Honeymoon8 - Moorea: The Beautiful “Sister”

First day in Moorea

...........continued from Tahiti............

As the plane prepares to land our eyes are glued to the window, the lagoon is below us and the profile of the island from above gives us a first indication of its shape. We land at 11:15 (....after a 15-minute flight...) at Moorea airport. Actually it is a wooden building, all open with a thatched roof. One door for arrivals and one for departures. No carousels, luggage is handed over by hand. Lots of people, as if the arrival of every plane were a celebration. And always flowers, garlands, songs and dances. We take a taxi to go and settle into the hotel, on the motu Temae, quite close to the airport. Along the way it is as if we are rewinding the film of time. It is as if in a few minutes we had gone back to different times, with other rhythms, with other habits. Goodbye asphalt, goodbye shops, goodbye frenetic pace.

Our nest for the week will be the Pension Green Lodge, which from the very first glance proves to be a spot-on choice. We are welcomed by a Polynesian girl, who immediately makes us feel at home, until the arrival of the owner and his wife. Thus we meet Isabel and Jeanluc, the French couple who run the family-style guesthouse. She also speaks Italian and both are extremely kind and ready to help with anything, as well as being exceptional cooks. We had only bed and breakfast, but it is possible to dine with them for about 30 Euros per person. (...and you will see that for Polynesia it is not much, if you want to play the tourist!) The guesthouse has a nice patio with a bar, a small pool and 6 fares. 2 beachfront and the others garden, but it really makes little difference, you are on the beach anyway. They are beautiful.

All have a panoramic terrace with sun loungers, the interiors are very well cared for and in typical Polynesian style. The bathroom with shower and stone sinks, open to the outside. It feels like being the protagonists of a children's cartoon set on desert islands............ We like it. We like it a lot. After asking Jeanluc to have a scooter for hire the next morning (and it will be brought to the hotel for a great price), we go straight to the beach. I don't know...at first glance the resemblance to Mauritius may seem strong, but then...NO. I don't think this place, and all the others we will see, can be compared to anything else. The reef here is very close, so we start sunbathing and take advantage of the natural pools created among the corals to swim.

Immediately you notice the richness of the sea, full of fish, the abundance of coconuts and again....the wonder of the mountains behind us. Green. Very green. And we cannot overlook the flowers. In our garden alone it is a symphony of frangipani, hibiscus and the famous tiare of Tahiti. Scents and sounds cannot be photographed, but they are part of these places and we will remember them along with them. After a regenerating shower we take the bicycles and go to Maharepa, the island's main town, about 6 kilometres from the guesthouse. The road is unpaved for a long stretch and crosses the fields of the Moorea Golf Club skirting Lake Temae. There is no one. If you expect tourist places, with little shops, restaurants, a promenade and clubs you have got the wrong country. None of that exists. And if there is tourism, you see little or none of it.

They told us that many are in all-inclusive hotels and have everything there........ better this way. We have Polynesia to ourselves. The real one. We go to the market to buy water, some survival snacks, something for lunches and the famous Monoi oil, which we already need after a few hours in the sun! We return to the hotel as it is getting dark, tonight we dine at the guesthouse. The table is set for all the guests (6) by candlelight at the edge of the pool. Excellent and distinctive food. It feels like being at an intimate dinner among friends. Already from tonight we discover that the rhythms here are those of the sun. Wake up at dawn, dinner at sunset... in short, going to bed at 22:00 is like staying up late for us!...We like this too.... It is the first night in the fare.

We only hear the waves crashing on the reef, the surf, the wind slipping under the palm fronds of the roof and the little geckos running on the beams. There is a television...but we leave it off.

Second day in Moorea

We are woken by the birds that have nested in the roof of the fare. We go to have breakfast. We are alone this morning and Isabel serves us coffee, orange juice, brioche, butter, homemade jams and a tray of abundant tropical fruit. The start of a beautiful August 15th. Buying credit on the wifi network (not very developed, but here it works), we call our families to exchange greetings. Before 9:00 the scooter is already here and they will come to pick it up after we leave. The rental guy is a friend of Jeanluc, here everyone knows each other. Weapons and luggage ready, off we go..the morning will be dedicated to the complete tour of the island, a photographic tour but above all getting familiar with what we will then dedicate more time to. We do the tour anticlockwise. Past the village of Maharepa, you almost immediately reach the entrance to Cook's Bay.

