Moorea – French Polynesia

category: travelling
by Yun,

Moorea, French Polynesia: a beginning to paradise.

Ia Orana,

For our honeymoon, we spent almost two weeks in French Polynesia Society Islands, which included Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora. Actually, we didn’t want to spend anything more than a “force overnight” in Papeete. Papeete, which is the capital city of Tahiti, is just a crowded small city without much to be recommended of, except the interesting central market. But yes, Moorea and especially Bora bora are both remarkably beautiful. First, our flight arrived at Papeete early in the morning, and we were greeted by local residents playing a music that said we were going to love this place and never wanted to leave – indeed it was true. They gave me two fragrant white flowers (called Tiare) and placed them behind my ears. After that, our next flight took less than 10 minutes to reach Moorea from Papeete by a small airplane. And then we directly headed to Sheraton Moorea Lagoon Resort and spa. We didn’t regret to choose Sheraton Moorea over other hotels for the reason that it is located on the best part of the lagoon and known for having exceptional coral reefs around the island. I previously thought that I might not like to stay in Moorea because of its tranquility and less touristy. However, my early skepticism about Moorea turned out to be wrong. Moorea surely was a paradise for honeymooners.

Located only 12 miles (i.e. 19 kilometers) west of Tahiti Island, Moorea becomes a weekender par excellence for many Tahitians. Its volcanic peaks, reflected in the tranquil waters of Cook’s bay and Opunohu’s bay, its white sand beaches, and its crystalline lagoons are the main signatures of this island. Around the main island was a lagoon varying in the depth from shallow water to deep passage leading into the Pacific Ocean. At the edge of the lagoon was a reef that circled the island and a few small motus. Almost French Polynesian islands have the same characteristic as this one that distinguishes it from many other tropical islands in the rest of the world.

On the first day, we decided not to do much and just enjoy the island’s amazing scenery. We took a free shuttle from Sheraton to the local “mini” shopping center (only few shops, bank, and restaurants available) and the decided to grab a lunch at one of the local snack bars around the street corner. We spent the rest of the day snorkeling right off the beach. Snorkeling, paddle-boating, and kayaking gears are complimentary for the hotel guests but they must be returned by 4:30 pm each day. The quality of the snorkeling here was very good: plenty of fish and coral reefs around the over water bungalow. Sadly, I did see many of the corals damaged and dying. At the time of checking into the hotel, I was very surprised to see that no rules about “how to respect the ocean” were given to the guests. I am not a professional diver but I know that you should not touch sea corals with your hands, fins, or feet because frequent contacts can destroy the corals. However, the fact that many people touched the coral reefs was very unfortunate. I really hope that Sheraton Moorea Lagoon Resort (and other hotels in French Polynesia) can find a way educating their guests not to compromise the natural beauty of the island.

The hotel offered several different types of bungalows, and we picked the Garden bungalow for our four-day stay in Moorea. As it rained a lot on the first day in hotel, water unfortunately started to drip from our bungalow ceiling, and then we complained to the hotel reception desk. Luckily, we were told to move to the Beach bungalow that was right next to the beach and had a very nice beach view. Yay! Both bungalows (i.e. Garden and Beach) had similar looks as both were beautifully decorated using exotic woods and thatched roof. Although well known as a chained hotel industry, Sheraton had done a great job in giving a uniquely Polynesian touch for each bungalow. There was also a pillow menu to choose from the fancy goose down, heart-shape feather pillow, or hypo-allergenic pillow just by pressing the housekeeping button.

One evening, we called Alfredo’s restaurant to arrange our pick up (they offered free transport). According the Moorea tourist guide, Alfredo’s was be ranked the best restaurant in the island. This made us set our expectation quite high about the quality and taste of the food. However, it turned out that the food was just so so. It might be true that the restaurant was one of the best restaurants in Moorea. But for us personally, if you compared to United States, with the same price you could get much better quality of food.

Getting around Moorea without a car or a bicycle is not easy. Renting a bugxter (an open small car) enabled us to explore the island. Among other things, Moorea is known as a “Pineapple Island” for its abundance of pineapple plantation resulting large and commercial quantity of the tasty fruit. We made a stop at Jus De Fruit de Moorea, owned by the omnipotent Coca Cola company, to see the fruit processing plant. They made different kind “Rotui” fruit juice, which you must try if you spent a day over there. The next stop was to ascend to the Belvedere Point where we had a magnificent view of both Cooks and Opunohu Bays. On the way down, we also had a great view of the famous peak, the Mouaroa Peak.

In the late afternoon, we went out kayaking from the hotel beach and enjoyed the beauty of the lagoon around the island. Different kinds of corals and fish could be seen along the lagoon. The only thing that we regretted was that we did not have a good underwater camera. We just bought a disposable camera and the results were poorly blurred. So, next time you plan to visit the beauty of French Polynesia, don’t forget to bring a good underwater camera. At the end, we fell in love with this place but… the best was not yet come. Bora-bora had been waiting for us as our next destination. Keep your eyes open for our breathtaking Bora-Bora story.

Comments

2 Comments so far

Bora-Bora » Fired Travel Agent Reveals How To Get Dirt Cheap Airfare Tickets! | 06 August 2008, 11:04
[...] Moorea-French PolynesiaIa Orana, For our honeymoon, we spent almost two weeks in French Polynesia Society Islands, which included Tahiti, Moorea, and Bora Bora. Actually, we didn’t want to spend anything more than a “force overnight” in Papeete. … [...]
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