The Hughes Zoo

Bora Bora was our third straight in-port stop, and our last in French Polynesia. To give Will the chance of a good sleep after two hectic days, Ange and he stayed on the ship in the morning while Jeremy and I took a tender to the island. We had a short wander around and even found a crane and front end loader to watch for a while.

We headed back to the ship to meet Ange and Will for lunch, and then planned to head back to Bora Bora for a glass bottomed boat cruise at 1:45pm. There was only one small problem with that plan: the cruise was at midday. We decided to try our luck and see if they had any spaces on the 1:45 cruise. Despite the best efforts of the Princess tour organiser, the best we could manage was a round-the-island bus tour. Which, it turned out, was a whole heap of fun.

From what we could see it looked like Bora Bora would be every bit the paradise that Moorea was, although we mostly saw it from a distance. It made me particularly glad that we had hired the car  in Moorea and explored in more fully. Again, there’s the brilliant beaches, turquoise water,  mountains and great weather. It is a lot more tourist-conscious though: there’s a lot of hotels and the locals are obviously a lot more used to having thousands of people turn up for a day.

Both the boys were excellently behaved on the bus and thoroughly exhausted by the by the time it finished in the late afternoon. We  got back to the ship just in time for dinner and the boys went to bed straight afterwards. Ange and I forewent gym for the night and instead went to dinner together, followed by a martini. Very sophisticated
Photos for the day

If Rarotonga was beautiful, Moorea is absolutely mind-blowing. It’s the quintessential south pacific island - gorgeous clear aqua water with waves  breaking 100m out on the reef, dramatic cloud-topped mountains, an approachable working class rural population and perfect weather.

We didn’t have much of a plan (as usual) and when we got off the tender Ange suggested hiring a car for the day.  It was pretty pricey (US$150, plus US$30 in fuel) but it allowed us to do whatever we wanted and comfortably spend the entire day onshore. We would have paid almost as much for a couple of hour guided tour.

As an added bonus, the hire car lady pointed out the local places that were worth visiting, including hands down the most unbelievably stunning beach I’ve ever seen. We spent probably 4 hours there and it was seriously like the rest of existence had stopped. None of us really got hungry or thirsty or distracted or bored. We just wanted to swim. Ange was smart enough to pack our swimming goggles, so we were able to do some skin diving over the small reef close to shore.

Jeremy was at first a little freaked out by having to share the water with fish, but quickly got used to the idea. Will had is morning sleep in the pram in the shade of a palm tree, while the rest of us swam a few meters away. Ange and I, and Jeremy to a much lesser extent, got a good case of sunburn. Jeremy was so excited about going to the beach that he was in a particularly demanding mood, so we sort of only half remembered to cream ourselves up. Still, it was worth it.

For lunch we hopped back in the car and drove a little further around the beach to the Sofitel resort. The place is seriously awesome - traditional looking huts on stilts out over the water. The food was pretty nice too. If it wasn’t for the reportedly $600/night price tag, I’d have added it to our list of places to come back to.

After lunch Ange did a fantastic job of driving the left-hand-drive Mondeo up a very narrow winding mountain road to a lookout. The mountain formations are so dramatic and beautiful.

As with Pepeete, the main language is French which makes it feel like you’re really quite a long way from home. Although it made sign-reading a pain, it was pretty cool.

For me, and I think everyone else agrees, so far Moorea is the highlight of the trip. I could have spent a week here. Or a month.

Photos for the day

Yesterday was an at-sea day between the Cook Islands and Tahiti, a nice day to relax and take it extra slow. There’s a couple of photos from the day here.

This morning we arrived in Papeete and actually docked at a wharf, meaning  we could walk on and off the boat easily. It’s so much easier than having to go by tender. According to the Lonely Planet guide, Tahiti’s capital isn’t much to write home about, but we all had a fantastic time. If you want to see the more scenic parts of the island you have to travel a bit, but we were perfectly happy wandering around Papeete.

Ange had a bit of a route planned based on the Lonely Planet guide, so after breakfast we wrangled the kids and headed into town. Although it’s not a huge city  by any stretch, it was nice to actually see traffic and be surrounded by a decent density of people. It’s pretty run down in places, and getting around the busy, narrow, cracked and broken footpaths with the pram was a challenge.

Despite obviously being conscious of tourists the people don’t really seem that happy to see you. Then again, 2000 old middle class white folk turning up and making a nuisance of themselves would probably annoy me too. Not that anyone was overtly rude, but the attitude was quite different to Tonga and the Cook Islands where people were helpful and interested.

After lunch (and some perl buying) at a market, we wandered some more can found a kids playground. The boys had a ball and Will caught the attention of a couple of local girls with his patented LookAtMeLaugh. We all headed back to the ship after that so that Will could have his afternoon sleep somewhere quiet. Ange decided to take Jeremy back so they had a couple of extra fun hours.

Although there wasn’t a whole lot to do as such, I think we all enjoyed being around a fair volume of people for a change.

Photos for the day