Baie D'Opunohu Moorea
Southern Princess
John & Irene Hunt
Mon 21 Apr 2008 03:56
17:30S
149:51W
15:00 hours saw us anchored in Baie D'Opunohu on the north coast of Moorea about 2nm west of Baie De Cook. The bottom of Cook Bay is mud which makes the water murky and all three of us would prefer to swim where we can see, hence the move.
15:00 hours saw us anchored in Baie D'Opunohu on the north coast of Moorea about 2nm west of Baie De Cook. The bottom of Cook Bay is mud which makes the water murky and all three of us would prefer to swim where we can see, hence the move.
We dined ashore at The Moana Sheraton
Spa which was treś elegante and complete with a hula dancing floor show, fire
eaters and fire walkers. Huge seafood buffet and great desert table to finish
off. Only problem was that we walked 30 minutes to get there confident we could
get a taxi back however all the local taxis stop at 21:00 so the walk back
probably was a good thing after all that food!
The Island of Hiva Oa in the Marquesas
have the 'largest tiki in the Pacific' and after a 2 hour drive in a small
Suzuki jeep over 47 klm of unmade roads. Pefer our guide and driver kept
apologising for the horrible ride. So 2 hours there, 20 minutes with the tikis
and two hours back! Worth it? Unfortunately after Ephesus everything
else is not quite up to the 'Wow' factor. That's Lorraine with the
executioner. They used to chop off heads in front of him.
That's Lorraine again or 'Rainy' for
short. Have a look at the grapefruit. Locally they are called 'pamplemousse'.
Have a very thick skin but once peeled they are delicious.
The pearl farm. This fellow is
threading new oysters from another island onto a nylon string so they can hang
them under the building and rehydrate them prior to grafting. They take about a
week in the water to rehydrate and those that survive have the pearl started
inserted and then out into the lagoon for a few years for the oyster to
develop.
The grafting process. The oyster is
opened slightly and the small piece of starter pearl is inserted into the
oyster. JH gets his hair cut by the Princess.
We get some spectacular rain squalls.
Most of the time we steer around them but every now and again, especially at
night one catches us. Lots of wind and lots of water. Southern Princess is very
clean! Storyteller at sunset enroute Tuamotus to Tahiti.
Chooks like these roam wild on most of
the Marquesas and Tuamotus. This one was tethered as he was on the way to the
pot I think. What about this soda bread. Thanks to Val off Blueflyer for the
lesson in making Irish Soda Bread. This is my best effort to date.
Tahitian dancers and the obligatory
fire eater and fire walker. These were at Cooks Bay on Moorea.
We arrived in Marina Taina, Papeete,
Tahiti on Wednesday 16th and have since then been busy getting all the jobs
done. We will be here until the 2nd May at which time we take part in the Tahiti
Pearl Regatta for 5 days ending in Bora Bora.
As things happen, I will up date the
blog. In the meantime be good to one another.
Cheers
JH