Days 12, 13, 14… 20–22nd April. 2 days in Moorea, Tahiti – tour & motupicnic with stingrays and sharks!

Day 12 – 20th of April, Moorea

We were up early this morning – gosh, it almost killed us ha ha. Makes you realise how good you feel when you sleep until you wake rather than having to set an alarm! 

We needed to get down to the vintages bar to get tender tickets which opened at 7 am, so we went down at 6:45am. Even so we were on tender number 11 and they were saying at least 45 minutes for each return trip, so that was worrying given that our tour operator was expecting us to be there between 8:30 and 9:30 am.

Royal Caribbean charges exorbitant rates for their tours – and that’s for the same tour as outside companies charge. For example, snorkelling with the rays and shark Motu picnic is several hundred dollars p.p with the ship, but when you go onto the shore, there were local operators offering the same thing for $50 per person! But ship lines hold you to ransom as they won’t let you off early, if you aren’t on a royal Caribbean excursion, so it’s a gamble with getting off on time. 

Anyway, we did get off with just enough time to meet the operator which was good, but probably wouldn’t want to cut it that fine again. Graeme thinks and is probably right though, that when we get to Europe, there won’t be local operators standing shoulder to shoulder to get your custom like they do in the islands, as they are so reliant here on tourism and the big ships are big money earners for the pacific islands.

We went on a sightseeing trip with Ron, from Mario Safari which took us firstly up a bloody big mountain - magic mountain on a very bumpy trail! We thought we would probably be in a van, but it was a safari style ute with the sides/back open so not quite what we are expecting, but it was fine and probably good to be in the open air:-).

We went right up to the top of Magic Mountain– got some great views from the top and photos, then back down all the way to the bottom and along to some gardens with really interesting fruits that we don’t get back home. Next was the juice factory and some tastings – it’s all from pineapple, but the Coca, and also the coconut liqueurs they make from the pineapples were beautiful. Pity we can’t take any back with us to the ship. We then had a quick look through the juice factory and then headed out through the pineapple plantations – that was an eye-opener..

The plantations go for miles and miles and miles! Leased by 33 families who grow their pineapple crops there. Ron said that pineapples grown from the shoot will grow a fruit in about 8 to 9 months, but one grown from the top of a pineapple that has been cut off, will take about 18 months. It is so incredibly labour-intensive – there was a guy in there cutting pineapples by hand, and they are so spiky with all the leaves and pineapples as far as you can see – now that is hard work!

After that we went to the Belvedere, which is another lookout point, and then back down to the ship. Was a really good tour and we enjoyed it.

It was pretty hot by then, so we went back on the ship fora swim and grabbed some food as it was 2 o’clock, and we hadn’t eaten. Then we lay down and crashed for an hour – Bliss! Graeme’s throat has been a bit scratchy, so he has been snoring, which I could hear through my sleep, it was a good alarm clock!

We got ready and went out for dinner, just in the windjammer cafe tonight which is the buffet style and you sit wherever you like. Then we went for a wander out on the top deck – it had been raining and we didn’t even hear it. 

Tomorrow we will go ashore as we will still be here in Moorea and will probably do the snorkelling with sharks and rays on the motu, that we were going to do originally was Royal Caribbean, but will do it with the local operators, as they will all be sitting there waiting when we get off again. :-) 

Day 13 - 21st April- Moorea Tahiti

What a cool day! Because we had been onto the Moorea pier yesterday, we knew there were lots of locals selling tours at much reduced prices compared to what Royal Caribbean charge as I have mentioned before. We had originally booked for the Motu picnic and then had to cancel it because of the day change with the other company excursion yesterday. So today we thought we would just go and do it with the locals! We got it for US$45 per person – cheap!

We jumped on small boats, and they took us around the island to the bay, right where we had done the same tour more than 10 years ago, to see the stingrays and sharks. They come right into the Motu because they are fed by the locals and it is shallow and warm. 

It was a beautiful day not too windy. Not too hot – just perfect, I think around 30°C. We all jumped in the water after grabbing some snorkels and masks and swam around as there was also some good coral. Really pretty fish, bright yellow, and also iridescent blue. The Tahitian guy running it also got the female stingrays to come up and they were quite curious actually – it’s almost like they are smelling you when they go over your feet and legs. He got one to come up on my body – I remember they feel like really strange, thick jelly underneath, and a little bit coarse on the top, but these being females they were really quite smooth. Graeme does not like them so declined from having them touch him except when one accidentally went over his foot while he was videoing me – it sounded funny as he got a fright🤣.

