Moorea, Island of Miracles (Ours)

We are canceling all refund requests!

                             “Hey Don! Why would you do that?”

                   Because yesterday in Moorea made up for the previous day in Tahiti by about 4.6 million times!

                   After crawling back to our stateroom after the 4×4 Waterfall and Bone Crunching Excursion, we wisely rethought the next day’s outing on Moorea. It was scheduled to be another “4-Wheeled Expedition into the Wilds of Moorea.” It may have been ok, but who wants to take that chance!

                   Down to the nice folks at the Excursion Desk where I began, “Bless me Father for I have made a mistake….. and I’d like to cancel an Excursion after your Cancel Deadline has passed and sign up for something different….. anything but the 4×4 Torture Ride!”

                   The kind Excursion Person took pity on me as I was smart enough to first  go down to Sick Bay and borrow a ton of Ace Bandages.

Looking something akin to the Mummy, I poured my heart out to them explaining the Dilemma. After they granted our wishes, I appeared to have a Miraculous Recovery and I thanked them for their life-saving work. 😊

                   We were now booked on a Boat Ride (!) to an island for snorkeling, lunch, and some other South Sea Island Sun-Related traditional activities…. Yay!

                   Now this is what we wanted! It had been sold out before, hence the possible 4×4 debacle. Passengers change their minds all the time, so availability changes constantly…..luckily for us!

This was a Tender Port. It has nothing to do with the quality of the steaks that we had for dinner. In this case, the ‘Tender’ was one of our Lifeboats (four of them actually) that transferred us from our anchorage out in the bay, to the pier on land which was not large enough for a Cruise Ship. This is a rather lengthy process as only 150 peeps can fit in one of these boats, and even though there were four of them, they can only be loaded one at a time. But the Staff is well versed in this process, and it went smoothly. This also illustrates why some Tender Ports get cancelled because of rough seas upon arriving in said Port. Yesterday was relatively calm, but there was still enough movement in the water to make getting on and off the Tender somewhat tricky. There are obviously several crewmates stationed to help you out….. and this is not the time to be macho and try it yourself. If you fall between the two vessels (one that weighs 97,000 tons and the other about 20 tons) guess what happens to a 200+ pound idiot.

Yup! You are now something that can fit into a tuna can!

          Our ride out to the Island lasted about twenty minutes. We were kept entertained by the incredible staff of this organization. We learned Tahitian lore, words, and songs, some jokes, and other tid-bits that kept us laughing all the way.

The waters were just like the Travel Brochure! And we could see the Palm Trees swaying in the South Seas Breezes!

          Mission Accomplished!

When we disembarked on this island, we found an entire complex devoted to exactly what the excursion described only about 1000 times better! There were picnic tables conveniently situated under those swaying palm trees, an entire outdoor kitchen facility, incredibly clean (especially for a random island) bathrooms and of course, the Coral Garden just waiting for Jacques Cousteau to arrive.

 Well, that may be a slight exaggeration, as I’m sure that Jacques has seen some good stuff, but our enthusiasm could not be dampened!

          We immediately claimed one of the smaller picnic tables, (waterside of course) for our own, and proceeded to get our masks ready for discovery. They did not have any fins available and since we could stand up in most places, they were not necessary. Which in hindsight, may have been a blessing because the current coming through this strait (another island was directly across from ours) was quite swift. Walking hunched over was very effective and far less worrisome as being swept out to sea (even in these wonderful South Seas) was not desirable.

I’m sure that the Excursions Desk would have rightfully frowned upon a refund to our heirs!

I would be remiss if your South Seas Knowledge Master Class was not added to, at least a little bit!

Moorea, pronounced MOE-oh-ray-uh, (because in Tahitian dialects, every letter of their alphabet is pronounced) is about twice as old as her neighbor Tahiti, which is only about twelve miles away. Remember those “Hot Spots” in the earth’s crust? Well, Moorea traveled over it way before Tahiti did and I guess Tahiti spent more time over it as Tahiti is more than three times the size of Moorea.

          Moorea is also thought to be the inspiration for the idyllic Bali Hai, the fictional island in South Pacific which was visible directly across from the Navy base in the story.

It’s no wonder that Lieutenant Cable was so mesmerized by the sight of it!

We were too 😊