Tahiti and Moorea

Days 9-11

After another relaxing day at sea, (literally, I just read a book by the pool all day), we arrived in Papeete (pah-pay-yet-tay), Tahiti yesterday… it is very much a city (kinda reminded me of Nogales in its layout, but much prettier, cleaner, and less scary) and we spent about an hour and ½ waiting for the right bus to take us out of town…. Finally our lucky #14 came and we were on our way to Point Venus, the northern most part of the island.
The ride was pretty and worth the wait, especially since it was only about $2 pp and a taxi costs anywhere from $40-120!
We spent some time enjoying the black sand beach and warm water before we headed back to town, via another lovely drive… when we got back to town we hit up the Marche’ for some fun goodies and postcards and made our way back to the ship in time to enjoy the “Sundown Social” on the pool deck… you know you’re really livin’ it up when they bust out “Billie Jean” on the steel drums... the drummer was hilarious… you could tell he was just itchin’ to rock out!
The Show that night was put on by traditional Tahitian dancers, mesmerizing us with their hypnotic swaying hips… they definitely put the shake in booty-shakin!
Today was my favorite so far… we arrived in Moorea, a gorgeous island just about 20 miles off of Tahiti where The Bounty, with Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins was filmed. Much more rustic and pretty much the epitome of what I imagine a South Pacific island to be… we didn’t book an excursion with the cruise (too pricey), but instead hopped off the tender armed with our snorkel gear and ran into a snorkel tour (by boat)that was leaving just at that moment and they gave us the deal of $40pp (most of the rest of the folks from the ship paid twice that!)…
we headed across the gorgeous turquoise waters and got treated to an amazing sight… not 20 feet away a mama whale and her baby decided to make themselves known! Mama breached beautifully a few times for us (wasn’t quick enough with the camera though) and both surfaced several times before bidding adieu with a tail fin… that was the closest I’ve ever seen whales… a lady that had been on several Alaska cruises and whale watching excursions said it doesn’t get any better than that! That was worth my $40 right there! But then we stopped in a shallow area and got VERY up close and personal with some big stingrays and black-tipped reef sharks!
At first I was a bit nervous to touch the rays (so big!) but when I did it was marvelous to feel how velvety they were! While most everyone played with the rays, I noticed how close the sharks were, and after an initial jolt of terror, decided it must be captured on film… They were about 3 to 4 feet long or so (no Great Whites, mind you) and way cool to see… I tried the best I could to get some pics but it’s a little hard to tell what you get with the underwater camera as you are taking the pic and sometimes they’d come a little close for my comfort (just out of touching distance, probably about 4 feet away)… it was awesome though, and I never thought I’d be gutsy enough to be swimming in the same waters as sharks! (I blame Jack for making me watch Shark Week on Discovery in Hawaii :))
Next stop was our own little motu (private island), where we snorkeled some more among the coral and saw lots of fun little fishys… it was lovely and relaxing (my heart needed a break from the adrenaline).
Then back to the ship for food and blog time! Tomorrow we anchor in Bora Bora for 2 days!