Moorea

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The next morning, we skipped breakfast and headed to the market in Papeete instead. We checked out of the hotel and headed down the mountain one last time. Papeete is the capital of Tahiti. Much like Hawaii, they pronounce all the vowels. So it's pronounced Papay-EETEE. The market there reminded me of a few others I've been to - some local fruits and vegetables, but mostly stuff for tourists. There may be sections that we missed that would have been more used by locals, but I didn't get the sense that this was set up for locals. It was just as well that we didn't spend much time, because we had a ferry to catch!

We stopped for a quick but nice bite to eat before heading to the ferry. It was so hot, at 1030am, and we hadn't acclimated yet, so we found the one tiny place there with AC for breakfast. It was perfect! We looked at some real estate flyers while we were there - $500k-1mil for a small single family house. Between the food/grocery prices and real estate, I think I see why it's not flooded with expats in retirement, despite being a beautiful location.

We had quite the trouble finding the ferry dock, and almost missed our ferry. There are 2 main ferry companies, but reservations are needed to bring a car on. We picked Teraveau because it was a little faster, though both are about the same. They don't include passage for the driver with payment for the car, which is so odd to me. So after paying for the car and two drivers, it was about $70 or so, one way. Jamison had the fun experience of trying to park the car on the ferry while I was getting our tickets from the window. I hear it was very exciting.

It was a pretty, quick, and relaxing ride over after the stress of almost missing the boat! We got to Moorea right after lunch time. Moorea is even smaller than Tahiti. About an hour 15min to drive all the way around. We first went to the hotel to drop stuff and get situated. There are only 2 or 3 resorts here, but we picked one for a little more pampered/relaxing stay. We chose the Sofitel, mostly because of location right on the best snorkel beach, and man was that a great choice!

Everything here is smaller, including the resorts. I was definitely picturing something much bigger, but it's made up of a bunch of separate huts. Some are right out over the water, but they were wayyyyy more expensive, and not available for the times that we are here. We picked the cheapest garden view room, which turned out to be the perfect option! And we can still see water. The room is so nice! It does have AC, but no matter how cold you have it, it never gets below maybe 70 or 75. It's not bad though, because you get used to the temp, and at least the AC takes out the humidity. I never really liked how in the US, the hotter it is outside, the more likely I'll need a sweater inside. It's wasteful and unnecessary. This island has it right. Want to go to the grocery store? You'll be very comfortable in shorts and a tank top. I'm gonna miss that when we leave.

The location of the resort is what's amazing, but I don't think there's a bad location here. This lagoon, however, is maybe the best here. Temae lagoon is where the resort is perched. There's plenty of public access if not staying here, but pretty amazing to wake up, walk a couple min, and wade right out into the best snorkeling of your life.

Much of the island has shallow lagoons with many different types of coral reefs all around. The water is so crystal clear and blue, you can see it all from a boat if you wanted. But the Snuba is the best. An upgraded version of snorkeling, Snuba has your whole face in the mask, and does a much better job of keeping water out of your face and mouth. And you're not sucking a tube the whole time. Remember after an hour of snorkeling how sore and gross your mouth gets? Not with Snuba. And it allowed us to stay out for 3-4 hours at a time. We even brought fins! But the blisters I got the first day kept me from using mine. I'm not sure why it happened either. I've worn them before, but this was rough. Maybe too loose? Too tight? Snorkeling became much more of a workout for me without fins, but at least Jamison got a nice snorkel cruise from his!

Our room was ready right away when we got to the hotel, and after dropping stuff, we changed and walked down to the beach. They have free snorkel set rental, along with free kayaks and paddle boards, though they're pretty restrictive about how far you can go in the kayak/paddle boards, and they're only for an hour.

We just waded out and watched the fish our first day. It was amazing! It felt like being inside a giant fish tank. Within a few feet of the shore we were already seeing gorgeous tropical fish. And there are dots of reef all along, with each one hosting a different population of fish. Those little dots seem like neighborhoods, and when you drop a shell down in their yard, they all come out and investigate. It's pretty funny.