Swam around the coral again, although the current was quite strong, so glad we are strong swimmers as the tide was coming in. I had a few paddles with the rays and then a couple of small reef sharks I think they were, came in and swam around, but they are not as friendly and don’t come and touch you – thank God!

We bought some beers at the little bar they have there – we are enjoying the local ones, they are quite hoppy, and then we sat out on the barstools under the thatched umbrellas – there were even picnic tables with umbrellas in the Motu water. It was perfect and you almost have to pinch yourself that you are there as the water is a beautiful colour as well. Even though we have done this before so knew what to expect, it was still brilliant. We spent about 4 hours there.

On the way over on the boat, the people in front of me were Kiwis as well! It is so funny because they were from Hamilton! And we knew similar people as one of the other ladies had a farm out Ruakiwi where Graeme spent his teenage years, so a lot of commonalities! It was like the other day I was leaning on my balcony – not sure if I’ve written this already in my blog or not??!  But the lady in the next cabin was also out on her balcony and we got talking – she was a Kiwi and her ex father-in-law was a guy that Graeme worked with at the power station back in the 80s – 2° of separation alright!! Blows my mind, how time and circumstances puts us next to people that we have so many commonalities with!

We came back to the ship and had long showers to try and get the sticky salt off us and all the sunscreen – we have been very diligent as there have been some very burnt people we’ve seen around, so we have been really careful and I bought  good quality sunscreen. We grabbed some food at the buffet for dinner, and then took our dessert – which was way too much! Out of onto the open deck and sat and enjoyed the view as we sailed away from Tahiti – boo.🥺

It was so lovely to be on land for a few days, and now we are out at sea for another 6 days I think before we get to Oahu in Hawaii.

Day 14 - 22nd April- at Sea

We woke about 8am this am, after both getting up in the middle of the night- I woke up to go to the loo and found Graeme already in there, was funny as we both got such a fright!

We decided not to order continental brekky today, so we can do our normal intermittent fasting and eat more towards lunchtime. Had showers then went to get our passports back now we have left Tahiti. It was good as they had staff in the foyer of each floor with them, so wasnt a queue. Went walking up on the walking track but was 30C and humid as, so we only did 2kms then went back into the air con and down to the internet desk . 

Have been having trouble with accessing one of our banks and also the royal Caribbean website on my phone and ipad. Its like the logins start and then are blocked. Graeme had gone through everything clearing out cookies, history data and everything they say to do online, but still no go. The IT staff guy checked it all and said we had done everything and he couldnt work it out- a pain! But at least we can access them on Graeme’s iPad. Weirdly I had been able to access them until a few days ago.

Cos we had been so hot and then walked into the air con we were both pretty hot, then I started seeing spots in front of my eyes while we were waiting for the IT guy to finish, so we went down to the back of the ship to sit and cool down. There was a lady in there giving a lecture on genealogy which was  really interesting.

She was talking about how the only census data from the UK, Scotland & Canada I think it was, have been kept since the saus - ages…. NZ & Australia were using census stats then destroying all documentation for a long time, so all that info was lost. She said interestingly that a lot of the early English stats would round peoples ages up or down to the nearest 5 or 0, so the censuses were often not accurate. 

Also the scandinavians and Icelandic patronyms- boys would take their fathers name which made it really easy to follow their genealogy. Like John Andersen would translate to John, the son of Anders, and they would give the addition of a suffix of sen = son (or datter= daughter, as the suffix for a girl). Such a fascinating topic as you get older and more interested in your family lineage.

We grabbed a fresh salad in the cafe for lunch and 1/2 a tuna wrap and went back to our room, sat on the balcony and enjoyed it, a lot! Then we went down to the theatre as they had the Thor: Love and Thunder movie on at 2pm. That Māori guy Taika Watiti, who directed and narrates it is so funny- ah the accents of home 😃.

Had a couple of drinks in there in lieu of missing popcorn and sweets. Graeme said its not often you have a espresso martini and a mojito slushy in a move theatre!!

Went down the internal promenade and there wa a watch sale on and Graeme saw one he really liked - to add to his exiting dozen or so! To be fair it was hugely discounted, good thing about being offshore I guess.

We are going to the restaurant for dinner tonight for the 1st time in ages. Pic today of the “cool” frog our attendant made us lol, he is talented.

The ocean today has been as still as a millpond - the smoothest seas to date. It stayed hot and balmy all day- you can see by the pic below how warm, by Graemes glasses when we opened the door onto the balcony!!! But bonus- I found the chairs on our balcony actually lie down flat - awesome 👏.