Mo'orea Bungalow

Bags out at 6 am, then breakfast at 6:30 am. We were in the last group to leave at 8am since were just walking over to the ferry to Mo’orea.

As we were leaving, we saw them loading a large electric motor onto the ship, I assume it’s the part needed to fix the air conditioning.

We caught the 8:30 am ferry. Then a taxi to the Sofitel, arrived around 10:15. Had to wait till 11 for the room. Walked around looking for birds. We saw a few that we’d seen before Myna, munia, pigeon, white tern.

Snorkeled then had late lunch at beach bar. Snorkeled in early afternoon then it got too windy.

It stormed and rained later. The glass doors in the shower rattled in the wind.

Went to dinner with our rain jackets, it poured while eating, but was only dripping for our walk back.

Donna had lamb with green beans. Steve had turmeric tofu wrapped in a banana leaf. For dessert, Donna had passion fruit sorbet, Steve had Tiaré flower ice cream, the flavor was very subtle. The rain stopped during our walk back. It was dark and not well lit, should have brought the flashlight.

The storm had ended by morning.

The water is pretty calm. We went to breakfast at 6:30 am, then got ready to go snorkeling. The juices at breakfast were from the factory we visited yesterday.

There is a lot of branch coral in the area.

There was a strong current from the north. Donna struggled a bit against it. We drifted south near the beginning. Donna got out and Steve continued another 30 minutes. I went back north to see what’s up there. I found an eel.

There is an outdoor shower on the lower platform to rinse the salt water off. The birds like to sit on it.

Then we rested in the sun for 45 minutes and got back in. Donna saw a Moray Eel swimming near our bungalow right after she got in the water. The current was a little less.

We walked along the road to the overlook and public beach looking for food trucks, didn’t see any.

Walked back via beach, which was much quicker. We had lunch at beach bar. Two pizzas, could have gotten by with sharing one. When we returned to the bungalow, we saw two pacific reef herons looking for a nesting site in the bungalows.

Swam again at 4:30, out around 5:15. Cleaned up and rested then dinner at 6:45. Did some initial packing since we have to leave tomorrow morning.

On our last day, I got up before 6 and got a sunrise photo.

Donna had a sunburn on her rear where her suit pulled up more than the sunscreen. She elected to not get in the water to not make it worse. Put aloe on it. Went to breakfast and put aloe on Donna again.

I went snorkeling from 8:15-9:30. Went to the boundary south and north. The wind was minimal and the currents weak today, so it was easy.

Saw a stingray on the north end near the public beach.

Came back and set stuff out to dry in the sun. The fins and snorkel / mask dried quickly in the strong sun. My rash guard was still a little damp when we left the room at 11.

Went to beach north of beach bar near swing. Sat in the shade for 45 minutes, then went in the water to swim one last time. Just swam with my goggles, no snorkel or fins.

Then rested more, drying off. Shared a pizza for lunch at 2pm. Walked over to reception to get cleaned up at 3:15. Caught a taxi to ferry at 4. The ferry left at 16:40.

Waited over 30 minutes for a taxi at the ferry terminal in Pape’ete. There was an Ekiden race in downtown Pape’ete, snarling traffic. The Pape’ete Ekiden had teams of six at the marathon distance and teams of three on the half marathon distance. Shared the taxi to the airport with a woman from Hawaii since we didn’t know when the next taxi would arrive.

Security was time-consuming, I had to remove all cameras, lens and things with batteries. Pretty much emptied my bag getting that all out. It filled 5 trays. Then took 20 minutes to get it all back in.

Slept some on flight to SFO. Got through customs and security in less than an hour.