The trigger fish can be aggressive when defending their territory, but we made it out unscathed. There was a couple we talked to, and she had a small chunk taken out of her leg for unknowingly getting too close to the nest.

When the sun started to set around 6, we headed off in search of dinner. The island is sprinkled with little food stands, so we just looked on Google for high ratings and picked one. But we started with a quick stop at the grocery store. Have I mentioned how expensive everything is? Holy cow, I don't know how locals can afford basic supplies here. We went to one of the major supermarkets and picked up a few staples: beer, wine, chips, pb&j, etc. They didn't really have cold cuts, and what they had was either spam-like or prosciutto-like, and INSANELY expensive. Eating and drinking at the resort isn't a great option either. $22 for a drink?! $40 for basic breakfast?! We were very happy with our pb&j lunches. That plus a block of swiss cheese, and we were set most days for 1 cheap and easy meal!

After the supermarket, we swung by Allo Pizza for dinner. Wow, great choice! Most places have some kind of fish burger, but it's like a big steak of fish, usually tuna, with some kind of sauce, and served on an awesome bun. It varied slightly from place to place, but that was a staple. Their pizza was also incredible. I never thought of putting chunks of fresh grilled tuna on a pizza, but it was perfect! And the sweet potato fries were some of the best I've ever had! So good that we went back a few nights later for a repeat.

And that closed out our first night on Moorea! We were so beat by the heat and swimming, that we were in bed by 10, maybe 9. Which is just as well because the next morning, like all mornings, we were woken up by one of the local wandering roosters at 6am. I think each of the roosters has a distinctive call, because we started being able to recognize which one was calling. In addition to the roosters, the island boasts hens and chicks, dogs, and a very few cats. And can't forget the geckos. And tons of bugs, though where we stayed it wasn't too much of a problem.

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Tuesday

The next day started in what would become our routine. Wake up early and leisurely wander down to the beach for some snorkeling until noon. The lagoon is so flat that we can really go very far and still have plenty to see, with it being staying very shallow. The surf actually breaks on the reef that far out. But everything in the lagoon is often very calm and still, no waves, just a little current. Our snorkeling took us nearly out to the surf. The coral gets so high in some places that you can't kayak or boat in that area. It's within inches of the surface in some areas, but I think the deepest part of the lagoon was maybe 10-15 feet. There are little paths that have been carved out by fresh water tributaries that keep the coral from growing in those areas, and that's where the boats can safely traverse.

On our swim out to the more dense reef area, we passed a turtle, a couple sting rays, and ended with some black tipped reef sharks! We learned later that they're pretty docile, but when you see 1, then 2, then 5 swimming around you, it doesn't feel that great. And with that we started back toward shore. But not before picking up a huge spider snail shell! Sadly, pictures are all we have, because when we got back to the beach, we realized the shell was inhabited. Whether by the snail or a hermit crab, we're not sure, because he never poked himself out far enough to tell. We did come across a lot of hermit crabs on the trip though, including some very cool looking ones on the reef. And we did find some empty shells, just nothing as cool as that giant one.

We actually stayed on the beach all day, eating pb&j wraps for lunch. It was a great day! For dinner, we found a new food stand to try. This one was called Nini's Burgers. While they do have cows here, not many, and it's certainly not the staple it is in American diets. We both got a fish burger, and again it was incredible!

When we got back, we went for a cool nighttime dip in the pool before heading in for the night. A solid island day!

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Wednesday

The day started like the others - rooster crows at 6am. This time I actually got up early and went for a run! Well, I attempted. I like having a good long without routine as part of vacation, but it's so darn humid and hot, even at 7am. So it was a very slow and meandering walk/run. And I was as drenched as if I'd gone swimming. I made it out to the lake, which was my goal, but it was a little underwhelming.

After that, we went back out for our usual morning snorkel. It's been a fun routine to start, and I could see how if we were here for an extended vacation, this could really become a habit. Though I think at some point we would just get bored. But I think it would take a while to get bored of such awesome stuff in the reef! You never know what you'll find in there.

