17:35S 149:48W

 

Moorea is a heart shaped island with two popular indented anchorages in the north – Cook’s Bay and Opunohu.   While absolutely beautiful with crystal clear water, good snorkelling, lovely walks ashore and white sandy beaches they are both (understandably) very crowded.  Tahiti and Moorea are only 12 nautical miles apart but it’s a further 80 miles to Huahine so with Charlotte and Colin’s time limited we opted to just explore Moorea and Tahiti.  Leaving the crowded anchorages in the north behind we were delighted to find the south eastern side delightfully remote and absolute tranquil.  Indeed, we had found perfection in paradise.

 

We anchored off a tiny island off the east coast and had some of the best snorkelling we’ve had in Moorea with some beautiful coral and gorgeous clams in bright, almost iridiscent, blue, green and purple colours.   The fish were plentiful and colourful but best of all the water was just so wonderfully clear.  After lunch we moved on to an anchorage just south of the pass –near the village of Maatea.  We had to pick our way into the anchorage carefully with scattered coral on one side and shallow ground on the other but it proved to be absolutely idyllic with not another boat in sight.  Our view to Moorea was up to the astonishing spires that dot the landscape while the land near the shore was lush with breadfruit, mango and banana trees.  Looking the other way we could see Tahiti – her jagged peaks shrouded in mist.

 

We anchored in six metres of gin clear water – we could see the anchor clearly on the bottom.

 

After a walk ashore – during which we saw not another tourist – we headed back to Bandit to soak it all up – magic!