French Polynesia - Day 7

First full day in Moorea and we chose to start it off with a wonderful breakfast, and then head to the pool! We also went snorkeling in the beach, and there were quite a few cool things to see.

We bought some more candy at the airport yesterday and decided to try a bunch out today. First up we have the Duplo bar. This one is like a round chocolate wafer with gooey chocolate and nuts in the middle. Interesting, but very good. Second was more of the taffy candies, Krema Festival. We bought this bag because it had new flavors and we thought we would try them; licorice, caramel, peach iced tea, and a few others. All very good, except the licorice one. Last new candy are the Squirms. These are basically just like sour gummy worms. Very good.

We also rented a kayak form the hotel and took a mini excursion around our hotel’s section of the island. Then more lying around by the pool, and the off to dinner. This was probably the best meal we have had this whole trip. AB had a crabcake, shrimp pot pie, and swordfish, and MB had lobster bisque, salmon, and veggies. There was also an incredible chandelier in the restaurant made entirely of shells, it was so cool.

And then of course there was desert. Chocolate, and more chocolate. Needless to say we were stuffed by the end of dinner, but it was by far the best we have had on our honeymoon.

French Polynesia - Off to Moorea

Leaving Bora Bora and off to Moorea! We skipped breakfast and just walked around the hotel just taking pictures of everything on the property, with our non-broken camera (underwater one still not working).

Entrance to Bora Bora Hilton

We also went snorkeling one last time off our private dock.

Then it was off to our last lunch in Bora Bora and off to the airport to Moorea! We finally arrived at our new hotel, and it is equally as beautiful!

Landing in Moorea

We had dinner at Toatea which specializes in crepes. AB had a pineapple, ham, and cheese crepe, and MB had a fish and cheese crepe. The restaurant literally sits over the water, and you could see fish and sharks swimming underneath you while you ate!

French Polynesia - Stormy Last Day

Today is our last full day in Bora Bora, so we decided to stay at the resort and enjoy all it had to offer. We had a full day planned, but Mother Nature had another plan. It rained ALL day. I think from 8am-4pm we had one 20 minute break, and that was it. We figured it would be a great day for the blog, but apparently when it thunderstorms or rains really heavy, the internet does not work. At one point it started raining so hard that water actually started leaking in underneath the front door, so we had to put towels down to absorb it. As weather nerds we loved being able to watch the storms off in the distance over the water. There is a faint rainbow in the 4th picture down.

It finally stopped raining about one hour before sunset. So we grabbed our snorkeling gear and hopped in for a quick snorkel! Then we dried off, grabbed our drinks and sat out on the dock to watch the sunset (well, what wasn’t hidden behind the leftover clouds).

French Polynesia - Private Island

We took a half day tour to a private island owned by the Hilton resort. It’s just a short boat ride away, and there were only 10 people total on the trip, so you basically felt like you had the place to yourself. First we just relaxed on some beach chairs, and enjoyed the sun.

Then it was off to snorkel a bit, and just swim around in the water. Underwater camera still wasn’t working, so no pictures of under the water, sorry. However, good news is that you didn’t miss much; there weren’t really a lot of creatures around. In fact, the best creatures we saw were the crabs on the beach.

Then it was a picnic lunch with some Tahitian beer and some French wine.

After the tour was over, we went back to the hotel and just relaxed by the pool, and on our deck.

Dinner at the fancy restaurant again tonight. So, just so you understand, food prices are not bad here, considering what you get (all meals have been excellent), but the drink prices are ridiculous. There is no such think as ordering tap water. It’s all bottled. Sparkling or Pure, as they call it. They are tall 20oz. bottles and they will run you about $7.50. Soft drinks ranging from Coke Zero to ginger ale with cost you $6, and there are no free refills. So you can imagine how much alcoholic drinks will cost (pina colada = $20). The only things that comes with 1 free refill are coffee and tea, but sine neither of us drink coffee, that leaves us mostly with paid drinks. Lets just say that we were drinking a lot of the tap water out of our glasses while we were in the room.

After dinner it was back to the hotel to read books, and watch some tv shows in iTunes. The TV here is all in Tahitian or French. BBC news is also on one of the channels, but its 24 hours of news….depressing for vacation. So we downloaded all 3 seasons of the show The League before we left home, and have been watching an episode or two a night before bed.

French Polynesia - Snorkeling

We took a snorkeling adventure, which was incredible! First stop…some coral reefs filled with small sharks and stingrays. At first AB was a bit apprehensive to get in, as were many others on the boat, but the tourguide started feeding them saying that if you feed them breakfast, they “only bite you a little”. Then he proceeded to laugh with this funny school-girl like cackle, to which we all understood to mean that he was joking. He tied off some ropes around the boat, and told us that if we stayed behind the white rope, the sharks and stingrays would not come near us. Liar. As soon as we were all out there he started feeding them again and they all swarmed. However, they wanted nothing to do with us. They just wanted him to feed them, and then they swam around a bit. Once the fear factor was gone, we both started swimming along the white rope and taking tons of pictures. After about 20 minutes of doing that, our tour guide told us to follow him to more shallow waters near the coral reefs (too shallow for sharks and rays apparently). It was there that we started to see some incredible fish, coral, and plants. The colors are amazing! After doing that for about 25 minutes, it was off to our next stop.

Second stop was a bit deeper. Here we saw even more colorful creatures. Our tourguide gave us some food to feed the fish, so they would come near us, and we could take pictures better. AB even found a tiny seahorse. 

Third stop was to see Manta rays. Not to be confused with sting rays….they are not even a close comparison in size. The Manta rays we saw were about 3 feet wide for their body, stretching to 6 feet wide with their “wingspan”. They just glide near the bottom of the ocean. Unfortunately, our camera stopped working here. The last stop was to see bigger sharks. The size of these sharks was slightly intimidating. However, we both got in and swam around. AB could only do it for about 5 minutes and got back in because she swears they were swarming her. MB decided to get a bit more bold and try to ride one. The tour guide showed him how, and he was able to ride for about 10 seconds (not much, but by the time you swim down to it, you only have 20 seconds left of breath, and you still have to swim back up). Again, underwater camera still not working, so no pictures of this...sorry.

We were wiped out after the snorkeling, so we went back to take a quick nap before dinner at the fancy restaurant tonight. The prices were not cheap, but weren’t terrible either, but we signed up for the meal plan through the travel agent, we only paid for our fancy drinks.