Our goal for the day was to do a driving tour of the island. We started with a lunch at a nearby stand of, you guessed it, fish burgers. Les Colorees is another one of the many amazing tiny little spots that serves up amazing fish steak burgers. They also had some pretty awesome looking poke, but we had already ordered. It was possibly the hottest, most humid, least windy day, so sitting outside, even in the shade, was pretty rough. Made the beer taste great though!

After lunch, we headed to our first (and really only planned) stop, the Rotui juice factory. Rotui is the local household name for juice, and as I mentioned before, they really do make incredible pineapple juice. But it turns out, they also make a really tasty mixed drink, aptly named "Tahiti Drink". I'm not sure if you can find it anywhere else (I'm guessing not) but it tastes sort of like a tequila sunrise, if all the ingredients were fresh-squeezed juices with no added sugar. And it was only about $9 for the carton there! Even cheaper than grocery stores, and DEFINITELY cheaper than 1 Mai Tai at the resort, even on the discounted happy hour price of $10. The island grows tons of fruits, and the company contracts with 30+ local families to buy fruit for juice and rum. They also grow their own sugar cane on the island.

The factory is set right along Cook's Bay, which is named after the famous explorer Cook. Who apparently never went there, but the map maker thought that bay was a nicer spot to have his name than the place where he actually went, so now it's called Cook's Bay. From very nearby, there's a windy road that heads up into the mountains, but fortunately it's paved and not too steep. Our destination was the Belvedere Lookout.

We drove past a very small cow and horse farm on the way, and started snaking uphill. After many twists and turns, we made it to the top, and enjoyed the beautiful view of the North half of the island! The heat and humidity were pretty rough, which made our air conditioned car all the nicer when we got back in! The bugs weren't terrible up there, but there were a couple of trails that took off from the landing, which looked very shaded, and very likely infested with clouds of bugs. And like everywhere else, there were roosters and chickens! There must be little Easter eggs hidden all over the island.

On the drive back down, we stopped at a second little turnout, which took a little walking to get to. It was a red dirt road at that point, which reminded me a lot of Kaui. We are both very into pottery, and it prompted a discussion about whether you could use that clay to make bowls/pots. Jamison thinks yes! And how cool would that be. But instead of collecting clay for pottery, we just covered our sandals in it. It made for a nice excuse to stop at a little beach cut out on the way back to home base.

The drive around the island was mainly beautiful views and scenery. We didn't stop much, except for one more pop in to a different local grocery store, where we again were reminded of how much it must cost to live here. It turns out, this would be our last trip to the local grocery store. On our last night, we learned that EVERYTHING on the island closes at 7pm. Even gas stations. If they had just 1 place open after 7pm, I would think they'd be the most popular place on the island, even if only frequented by foreigners. As much as I loved the paradise island, that kind of complete unavailability would at some point drive me nuts.

We made one more stop at the Toatea Lookout, just past the hotel. It's a gorgeous view overlooking the hotel and our lagoon, and even got a nice rainbow for pictures! Before heading back, we decided to stop at the other highly rated pizza place on the island called Fenua Pizza. the owners were very a very nice French couple, but I unfortunately chose their "pizza of the day" with arugula and prosciutto, which was not our favorite.

We wrapped up with a deck of cards and a bottle of rose on our cute porch. The bugs weren't that bad, and it's great to watch the stars when there's so little ambient light. You don't realize how much the city lights around really blot out the majority of the stars. Even if you area somewhere dark, just being in driving-distance of towns with lights is enough to blot it out. Being on a tiny island over the ocean, where everyone goes to bed at 8pm, it was black enough to see everything! We had nice evening with wine, stars, and leftover pizza, even when we realized we were mysteriously 8 cards short of a full deck (not a euphemism). But ants are no joke here. We had the pizza in the box, sitting on the little table in front of us for probably about an hour. When we brought our leftovers back inside, it was TEEMING with ants, which I didn't realize until after the box had sat on our bed for a min and I started seeing them pouring out. Ho-ly-cow. Talk about heebie jeebies. At least they were tiny ones that don't bite, but man that was a lot of ants.

