had a souffle for dessert. It was actually really good.
I spent a bit of time in the Irish pub and briefly stopped by the disco before calling it a night. There were quite a few people out since tomorrow is a sea day.
Today’s timeline:
