13. Moorea.

It was only a short sail of a few hours to Tahiti's closest neighbouring island, Moorea. Going up on deck, we were met with the imposing sight of Mt. Rotui, an imposing, almost vertical volcanic plug which rises over 2,500 feet, as an impressive natural skyscraper as you could imagine and like something out of a movie set. The summit was often shrouded in cloud, indeed scattered showers were forecast for the day and Captain Tuvo announced that it was because First Officer Giovanni was in charge of the weather today, instead of him, and if it did rain, Giovanni would be walking the plank.

One of the main reasons we had come to the South Pacific was to see some of the sae life and so we grabbed our masks and snorkels and headed out on an excursion billed as "swimming with sharks and stingrays". On the way out to the reef we stopped for a few minutes to watch a pod of spinner dolphins which had swum far inshore in order to feed. Shortly afterwards we were able to jump off the boat into a shallow sandbank as the crew summoned the rays and sharks with a few tasty morsels of fish. Soon there were fish all around. The sharks were black tip reef sharks, around 3-4 feet long whereas the stingrays were somewhat larger at 4-5 feet across. The former showed little interest in their human audience, but the latter were more of an "if you don't touch me, I'm going to touch you" persuasion. A little scary, but so much fun.

After spending time in the shallows, it was time to move on to the deeper waters over the coral. We could just float over the coral formations watching all kinds of fish, some familiar and some not so much. I have to say that having snorkelled in a few places around the world including the Maldives and the Great Barrier Reef, the Moorea corals were the best I have seen, with little bleaching, many varieties and the most incredibly vivid colours. 

All too soon we had to return to shore but not before enjoying a view of the coconut palm fringed coastline. Moorea is a very beautiful and (from our limited time and sightseeing experience), unspoilt island.

Unfortunately the ship was only staying in Moorea until 4pm and so there wasn't enough time for us to have a good look around further afield from the port. (I use the word "port" advisedly, it was no more than a jetty with a few huts). However the locals had set up a number of stalls selling their wares so we could shop for souvenirs. 

The snorkelling had also meant that we had built up a bit of a thirst so we were able to find a bar and sample some of the local Tahitian Hinano beer before getting the tender back to Star Princess.

Just before we sailed the heavy rain showers could be seen falling over the mountains. The fate of First Officer Giovanni remains unknown. 

(I'll try and include a couple of pictures with my next blog posting)