But all in all it was a great day with a great night to end it!

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Thursday

We started the day with a dolphin tour! We had a tip about an ex-pat American who went to Moorea in the 1980s for his PhD and never left, named Michael Poole. He married a Tahitian, and settled down. He still does work with dolphins, and currently hosts PhD students for their training. He also does dolphin tours on the side, which partially funds his research. The boat ride was very comfortable, with one other family from California. It was about 3 hours, with a stop to snorkel, where we saw a ton of turtles and a school of eagle rays, along with the awesome guide Raymana (not sure how he spells his name, but he goes by Mana). In another stop, at the well-known Sharks sandbank, we got off the boat into the chest-high crystal clear water, and stood/swam with the black-tipped reef sharks and rays! Some of the boats feed them, so they are always swarming around there. We were on an environmentally-responsible boat that actually slowed down and backed up to pick up floating plastic in the ocean, so we were definitely not feeding the sharks, which was perfectly fine with me!

The goal of the boat tour was to see dolphins, of which there are a couple large pods in the area. Though we didn't find them that day, we did see a lot of turtles, and I got to ask a lot of my burning Tahiti questions, like where does the trash go (they have a landfill, and recycle some stuff on the island, and burn the vegetation garbage); and where does the power come from (there's a power station, that he thinks runs on diesel); and where does the sewage go (the houses have septic with leach fields, though they have a new septic plant that was recently built as a tester to see if it could support a larger population). He also told us the story of a pod of dolphins that made it into a very small, but deep, lagoon, likely when running from a shark. They swam through a very tiny channel to get into the lagoon, but once inside the lagoon, they were trapped. Without a predator chasing them, they weren't motivated to cross through the tiny channel to get back out to open ocean. It was a problem because they need to feed at night on a very specific diet of fish and squid that live very deep, and are not inside the lagoon. After the first couple of dolphins died from hunger, the government asked Dr. Poole and his staff to help out. They enlisted some boats and set out with pots and pans and anything to make noise, and started creating enough commotion to chase the dolphins back out through the tiny channel. And it worked! They even made a children's book about it, called the Adventures of Riley, Dolphins in Danger. He said it's happened again since then, but this time they were prepared.

We thoroughly enjoyed the boat ride, and from there set off to lunch. We ended up going back towards our lagoon, and hit a little food truck that is set on the end of it, Roulette le spot. Jamison got Poke and I got a fish burger. You win some, you lose some. This one wasn't our favorite combinations of sauces. The local dogs that were hanging by our feet had a nice lunch though! And a nice bonus was that the truck had a soft-serve ice cream machine, so I got to finish off with an ice cream sundae! We were basically back at the hotel at that point, so we went back to change and gather gear, and went back out to our beach to relax for the afternoon. Our lunch was so big that we ended up staying on the beach right through dinner, and just relaxed at the resort for the rest of the night. Another great day in paradise!

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Friday

Our last full day started like the rest - up at 6am with the roosters. This time we went back to sleep and enjoyed a little more relaxing in the room. We had wanted to do a 4x4 tour, but the one that was recommended was booked (Yvette with Moorea VIP tours), and I have a suspicion that we saw the main part of the tour when we drove ourselves up Belvedere mountain. The other thing we really wanted to do was a night snorkeling tour, but he was also booked (Moorea Dark Waters). We were just remarking how lucky we got by going the week before a holiday - almost no kids at the resort! But apparently still busy enough that tours needed to be booked in advance.

A relaxing day on the beach and snorkeling was just fine with us! Great way to spend the last day. We grabbed our snorkel gear and set off for the farther out reef, and spent another 2-3 hours, easily! This time I got the pee scared out of me by a huge moray eel! I've never seen one in person, and holy cow they are huge, with big teeth, and very scary to turn to your left and see that lurking in a little reef cave and staring at you. I beelined it back towards Jamison, who was too far to hear me screaming under water. Next time we go, we need to find an underwater signaling technique to get each other's attention. I assume that exists?? By the time I led him back to where I was, very cautiously, I couldn't find it. We were out there a lot, but not long enough to memorize the reefs! We only had one point of reference - an oddly out-of-place tree that was underwater, leaning against the coral.

