On our way to Moorea

[Mercruiser]

1 hour ago, canadianbear said:

You are living my dream!

Glad you are enjoying it.

 

If you can manage a couple of 6-hour flights, you can live the dream yourself.

Vancouver to Honolulu - 6 hours

Spend a few days or more in Hawaii

Honolulu to Tahiti - 6 hours, one flight a week, Hawaiian Airlines

 

 

 

 

[canadianbear]

2 minutes ago, Mercruiser said:

Glad you are enjoying it.

 

If you can manage a couple of 6-hour flights, you can live the dream yourself.

Vancouver to Honolulu - 6 hours

Spend a few days or more in Hawaii

Honolulu to Tahiti - 6 hours, one flight a week, Hawaiian Airlines

 

 

 

 

Now that’s a great idea, thank you!   I’m hoping we can see some of the beautiful islands on our cruise.  If not, your idea is great.  
 

Enjoying your posts and photos.  

[minidonuts85]

12 hours ago, Mercruiser said:

As you anticipated, I prefer not to list my room number right now. But I can say that any of these are very good: 109, 107, 105, 103, 101. They all have pretty much identical views - like my morning coffee photo.

 

These units have morning shade and afternoon sun. Best of all are the sunset views. In November, the sun sets behind the mountain. In February, it sets on the ocean horizon, just to the right of the mountains. The predominant winds blow from the east to west here. So these units are wind sheltered on the deck side. This is good.

Thank you for those recommendations! Sounds like exactly where we’d want to be. 

[Petoonya]

@canadianbear

Hi there. My cruise is not until August on Wind Spirit. You've mentioned when yours is but I've forgotten. Would you share when and with who? You sound like you are READY 🙂     !!!!

[canadianbear]

26 minutes ago, Petoonya said:

@canadianbear

Hi there. My cruise is not until August on Wind Spirit. You've mentioned when yours is but I've forgotten. Would you share when and with who? You sound like you are READY 🙂     !!!!

It’s not until late September on HAL’s Zuiderdam.    Yes we are ready.  As seniors we have basically been cooped up for 2 years.  Just hope it happens.  It’s 50 days and a lot of money so we have to feel comfortable.  Final payment is May so should know by then.  
 

I had never thought of going to Hawaii first to break up the long flight so that’s an option if our cruise doesn’t happen. 

[Mercruiser]

Dinner and a Flower Show

 

We ate dinner at Le Coco D'Isle. It is on the way to the Tiki Village evening show. We ate at Tiki Village in 2013. The dinner was pretty good, but we are not in the mood for a buffet, so we decided to stop at one of our favorite restaurants.

 

Le Coco D'Isle is known to us as the "sand floor" restaurant. It's nothing fancy, plastic resin chairs, basic tables, with pareo fabric table cloths. But the food is some of the best, including the local grown shrimp and mahi mahi.

 

My wife ordered the coconut curry shrimp and I, the coconut crusted mahi mahi, with a side of the vanilla sauce.

 

I see the waiter coming out of the kitchen with some kind of floral arrangement. I see that it has food on it and wonder what somebody ordered with such a fancy presentation. Then I realize the waiter is headed for our table with my mahi mahi themed floral arrangement. I didn't realize I ordered flowers with my fish! Apparently, that's the standard plating for some of the dishes. I saw this brought to some other tables, but don't know what they ordered. 

The mahi mahi was excellent. The fresh fruit was a nice complement to the fish. The coconut sauce (white bowl) was kind of bland. I was glad I ordered a side of the vanilla sauce, listed on the mahi mahi page. It was a much better sauce for this dish. I wish I could have brought the vanilla sauce home. Combined with the local baguettes, I think it would make the world's best bread pudding.

 

We ate dinner at Le Coco D'Isle. It is on the way to the Tiki Village evening show. We ate at Tiki Village in 2013. The dinner was pretty good, but we are not in the mood for a buffet, so we decided to stop at one of our favorite restaurants.

 

Le Coco D'Isle is known to us as the "sand floor" restaurant. It's nothing fancy, plastic resin chairs, basic tables, with pareo fabric table cloths.

 

My wife's shrimp with coconut curry was excellent. The menu here (and later at Snack Mahana) said peeled shrimp. Actually, just the middle was peeled. The shrimp were served European style, with the heads attached. This didn't bother us. But some folks are not used to their food looking back at them. (Thinking of Chinese Christmas duck scene in "Christmas Story").