The stop at the PaoPao viewpoint is a must. The colours of the water mirror the vegetation that surrounds the bay. The mountain peaks, the palms, the sky, the mythical quality that characterises these places: everything contributes to making you feel part of a painting. It is hard to describe everything and describe the emotions but perhaps a book would not be enough. Here the images can speak for themselves. We continue further: the pineapple road, Opunohu Bay, the climb to the viewpoint, the marae lost in the forest, Papetoai, the dwellings scattered along the road, the fishermen, the children on the street, the women at the roadside with the ever-present flower behind their ear (it is not something they do for tourists, they just use it).. We are inside a fairy tale. And we are aware of it. We arrive in the Hauru area.

Here the beach is a dream and the lagoon even more so with the small motu in the middle of it. Continuing further you come across a wild and little-developed stretch, less beautiful. We stop at the Tiki Village to take a look and ask for information...it is a disappointment. Nothing special. A fake reconstruction, too fake. The show would perhaps have been very beautiful, but the price seems a bit exaggerated to us and we leave it. We arrive at Afareatu, where once again beach and sea recreate postcard scenarios. We have lunch on a deserted beach. We pass through Vaiare and are almost there when we have another heart-stopping moment: the viewpoint overlooking the Sofitel allows you to admire a breathtaking 180-degree panorama over the lagoon and Tahiti. Never seen anything like it. BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL, BEAUTIFUL.

We return home, and dedicate the rest of the afternoon to snorkelling on our beach. At this point and in the late afternoon the reef is truly rich and snorkelling is a pleasure. There are many fish, of every size and very colourful, but the coral reef no. You don't get the aquarium effect there is in the Red Sea. That is not what you should go looking for in Polynesia, I don't think you will find it. Tonight we decide to go out for dinner. At 7 everything is already closed and there is no one around anymore. It is really early for dinner, so we first have an aperitif based on Hinano (the typical Tahitian beer). We choose a restaurant in Maharepa with outdoor tables. It is very simple and spartan and yet the menu prices are Michelin-guide level... the fish is nothing short of prohibitive.

Polynesia really turns out to be very expensive, and yet its inhabitants are so simple and do not seem to be rolling in gold. Customs, habits, dwellings and clothing...nothing would suggest that this is the cost of living. In fact we will soon discover that it is not. And we will learn to do as they do.

Third day in Moorea.

Tonight it rained and at breakfast the day is still uncertain. We take advantage to give ourselves a couple of hours for shopping. We prefer to buy here rather than risk waiting for our turn in Tahaa or Bora Bora. We will later realise that the choice was very wise. We go to Maharepa and to visit the painting galleries at Cook's Bay. There is not much to buy, or rather there is not a vast choice of items. Pareos, Pearls, Monoi Oil and the typical handicrafts of the Marquesas Islands. Rays, turtles, tiki, sharks carved in wood. We buy the pareos, beautiful and very colourful; a true garment for every occasion for the women (and men) of the Tahiti archipelago. We are looking for a painting and finally we find it in Louzè's studio at Cook's Bay. For the pearls we wait a little longer, to return to a small shop that caught our attention in Papetoai.

It is still early when we go to the beach at Temae. The public beach here is the most beautiful on the whole island and is very close to our hotel. It is a strip of white sand, overlooking a dream lagoon (that of the Sofitel) and surrounded by a palm grove that guarantees shade when needed. We bask in the sun until the early afternoon. We decide to continue our beach activities at our own beach. In the afternoon, with the low tide, we take a very long walk which becomes a pleasant surprise since we will never tire of observing the reef and its creatures without needing to dive in. All afternoon we meet only one Polynesian family fishing. We are ever more admiring of these people with the perpetual smile, the quiet and serenity in their eyes, the constant helpfulness they show us, the humility with which they work still living on simple things.

The same cannot be said of the French who have moved here. They all work with tourists and all the businesses are in their hands, arrogant and rather stingy. After a regenerating shower, we have an aperitif on our terrace enjoying the paradise that surrounds us. Also tonight for dinner we decide to go out and we go to Vaiare. We find nothing...there are no restaurants or clubs. Nothing. Our attention is drawn to a lit-up food truck, which looks like our sandwich or porchetta stalls....in reality we make one of the most beautiful and interesting discoveries! For the Polynesians they are real restaurants. In front they use plastic tables and benches, you order and you are served. There is meat and fish, fries and soft drinks, but not alcohol. The food is very good, they cook in front of you and we discover that many locals go to get the cooked food to take home.

The tables are shared, so it happens that you have table companions. Certainly no luxury and romance, but food, quality and convenience are guaranteed! That is how we discover, talking with the locals, that another Polynesia exists, less magical, less luxurious but more true, more genuine and to be loved.