It was a long few hours of snorkeling, but that was the better part of the day! We relaxed on the beach until 6, when we tore ourselves away with what we thought was just enough time to change and get to the grocery store. We didn't yet know that ALL the stores and gas stations on the island close at 7pm, so it was a very firm deadline. So I have a confession to make: I have had hair extensions for the past couple of years. They are sewn in, are made of real hair, and blend perfectly with my regular hair to just make it look a little more full and long. However, this is when I learned that hair extensions (or maybe just having thick hair, which I don't normally?) and sea water don't mix. The previous days, it was a little hard to get out of the ponytail holder after being done with snorkeling, but it wasn't that bad, and I was able to get it un-knotted. I tried a braid one day and a bun the next. Both were still a little matted. So on Fri I just did a ponytail and tucked it up under the snuba mask. Well, apparently I did so much moving and shifting that I turned the entire ponytail, which was a combination of my very fine hair and the sewn in thicker extension hair, into one very thick/tight dreadlock on the back of my head. After working at it and getting nowhere for about a half hour, and losing track of time, we headed off to the store, me with a giant thick mat on the back of my head, and with no minutes to spare.

We got the store right at 7:02, and they were locked up tight. No bottle of wine for the night! Instead we went back to our favorite of the island, Allo Pizza and had a couple of bar-priced beers with dinner. It was great food again! But boy was it hot that night, with tons of bugs, which at that point I was worried would nest in my hair and I would bring them home. It was a quick meal, then back to the hotel, for me to have a mental breakdown about probably needing to cut all my hair off at the base of my scalp, and Jamison talking me off a ledge, while he diligently worked at it with fingernail clippers, and was able to get the extensions out. Ah the relief! Maybe this will be a good time to break my time-consuming habit of having extensions. It was certainly a new bonding experience for us, and one I hope to never have to repeat!

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Saturday

Our checkout was at 11am, and they normally could have offered us 4pm checkout (for a fee???) but they were fully booked, so we had to be out by 11. It was fine because we were planning to beach for the morning then use their shower rooms to get ready for our ferry at 4:40pm. After packing everything up and getting things staged in the car, we went down to the beach for our last half-day relaxing in the sun/shade. We successfully used up almost all the sunscreen we brought! And the only reason we didn't use more is because we both had sunshirts, and I wore long, tight yoga pants snorkeling (though have to admit that I didn't wear them the first day, and my sunshirt rode up in the back, so the dermatologist got a burn on her lower back and backs of my thighs. Ugh). We also almost successfully ate the odds and ends of snacks and leftovers (sans ants) that we had in the room. I was wishing that we had made it to the grocery store the night before to pick up another carton of Tahiti Drink, but we made do with surprisingly affordable beer at the resort (too bad it took us to almost the last day to realize their beer was only $6!).

There were some people heading out and giving away their floating tubes (grown up version with cup holders and a seat), and I borrowed one for the last hour before we left. Jamsion was watered out, but that was a really great idea! Adding to the travel list for the next beach resort vacation: inflatable tubes. We also noticed that there were a ton of kids all of a sudden up and down the small resort beach. I'm sure it's different if you have a bunch of kids, because it means you can go to place like that and enjoy it with your kids. But for the rest of us without kids, it means we have to listen to screaming toddlers, kids yelling to each other from different parts of the beach, and crying babies. It was only a couple of hours, but we're realizing that coming the week before a holiday may be the perfect time to travel! At least until we have kids we want to travel with haha

In light of our debacle with previous day with poor timing, we started towards the showers with extra time to spare. And it's a good thing we did, because their showers were out of order. The resort picked 2-4pm most of the days we were there to turn off the water to do repairs, which apparently included the last day we were there, at the exact time when we needed to leave. They must have only turned off the water for part of the resort, because there was a bungalow that they were letting guests use to shower before leaving. We had a short wait, but were able to get in and out, showered and changed, to leave right on time to get the the ferry early. No more rushing this time! Except for the shower.