 

Dessert was chocolate moose for the wife, and a coconut ice cream dessert for me. As you can see, shrimp, fish, coconut, and vanilla are reoccurring food themes for us in FP.  When we come back, I'll be tempted to order exactly the same as tonight.

 

 

 

 

 

[Mercruiser]

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Room

 

After dinner at Coco D Isle, we drove on the very dark Moorea road to the Tiki Village. The show starts at 9:00 pm. We arrived around 8:30 to get our tickets and find our seats in the auditorium area. We were greeted by two older ladies, perhaps in the 60's and 70s (I'm still 58, sold that's older!). My wife had booked the reservation and was talking to one of them about that. I showed my cellphone to the other lady, with a photo gallery of pictures from our Nov 2013 trip, that included photos from the Tiki Village performance. Her face lit up and she showed my pictures to the other lady. Immediately, they were in their own world, reminiscing about people they recognized in these pictures from the past. They mostly talked to each other in French or Tahitian (I don't recall). Occasionally, one would revert to English and say, "This lady is no longer with us." or "You'll see this man in tonight's performance." This went on for quite a while. A French couple got in line behind us as were waiting as these two women were thoroughly enjoying looking as these photos from their past. Eventually, the lady ringing up our tickets says in a hushed voice, "I'm giving you a really good discount. I don't want the other people in line to know." We later looked at our credit card receipt and calculated that they gave us about 40% off, presumably because we are repeat customers, but mostly because they enjoyed the photos so much. Then they still continued to look at the pictures. I thought I was going to have to ask them to get my phone back. But eventually they gave me my phone and sent us on our way.

 

Here is one 2013 example photo that caught their eye. Clearly, they knew everyone in these pictures

 

 

We really enjoyed the new show. There were about 7 men, 7 women, and 5 musicians performing. Here is a link to a video from the excellent fire show at the end.

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/fUTkAyHZx7nQ7yU9A

 

Edited February 17, 2022 by Mercruiser

[Mercruiser]

What day is it?

 

My phone says it's Thursday morning. I love it when you loose track of the days on vacation. Yesterday, we didn't do a lot, which is the point of a relaxing vacation. That's a nice part about staying for 10 days in one area - you don't have to run from pillar to post to see everything in a short amount of time.

 

After a late breakfast, we enjoyed the cool morning on our deck, just reading and relaxing. By cool, I mean low 80s. It's going to be a shocker to go back to cool mornings in the 20s back home.

 

The cold buffet breakfast at the Hilton is free if you are a Gold or Diamond member. The hard way to get Gold status is to stay a whole bunch of nights every year. The easy way is to get a Hilton Honors American Express Surpass Card which includes Gold status and a whole bunch of bonus sign up points (130,000 right now). If you don't have Gold status, breakfast will cost you about $30 or so (I have not looked it up recently.). What I'm saying is get Gold status before you stay here!

 

The buffet has an excellent selection of pastries, cheese, cold cuts, and local fruits and juices. Fresh fruit is sold everywhere on Moorea, so I assume this is local. For $10 extra, you can get the hot buffet, which includes omelet station, bacon, pancakes, waffles, etc. I've only gotten the hot buffet once, because I like the fruit and pastries so well.

 

After we had had enough relaxation, we decided to drive around the island on the ring road. It is

easy to navigate in Moorea. There is one road that circumnavigates the island. You can go clockwise or counter-clock wise. 

 

Our first stop was Snack Mahana. We got there around 1:00 PM and the place was half full. In high season, there would be a waiting line. Moorea is not very crowded at all right now. Part of that may be low season for tourists and part is that covid has reduced all travel. Tahiti normally gets a lot of visitors from Japan and Aus/NZ. None of those flights are running yet. 

 

Back to Snack Mahana. My wife ordered the garlic shrimp. She said it was one of the best shrimp dishes she had ever ordered. I asked for the poisson cru (raw tuna marinated in citrus juice and coconut - kind of like a ceviche, but way better). They were out!  My second choice was the tuna steak. It was cooked medium rare, just as I like it, with a topping of diced shallots and aioli. I loved it, but still want to go back and get some poisson cru.

