Tahiti Cruise--Day 10 (Moorea)

Day 10—Moorea (February 5, 2015)

From the Navigator:  “This morning Ocean Princess will drop anchor in Moorea, which means “yellow Lizard” in Tahitian….”

We had our last excursion scheduled in Moorea and we needed to meet at 8:00am in the Cabaret Lounge.  I set my alarm just in case, but I needed have worried since I was up at the usual time and out on deck early.  Since I wasn’t hungry, I actually skipped breakfast this morning and settled for just coffee.

Approaching Moorea

Our shore excursion left the lounge and we took the tender to shore where we boarded a bus for the island tour.  Our first stop was at a juice factory, where they offered a taste of a variety of alcoholic juices such as pineapple and vanilla with rum, pineapple wine, and other alcoholic drinks.  Since it was only 9:00am, I skipped the alcoholic samples.  I did buy a small jar of pineapple jam for 350 XPF (a little over $3). 

After the juice factory, we stopped at the Tiki Theater Village.  This was the reason we had booked this particular excursion.  There were a couple of women making baskets by weaving palm leaves, there was a demonstration of how coconuts were cracked in the “old way” using a stick, and old canoes on display. 

Weaving palm fronds

Hard to believe that people crossed the Pacific in canoes

In a small amphitheater, dancers performed several traditional Tahitian dances, including the fire dance. 

The musicians

Traditional dance demonstration

Fire Dance

Traditional Tahitian Dance

During the performance, it started raining hard, but luckily we were under cover and it didn’t affect us.  By the time the dances were done, the rain had stopped, and we wandered back to the bus. 

Our guide kept us entertained during the rest of the island drive while we circled all of Moorea—there’s only one road and it goes around the entire island, so it would be difficult to get lost as you end up back where you started.  We learned several Tahitian words, maru-aru (thank you), nana (good-bye), mo (yellow) and orea (lizard) so Moorea means yellow lizard, and pepe (water) and ete (basket), so Papeete, the capital of Tahiti, means water basket.

We stopped at a look-out overlooking Cooks Bay where our ship was anchored.  It turns out that Cooks Bay was not really where Captain Cook had landed.  Instead he had landed at the bay next to Cook’s Bay, but the map makers had made a mistake, and ever since, the bay where he didn’t land was known as Cook’s Bay.  This was one of the little facts our guide told us as we circumnavigated the island.

After the excursion, we boarded the tender back to the ship where we had lunch.  Then it was time to start packing since this was the last day of the cruise. 

Our ship heaved up her anchor a little before 5:00pm and we set out for Papeete which was a short 33 nautical miles away.  Heavy black storm clouds hovered over the ship as we left Moorea.  We had been so lucky on this cruise with only a couple of short showers despite the fact that we were cruising during the rainy season.  With the exception of the high humidity, we couldn’t have asked for better weather.

It may have been the excursion, the heat, the humidity, or the large lunch we had eaten, or a combination of them, but none of us was hungry for dinner.  Instead, we sat out on the promenade deck and watched as the ship arrived in Papeete and tied to her berth.  We decided we really should eat something, and went to the buffet, but nothing was really appealing.  I only picked at the chicken, baked potato, and broccoli, then headed down to my cabin to sleep on board for the last night.