We set off towards the ferry, with a quick stop to get gas across from the dock. The gas was about $40 to fill up 3/4 of a tiny tank of our miniature car. It was right about that time that we got a message from Delta that our flight was canceled! I have taken countless flights with Delta, and this was the first time I've ever been on a flight that was straight up canceled. And of course it has to be from a place that has literally one Delta flight per day. We have free data and texts from Tmobile, but not free phone calls. It's never been an issue, until riiiiiiiight now. As we're sitting in line to board the ferry, we are scrambling looking for alternative ways to get home, and trying to figure out what happened. The Delta chat bot (a person, but they are sometimes as helpful as a bot) told me it was due to some insurrection in France, so we were nervous about rebooking on the flight the next day. We also had used a prized global upgrade certificate to get into the "premium economy" class for the very long overnight flight, and were not that anxious to take any old last minute flight with separate middle seats in the back of another airline for 9-10 hours, overnight.

There was a lot of stress and unknown involved during our ferry ride back to Papeete, and our friend John, who is a Delta wizard, was able to call on our behalf while we chatted on FB messenger. John you are the best!!!! He actually got us booked onto the same flight the next night, and was able to find out it was a mechanical issue, not insurrection like the chat bot said. So at least we had that going for us when we got to the airport. We went straight to the Delta desk, where the employees were actually handling everything, albeit very slowly, pretty smoothly. And we further learned that the inbound flight was stuck in LAX with mechanical problems. Ultimately, we were able to get rebooked into the same class of service (along with everyone else, I think) onto one of the many many Air Tahiti Nui flights out that day. I didn't realize, but Air Tahiti Nui is actually part of the Delta family. And the best part is, our new flight was direct into Seattle! No layover in LAX, with customs there, as previously planned. If you ever have an international flight and can pick SEATAC for your inbound customs, I highly recommend. By far the smoothest airport I've ever been to for customs.

The flight wasn't lie-flat, but it was very comfortable, and may have one of the more comfortable seats I've been in on a plane, short of lie-flat. The whole seat actually tilts so it's not just the back that reclines. There's a foot rest, and normally a leg rest that comes out, but mine was broken. It was fine since I brought my blow up foot rest - a staple on red-eye flights! I also had 2 pillows, my coat (which was dead weight for the whole trip except the very beginning and the very end), and a plane blanket (they have the blankets wrapped in these plastic sealed bags, but the pillows are just sitting out, and on previous flights, definitely re-used. Mine made a nice knee cushion and backrest, because that's as close to the face as those should go). We both were able to sleep pretty well on the 9 hour direct flight, and got a broken 5 hours of slightly uncomfortable sleep, as opposed to the horribly uncomfortable broken sleep you usually get on a plane. Punctuated by 2 very mediocre meals, and cute little bottles of wine, it was a pretty easy flight.

And with a very easy landing, extremely easy trip through customs without even having to fill out a paper (we have global entry so they don't even look at our passports. We literally went to a machine that scanned our face, then had us walk up to the agent with no line, who addressed us by name, asked us a couple of questions, and sent us through. Never even had to touch anything, and barely had to stop walking). A short car ride and we were home sweet home! In very cold, gray Washington. And a HUGE thanks to Eunice to was so amazing she kept an eye on the cat, fish, and even fed our recent menagerie of outside cat, possum, and racoon haha.

Tahiti was a great trip, but we are so glad we didn't stay in Tahiti as was our original plan. Moorea was beautiful, but our next trip might be to explore Bora Bora and compare/contrast to Moorea. But I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a quiet relaxing beach vacation with amazing snorkeling (and not on too tight of a budget)! Until the next trip/blog...

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Photos

Over the rainbow
Just your typical day in paradise

Croque Monsieur!
I forgot it's the madame that has an egg. One of my favorite French dishes, if this counts haha. Brunch in Papeete before heading to the ferry

View from the bungalow in Moorea
This was the "garden" view! So glad we went for the cheapest accommodation they had!

