Pension te miti Punaauia

Moorea

After a night of cruising—a total of 12 miles—we awoke to the sight of beautiful Moorea. We're anchored in a harbor surrounded by mountain peaks. It reminded us of the Alaskan cruise when we woke up in Glacier Bay, with a few subtle differences. There, there was snow and ice, here palm trees and the bluest clearest water you can imagine. It’s not a deep port so we had to be tendered ashore ...

... dark green land cruiser pulls over to offer us a free ride! Three
French people (two elderly and one young) inquire where we are
headed—in French of course—and tell us they can get us about ¾
of the way there! Minutes after dropping us off at their
destination, another French couple offers us another ride in the back
of their van to the Tiki Village—which is where we are attending a
dinner and Polynesian show!

... area – no one can see us and we can't see them. Proving
that it's a small world – Mike and Mark totally connect because
wouldn't you know it Mark used to live in Coeur d'Alene. Mike becomes
Mark's best friend because he has yet to have a guest from Coeur
d'Alene stay at his place.

After settling in we took bikes and rode around the island
stopping off at the beach – and ended up eating ...

... None of them are talking - they are just gazing into each other eyes in love. The older couples are not talking either - they are just exchanging looks of hatred. And as for the families - they aren't talking either - they are just trying to placate the brat in the high chair. It's official - paradise has somewhat turned out to be hell on earth. Thankfully the pizza is scrumptious and I have a whisky at the bar and then back to the room to clear off the ...

Today we visited Papeete, Tahiti. This completes our "Mutiny on the Bounty" travels. This is where it all began. The events that eventually led to the mutiny began when Capitan Bligh landed here in Papeete. A nearby Island Moorea is the location for the filming of the last "Mutiny on the Bounty" movie. The island is clearly visible from Papeete and there is a ferry service between the island and Papeete. The movie has been shown on the ship's video channels several times ...

... sides with a very narrow path and even some rope to help you when it is too dangerous. To slip is not advised and we had to convince ourselves that it was somewhat safe to continue after the first "refuge". We stopped 15 min before the summit, too scared of the path collapsing beneath us. The trees were not there anymore to fix the thin crust of soil and ...

... islands had cost an arm and a leg and we needed a transfer of reserve funds. We ate in the open sided hotel restaurant on a warm, tropical night and then went to bed for a (short) night's sleep. Reflection: I tried not to get hung up on the 'tropical paradise' label but this was a very enjoyable and relaxing few days, which we probably didn't realize we needed. Just to stop and do (mostly) nothing was a delight and to ...

... even had a separate immigration channel for European Passport holders. Unfortunately my language skills are really bad, so having attempted to speak Spanish for 4 months I now had to forget all that and try to speak French. The result was an appalling mixture of English-Spanish-French... and somehow a bit of German too! I stayed in a pension run by a really friendly french couple. It was only a few minutes walk to the beach, but ...

... and the others agreed) and we ended up dumping some of the wine out before we left. I really didn't want to go, but the driver had asked us to be waiting for her so we had to hurry to get back to the road. We waited about ten minutes for her, and were only just starting to discuss how long you wait for a taxi pickup before you go and call another one when she pulled up. She took us right back to the boat and after a hot shower to rinse off all the sticky black sand I was in bed. It was 8:30.