Moorea

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We got up early and headed to the beach so that our room could be serviced and we could come back for a feast of bread and jam for breakfast. After an hour reading on sun loungers we headed back only to find that it hadn’t been done yet so we decided to have breakfast anyway as we were starving.

Full of baguette we headed back to the beach to read our books for a while to kill some time before we set off on the transfer to the nearby motu which was offered by the watersports place on the beach. It cost about £5 each and picked up at various intervals. We decided to go at 12 and come back at 4pm.

The transfer was on a small boat and it only took about 5 minutes, and most of that was spent backing out of the jetty area slowly where there was a lot of coral.

The motu was less exciting than we’d hoped. There was some beach but it was quite crowded, and there was a small bar where we’d planned to have lunch but it was very expensive and offered only a few choices so we decided instead to have the jam sandwiches we’d packed as back up (Raro made us bored of eggs and beans, and I can see by the end of our time in Tahiti we’ll never be able to eat bread and jam ever again!) We walked around the side of the island where the snorkelling was supposed to be best and there was a bit of beach there, plus it was near deserted except for a few towels belonging to the snorkellers who were already enjoying the water.

We 'enjoyed' our jam sandwiches, biscuits, peanuts and water (a proper picnic!) and then after a bit of a lay in the sun Matt went in for a snorkel. The lagoon floor wasn’t sandy like over at our resort, it was rocky and had coral in it. As it was shallow I wasn’t keen on snorkelling over it as I was worried about getting coral cuts like we had on our last experience.

Matt went in for ages and he came back proclaiming that it was amazing. He had seens lots of different fish and had been testing himself by diving down to the floor which was quite a few metres deep in places. I wasn’t impressed because as he pointed out he knew he could dive down that far but wasn’t sure if he’d be able to make it back up again. Boys.

By 4pm we were more than ready to come back and were pleased to see our little boat arriving. On the way to the jetty Matt saw a stingray swim past - the first we'd seen on the trip so far.

In the evening we decided to go to the hotel restaurant again seeing as every other place (apart from the pizza take away) was a bit too far to walk in the dark, especially with the massive crabs that live on the side of the roads. We actually ended up having a really good night. The food was excellent and the atmosphere was great as the place was packed full of locals. We were still struggling with the languge barrier and my attempt to order (quite clearly I thought) a carafe of white wine, ended up being served as a glass of red. Nevermind, red went better with my meal anyway.

As usual we nipped back to our room for a glass of cheap wine, and then headed down to the sunloungers on the beach to watch the stars. It’s not a bad way to end a night. We still haven’t seen the moon here though which is very strange. Maybe it’s behind one of the mountains?

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