 

As we drove around the island, we went through one heavy downpour lasting about 10 minutes. It must have been very localized because the roads were dry as soon as we got out of the rain. I know it didn't rain at the Hilton, because we left towels hanging on the railing to dry - and they were still dry when we got back.

 

We then stopped at the market for a fresh baguette (about 60 cents - its the cheapest thing in FP) and some more local bananas.

 

Once we got back from the drive, my wife took a nap, while I floated on a Swimways Spring Float Papasan (see the amazon link for a picture).

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00OX9NEK2/

I learned about these from http://pescadoamarillo.blogspot.com/

who spent an entire Tahiti cruise season on the Pacific Princess. I think that was 10 back-back cruises in a port-hole cabin. If you want to OD on cruise blogging, see her site.

 

We were not very hungry by dinner time, so we made ham sandwiches with the baguette and watched the sunset from our balcony.

 

Wednesday and Friday nights are the Buffet and Polynesian cultural show at the Hilton. You can pay to do this, or watch for free from the bar. We sat in the empty bar and watched the show. It was a scaled down Polynesian show, compared to what we watched at the Tiki Village. Tiki would have about 14 performers on stage at once. There was only room for about 4 performers on the tiny stage area at the Hilton. Also, there was no fire dancing at the Hilton.

 

That's all folks!

 

[Mercruiser]

The Paul Gauguin just arrived in Opunohu Bay.

 

 

I caught the concierge cat-napping at her desk yesterday

[Mercruiser]

It's awfully quite out there. We must have a lot of lurkers, because the view count is 1k, but I've only heard from a few of the readers. Anyone want to say hi? Have any of you been to Moorea? What did you like to see/do?

 

[canadianbear]

2 minutes ago, Mercruiser said:

It's awfully quite out there. We must have a lot of lurkers, because the view count is 1k, but I've only heard from a few of the readers. Anyone want to say hi? Have any of you been to Moorea? What did you like to see/do?

 

I’m sure lots are lurking and gathering info.  I enjoy seeing photos and thank you for all your valuable info.  That goes for Petoonya and Tahitian…from previous threads too.  I love how everyone shares info too.  
 

Certainly haven’t forgotten about you!

[Mercruiser]

Today (Thursday), we drove to the Belvedere lookout. It's best to go there early in the morning, because the photos are better, before the clouds form over the mountains.

 

To get there, you start at the back of Opunohu Bay and follow the signs to the Belvedere on a paved, winding road (blue route on map). It's a very nice drive through the agricultural lands, past the agricultural college Lycée Agricole Opunohu. As you get close to the Belvedere, the road narrrows, steepens, and has hairpin turns. At the top, you are rewarded with a commanding view of Opunohu  and Cook bays.

 

 

Opunohu Bay is on the left. The white dot is the Paul Gauguin cruise shop. Cook's bay is on the right. From here, there are biking and walking trails that take you further into the mountains. After taking in the views for while, we headed down the hill, passing some archeological sites that are worth a stop. We then stopped at the agricultural college store that sells cold drinks, ice cream, and jam, made from locally grown fruits. They have free samples. After trying the samples, we bought a jar of eggplant jam and passion fruit/soursop combination. I had to look up soursop. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soursop

 

 

On the way down, we took a detour on the Cook's bay road (gray on the map). It's a well marked dirt road that turns off past the agricultural college.  My tiny Renault Kwid rental car, with it's 800 cc of pure awesome power, handled the dirt road quite well. But I must say, a particularly incompetent dirt road driver might get high-centered on some of the ruts. Being that I am am only mildly incompetent, we handled the dirt road with ease. The Cook's bay road takes you down a different valley the you came up. 

 

From there, we went to Carmalines for our second time for café (strong coffee) and take-away desserts for after dinner on our deck. My wife went shopping while I sipped my café. We dropped off the desserts at the hotel so that they wouldn't melt in the car, and then went on to the Tropical Garden Moorea to buy some vanilla beans. The Tropical Garden has a very nice view of Opunohu  bay.

 

The vanilla beans are grown in a greenhouse, covered in fabric, to filter the sun. The beans are green at this point in their lifecycle. They turn brown after they are picked and dried. There are lots of interesting flowers to look at. I took many pictures.