Fourth day in Moorea

This morning we leave very early. We have booked an excursion through Jeanluc and we have to be at Hauru at 8:00. That is, crossing half the island by scooter. Isabel last night gave us a basket with biscuits, yoghurt and fruit to replace breakfast. The day is wonderful. We will spend the whole morning on a boat, trying to spot whales and dolphins. We arrive at the meeting point on time, to our relief the boat is quite small. There are 9 of us. As we move away from the shore the colours of the lagoon become even more beautiful and observing the profile of the island from the sea is sublime. We head towards Cook's Bay, where whales usually spend their time. In this season they are here to give birth to their calves and to wait until they are sufficiently prepared to head out to open sea. We find nothing.

After a while in the distance we spot something that appears and disappears among the waves. At high speed we head in that direction...they are not whales but a pod of pilot whales, a species of larger dolphin. They tell us we are lucky since it is not so usual to encounter them. Apparently with the pod there is often an aggressive and dangerous species of shark, the only one in the area. So the diver accompanying us dives in first to inspect the area. All ok, we can dive in. We enter the water in front of the pod and wait to see them pass swimming alongside them. How wonderful. The pod heads out to open sea and excited we climb back on the boat! Good thing we brought our wetsuits, the water outside the reef is cold!!! We continue in another direction. Our guide receives a phone call, it is a fisherman friend of his who tells him where the whales are. We rush there.

Meanwhile the sea has got rougher. There they are on the horizon...I had never had a great desire to observe them, but honestly observing their enormous bulk come out of the water and spray so high...it is an emotion I did not expect. We dive in here too, at the moment when they are submerged and we can observe them from above. In the water your head spins because of the length and height of the waves that lift us and make us dance. Back on the boat, some are seriously unwell and we are happy, before suffering the same fate, that since the mission is accomplished we can return to the lagoon. We go near Hauru, in the lagoon in front of Les Tipaniers, to observe and swim with the rays which here are almost tame. A few pieces of fish are enough to have them around and touch them. How beautiful, what elegance.

Back on land we decide to have lunch and stop on the beach just after the diving centre. We are at Hauru, in front of us two small motu. The beach is deserted, there is no one and it goes without saying that we enjoy to the fullest what surrounds us. Unfortunately some sudden big clouds chase us away. On the way back we stop at the Moorea Tropical Garden, in Opunohu Bay. The gardens are on the mountainside, at the top of a bumpy climb impossible to tackle with the scooter; so we park and go on foot. Actually the gardens are nothing special, since the flowers you can observe are those that grow spontaneously everywhere on the island. There is a small vanilla plantation, which for those who will be able to visit Tahaa is truly superfluous. The best attraction is certainly the small bar, with a superb view, which squeezes the fruit on the spot serving truly formidable "juices".

We return to the hotel and enjoy the relaxation, listening to the rain falling on the leaves of our veranda. For dinner we stay at Isabel's.

Fifth day in Moorea

After the night-time rain we wake up to a magnificent day. Having taken our scooter we head again towards Hauru, where the beach in front of the small motu has truly fascinated us. We stop once again at the two bays of the island. Cook's Bay this morning, completely clear, appears to us as a gift from heaven. Before arriving at Hauru we stop at km 25, where we had found a small place to buy pearls. It is called Fare de la Nacre and we really got on well with the young owner and with the honest prices we managed to get. Once at Hauru we choose to have a relaxed coffee on the terrace of the bar of the hotel Les Tipaniers; the panorama you enjoy there is of extraordinary beauty. But the beach is rather busy and so we move a couple of kilometres, returning to the same place as yesterday, again deserted. We return home only in the afternoon for the last snorkel on the reef.

It is here that we spend our last day on this wonderful island. For dinner we go to Maharepa, where we try another very good food truck!!!!....It is time to pack... tomorrow we leave. We spend our last hours on the veranda of our bungalow, listening to the sea. Moorea has enchanted us. Many claim to have been disappointed...I wonder by what. It may not be the most beautiful sea in the world, nor the best reef...but it is the combination of colours, the harmony of the landscape characterised by mountains and lagoon, the lush vegetation, the flowers, the scents, the naturalness that you find in the villages and in its inhabitants. It is a UNIQUE place.

......leaving Moorea

This morning we just have time to enjoy Isabel's last breakfast before returning to the airport to board for Raiatea. Our final destination will be Tahaa, which uses the airport of the larger Raiatea with which it shares the lagoon. Here too, as usual, we leave our luggage and wait outdoors for the ATR ready to take us on board with no type of check whatsoever. Goodbye Moorea, even if deep down we hope it can always be a see-you-again...

...............continued in TAHAA..............