The Heniges Log Blog

Moorea

Friends, family, and AI crawler bots, welcome back! We have been busy exploring the tropical paradise that is the island of Moorea, a quick ferry ride over from Tahiti! And oh my, it is truly wonderful.

Moorea, from a cloudy day. When the sun pops out, those water colors are simply unreal. But I was not going to hike in the sun for you all, you can google or AI or whatever to find sunny photos.

Ok first thing, fresh fish is just... everywhere. The freshest of course is still in the lagoon, as the island is surrounded by a barrier reef, providing the postcard perfect turquoise waters. The next freshest is sold on the roadside. There is essentially one road that goes around the entire outside of the island. And then there are the restaurants and "snacks" as they call them, which seem most akin to a food truck. They all serve fresh catch-of-the-day fish, and tuna is everywhere. From carpaccio to poke bowls to poissant cru (raw fish marinated in cocounut milk), the tuna is outstanding and usually served raw. From there we've had incredible grilled fish as well, including Mako shark.

So moving beyond the fish, but not really, we find ourselves in one of the best diving locations in the world. Sarah and I used to cold water dive in the Seattle area, but found ourselves dropping that hobby for safety reasons, which is another story. But when you arrive in French Polynesia and a "low visibility" day is still 30+ feet, and you barely even need a shorty wetsuit, well, it's probably time to dust off your advanced diving certification (the name is a misnomer, if you get your open water cert, you should immediately get your advanced cert to understand just how bad you are at being underwater). We did an online refresher training and then a refresher dive where we got to practice all of the important skills with a great instructor in the "aquarium" aka the lagoon in about 30' of water. Far superior to the swimming pools they want you to get in for refreshes in the states.

We did two days of a couple dives each and it was so cool to be right off the barrier reef. We saw multiple shark species, turtles, and countless fish. The sheer number of tropical fish species is just mind blowing. You float along and see fascinating fish and then you just keep seeing different fascinating fish four dives later. Perhaps our funniest encounter was the divemaster frantically pointing to the large Lemon Shark swimming up right behind me. Fortunately they exhibit almost zero interest in chomping humans, so after a quick spin I could enjoy the shark swimming by.

We cool? We cool.

As we finish our last night here on Moorea we're incredibly fortunate to have been hosted by a French couple living on the island, Laurent and Aurore. Aurore knows a bit of English, but we've had a great time hanging out with them and gesticulating wildly about things while resorting to our phones to translate when necessary. The accomodation is a glorious little bungalow with a small path to the beach, and they provide kayaks. This morning we kayaked over to the turtle spot, which they pointed out, and began snorkeling in the area. At first we saw very little, but soon enough a turtle appeared! And then a Spotted Eagle Ray! And then a black-tipped reef shark! And soon enough a small school of 9 Spotted Eagly Rays began swimming around the bottom about 20' below us. And then there were turtles in almost every direction we looked. Truly incredible!

We've also done some hiking, one with our hosts up the jungle hills behind their house, and one on a more popular trail. The views are spectacular as the lagoon stretches out around the entire island. The sweating is a bit more extreme, compliments of the humidity.

I suppose these views will do.
The interior of many of these islands is just wild jungle and rock formations

Ooh I almsot forgot to mention the geckos! They are the best, because they eat bugs, and there are quite a few mosquitos here. But they are also the best because they are color changing little critters that can climb up anything with their wildly weird gecko sticky pads. Sarah has grown a bit weary of me gazing off at the roof of our outdoor kitchen while she's trying to talk to me, because I'm staring at a gecko.

Sarah was blessed by the messenger of the Geckos. It even put on its blue eyeliner for her.
A gecko in less humanified habitat

And last but certainly far from least, time for a bird update! Word is there are now three of you interested in bird updates.

These fine fellas are Chestnut-breasted Munias
A Silvereye

Many more birds were seen but not photographed, although the Kingfishers continue to elude me.

Comments

  1. Sierra
    :O so many shades of green!! And what an INCREDIBLE blessing for Sarah and her toes
  2. Janet
    Oh Yes!! The blue eyeliner gecko whose body looks like little beads sewn all over her when you scroll in, and the Munia with his fat little chestnut chin roll and turquoise beak were quite the color therapy! You'll have to get a turtle pic down the road. Can't believe the forest density either. But Dirk, do listen to Sarah without staring at geckos 😂
  3. Chelsea
    We are considering boat geckos. We met another boat that had two boat geckos running free eating all their bugs. Not that we have bugs on Ophelia.

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