Inside the bungalow
That tiny little white box in the middle of the picture is the AC...

The bungalow
Awesome little patio to relax on! Really gorgeous place to stay

The bungalow
One big hut/room, but the bathroom area had a little half-wall separating it from the bed area

Temae beach on Moorea
This was our little beach every day! You can see the over-water bungalows there, and just behind them on land are the garden bungalows, where we were.

Allo pizza
Our favorite meal of the trip! Amazing chunks of fresh tuna on the pizza. Who would've thought that would be awesome. And those sweet potato fries... omg....

Rotui juice
This was the best pineapple juice I've ever had in my life, and probably always will be the best I'll ever have. Wish they sold it outside the islands.

Amazing giant lambis shell!
Lambis Truncata. Biggest snail in the ocean! What a find! We were SOOOO excited when we found it! It was very heavy, and very exciting. Until we realized it was alive and had to snorkel all the way back out to where we found it to put it back...

Giant Lambis
Until we meet again little buddy. A couple days later we found another one, but I'm pretty sure it was the same one

Smaller version
This one was definitely empty! One of the few small shells we found that were cool and empty, and made nice souvenirs!

Jamison enjoying the water
I brought a waterproof case for my phone, but this was the only good picture I got through it. Unfortunately for some reason my phone screen was soooo sensitive underwater that I couldn't actually do anything with it while underwater. Sucks!!! The snorkeling was AMAZING and we have no underwater photos.

Horses
Not many, but a little horse farm on the way up to the Belvedere lookout

Cows!
It doesn't seem like there are many places to have cows, but we found one across from the horses on the way up to the Belvedere lookout

Moorea road marker
They are shaped like the island! Very cool. I wish I had a pic of the Tahiti ones, but they were also unique looking. This one is mile marker 1!

View of the bays
From the Belvedere lookout at the top.

View from Belvedere Lookout
Opunohu Bay on left and Cook's Bay on right. The North part of the island.

Gorgeous island
All the artistic looks pics were Jamison!

Gorgeous island
That red dirt like on Kauai, which covered our shoes

Gorgeous island
Another artsy photo from Jamison

Gorgeous island
From that same little plateau (Plateau du Bounty according to google maps)

Gorgeous island
From the plateau

Gorgeous island
Jamison's artsy photos :)

Strike a pose
At the Rotui juice factory

Pineapples!
Tiny little garden for show at the Rotui juice factory. There are larger plantations on the island (somewhere)

Allo pizza again!
Not as good as the first night - definitely go with the tuna!

Sea cucumber
These things were all over the place when we were snorkeling. Most of them are dark brown. Like ocean turds. They are squishy/rubbery and move so slowly that you'd never see them move

Hermit crabs
Bunch of these little guys on the beach! Watch your step...

Fish at night
From the dock at the hotel - they like to come up around the lights there, I assume to eat bugs. But maybe it's the crackers we were feeding them

Dry lightening
Jamison said he's seen this anywhere it's humid, but I haven't seen it! Very cool. No rain, no thunder, but lightening at night from cloud to cloud

Island kitty
Only a couple cats that we saw, only at the resort. Not sure there are too many free-range kitties

Kitty at the Sofitel
This one liked to hang out by the towel exchange place at the Sofitel

Chickens!
There were soooooo many chickens and roosters all over the island. A few had chicks with them

Dogs and chickens...
One of the many roaming dogs around. This one chased and caught one of the chickens that didn't run fast enough. Then proceeded to eat it on the beach right next to all of us. The people right behind him in this pic actually left because of it haha

Dolphin Tour
No dolphins, but a nice boat ride! With Michael Poole - recommend the tour if you're in Moorea!

George Washington's Face
This mountain has a little hole at the top, which our dolphin tour guide said is climbable, but very challenging. He said the rock is near vertical, and the type of rock doesn't allow tetons, so the only guide ropes are the few there already

Lunch
Another fish sandwich! So yummyyyy but dang this day was HOT