 

 

It was time for lunch, so we headed to LILIKOI GARDEN CAFÉ, only to find the gate locked. So we did a u-turn and went back to Snack Mahana, for the second day in a row. This time, we got there around 11:30 and they still had the Poisson Cru. My wife ordered the same garlic shrimp as yesterday, and enjoyed it just as much. I could only eat half the poisson cru, so the rest became my dinner later that night.

 

'Ota 'ika (Poisson cru à la tahitienne)

 

Garlic shrimp

 

Tables at Snack Mahana

 

It was then back to the Hilton for siesta time, followed by some floating in the water to stay cool. We booked a sunset cruise on Taboo, at the last minute. They picked us up, along with 5 other passengers. The cruise went from 4:30 to about 6:45. Two ladies were passengers from the Paul Gauguin. They said there were just 76 passengers on board.

 

Finally, we headed back to the Hilton for leftovers on our deck - leftover Poisson cru, followed by dessert from Carmalines.

 

Just another day in paradise!

 

 

[Mercruiser]

52 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

I’m sure lots are lurking and gathering info.  I enjoy seeing photos and thank you for all your valuable info.  That goes for Petoonya and Tahitian…from previous threads too.  I love how everyone shares info too.  
 

Certainly haven’t forgotten about you!

Thanks for reading and commenting! I appreciate it.

[mispi]

Thanks and please, continue. very informative before our May trip

[Dbld777]

Hello from NE Ohio, where it is snowing again today. Thank you so much Merc, for taking the time to not only post some great pics, but the detailed reviews of your stay are much appreciated. We are anxiously awaiting our first visit to FP in March. We'll be staying 5 nights pre-cruise on the Star Breeze. Two nights at the newly opened Hilton on Tahiti and then 3 nights at the Sofitel Moorea. Really appreciate your restaurant pics and tips as we don't want to eat at the Sofitel more than maybe one dinner. Just ordered my Swimways Spring Float Papasan! Looks perfect to float off of the OWB.

[Mercruiser]

5 hours ago, mispi said:

Thanks and please, continue. very informative before our May trip

I think you will win the award for longest distance travelled to Tahiti. Thanks for commenting.

[Mercruiser]

29 minutes ago, Dbld777 said:

Hello from NE Ohio, where it is snowing again today. Thank you so much Merc, for taking the time to not only post some great pics, but the detailed reviews of your stay are much appreciated. We are anxiously awaiting our first visit to FP in March. We'll be staying 5 nights pre-cruise on the Star Breeze. Two nights at the newly opened Hilton on Tahiti and then 3 nights at the Sofitel Moorea. Really appreciate your restaurant pics and tips as we don't want to eat at the Sofitel more than maybe one dinner. Just ordered my Swimways Spring Float Papasan! Looks perfect to float off of the OWB.

One more recommendation on Swimways: Bring a rope to keep you from drifting away with the wind & current. I bought a 15-foot dock line rope in the boating section of Walmart for $3. But any rope will do. I tie one end to the dock ladder and hold the loop in my hand. Without a rope, you are always paddling to keep from drifting away.

 

The Sofitel is in a really nice area of the island. I have not been there myself, but it sounds wonderful.

 

The Star Breeze arrived in Moorea today. It anchored in Cook's bay. (According to Marinetraffic.com) PG is still in anchored in Opunohu bay. I've only seen one ship in each bay at a time.

 

We will have a car in Papeete on the day we fly home. I rent one at the Avis near the Papeete ferry terminal and drop it off at the airport when we leave. Time permitting, we are planning to stop by the Hilton Tahiti to check it out.

 

Thanks for commenting.

 

[Mercruiser]

Here is a picture of the Hilton Tahiti, taken form the Moorea ferry.

 

 

And the Sofitel, taken from the highway overlook.

 

[Mercruiser]

26 minutes ago, Tahitianbigkahuna said:

FYI  .... not scolding here just giving the facts for others. The dirt road that takes you over to Cook's Bay is a no no for rental cars. If you break down there any insurance you bought from the rental car company is void. This is probably still the rule but if you want to take it you might want to ask the rental company. That road can be very bumpy ... only taken one time and I've rented on Moorea at least a dozen times.  

 

Belvedere Lookout ala drone ... taken last December

Nice photo. It looks like the man on the right has the drone control. That would be you.

