July 29, 2014, Moorea again
Moorea is just beautiful. Steep cliffs. The rock formations remind me of the southwest, although they are covered in green and wreathed with clouds. We pass Cook’s bay this time and head for Opunahu Bay, the next one over. We have heard that it is even more beautiful. It is lovely but since the anchorage is just at the outside corner it is not nearly so spectacular. We run the dingy ashore and walk up the road to the Hilton where we sit on their deck, check our email and enjoy their happy hour. Sometimes we like to pretend that we are still on the 5 star convention circuit.
Once again, there is a road encircling the island with a few houses and the occasional store and lots of churches. There are churches everywhere on these islands. I have heard there is beautiful singing but except for once in Rangiroa, we have not managed to get to a service. Just not A;an’s cup of tea, maybe in Tonga. We have been told there is a botanic garden up the hill that is worth visiting. It is indeed “up the hill”. A cement road heads straight up the side of the mountain, no switchbacks here. I have no idea how they get are to climb this steep grades. 15 minutes later, puffing and panting, with hearts racing, we arrive at a small fruit stand that is just about to close for the day. The specialties are smoothies made from fresh fruit. Alan asks for pineapple juice and the just plop a whole pineapple into the juicer. The jams are lovely, made from all the local fruits. I end up buying carambole and tiare. The tiare is the national flower, sort of a cross between a gardenia and a plumeira and the jam smells and tastes wonderful, like a mouth full of fresh flowers. i cannot wait to have it on waffles There is a basket of fruit on the counter to explain to the tourists what is what and since they are closing they give us the entire basketfull, 2 bags of fruit.
Next day we head to see the sting rays. This is one of the “things to do” here. Everyone is talking about walking with the stingrays and petting the sting rays. We have the coordinates. We know roughly where they are but we are not sure how to get there. It is on the other side of the by and up into the reefs. Several boats have anchored over there but a look at the charts shows too much shallow water for us. These islands are interesting. inside the reefs the water goes from 100 feet to just a few feet in a matter of minutes. There are no gently sloping beaches here, just deep lagoons or coral reefs. We head out in the dingy looking for a channel. The water changes door dramatically as it changes depth, from wine dark sea to shimmering aqua to a dark brown where the reefs come to the surface. We can see the reefs but we are not high enough to see far enough ahead to pick out a channel. Alan finally decides that we need to go close to shore. There are motor boats tied up in front of houses along the shore and he reasons that there must be a channel there that they use to get in and out. WRONG I an sure that there is a channel but we never find it. The water gets shallower and shallower and eventually it is too shallow for the motor. And so, I just out and walk along in the water pulling the boat with Alan sitting in the stern. Eventually we come to deep water. I flop back aboard and we head carefully over to where we can see tour boats gathered.
Oh wow! Rays all around us. Must be at least a meter from wing tip to wing tip. All over the place. And black tipped reef sharks! What an experience. I decide not to get out and walk among them but a lot of other people are. They are so tame. I expect the locals feed them here so that they have a reliable tourist attraction but it is still wonderful. On the way back we realize that there are tall posits planted in the bay to mark the channel. The tour boats go racing back and forth, we go a little slower, keeping out of their way and watching out for reefs.
It is 100 miles to the next island, Huahini, so we take off in the late morning for an overnight sail.
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