[Petoonya]

Mer,

Reading your posts over the last couple years I felt your longing to be back in FP waters. But first there was no cruising, and then no decently priced cruises. When you said you were going to do a land trip, I thought uh-oh....but how can you possibly make it compare to a cruise? But you have- and in many ways seems you surpassed it judging by the fabulous activities and gorgeous photos you've shared. Why do I get the feeling that you two must be some of the friendliest folks to hit FP? So many sweet connections you've made that you've described.

 

I see that you have had some ideal weather too. Everything pieced together so nicely for you. Now I'd wish we could someday cruise together when you're ready to return.

 

And I live that long......you're a youngster.

[Mercruiser]

Today, we are spending all day at the Hilton resort. We just finished lunch on the beach from Allo Pizza. I phoned in a to-go order and made the quick trip to Cook's bay for the pizza. Along the way, I got to see Star Breeze at anchor with the swim platform extended. 

 

The pizza cost 1780 XPF, which is about half of a cheese pizza from Hilton. We had the seafood pizza with cream sauce.

 

The only problem with eating on the beach is the beggar roosters. We had two of them trying to get us to feed them. Apparently, all the chickens that used to be in Tahiti have moved to Moorea.

 

For dessert, we had a leftover slice of coconut tart from Caramélines.

 

Allo also has dessert pizzas. If you want to use a credit card or get delivery, there is a 2500 XPF minimum. A savory and a dessert pizza together meet the required spend.

 

Our agenda for the afternoon is a nap on the beach, swimming, a sundowner, followed by dinner at  Toatea Creperie, just a few steps from our OWB. (Reminds me of sea days on a cruise.)

 

It's time for my nap 

 

 

[Mercruiser]

After a nice day of sun (previous post), a squall line came through around 4:00 pm. This is the first significant rain since we arrived on Saturday. Here is a photo of Opunohu Bay from our deck. The PG should be visible in the distance.

 

Here is the view in better weather

 

Speaking of weather, the forecast is for a low of 9F on the day we get home. 🥶

[canadianbear]

That will be a shock arriving home to the cold. 

[Mercruiser]

3 hours ago, Petoonya said:

Mer,

Reading your posts over the last couple years I felt your longing to be back in FP waters. But first there was no cruising, and then no decently priced cruises. When you said you were going to do a land trip, I thought uh-oh....but how can you possibly make it compare to a cruise? But you have- and in many ways seems you surpassed it judging by the fabulous activities and gorgeous photos you've shared. Why do I get the feeling that you two must be some of the friendliest folks to hit FP? So many sweet connections you've made that you've described.

 

I see that you have had some ideal weather too. Everything pieced together so nicely for you. Now I'd wish we could someday cruise together when you're ready to return.

 

And I live that long......you're a youngster.

Being here made me very aware of how much I've missed this place. Between work and vacations, I've been to over 60 countries. I could not say what my absolute favorite one is, but FP is certainly in the top 3. But for places I want to visit over and over, FP is #1. I'm already looking at the 100+ airbnbs on Moorea. You can get a nice waterfront place for $350/day in February - the exact time I want to get away from 9F lows at home. Of course, you can pay $1000/day if you want luxury everything.

 

I'd like to cruise here to see places I've never been like Huahine, Taha'a, Raiatea, Fakarava, the Merquesas, etc. etc. But for seeing Moorea, I am very happy to be spending the week here amongst the Tahitian and French locals and tourists. I like the familiarity of Moorea. We have favorite places that we return to - some multiple times in one trip: Carmalines, Snack Mahana, Coco d Isle), the Belvedere, the Taboo. 

 

The people here are very friendly, both the locals and the tourists. I read that FP gets the same number of tourists in a year, as Hawaii does in a week. I think Tahitians are naturally friendly, but it helps that FP is not over touristed. Yes, we have made many sweet connections here.

 

Petoonya, I hope toe see you on a cruise someday too.

 

 

 

[Mercruiser]

40 minutes ago, canadianbear said:

That will be a shock arriving home to the cold. 

Yes, it will be. My winter coat, gloves, hat are all in the car at the airport parking lot.. I'm imagining it encased in ice from being in an outdoor lot for 12 days. I have to get from the terminal to my car in tropical clothes.

Edited February 19, 2022 by Mercruiser