As our time on Mo’orea (and in our bus house) draws to a close, I thought I might highlight the various things we found to do on this little island paradise. We tend to stick to an activity a day in order to give plenty of down time to keep our lives organized (this a marathon and not a sprint, after all). Four full days on the island, therefore, translated into four main activities: hiking to Āfareaitu Waterfall, swimming with sharks and stingrays, Temae beach day, and hiking to Three Pines Lookout. But, first, admire this picture from the Toatea Lookout where you can see where the other half stays on the island!
Āfareaitu Waterfall
We started this day by just driving around the island. Rarotonga took 45 minutes. This took about an hour. But where Rarotonga was just a big circle, Mo’orea had a lot more twists and turns. I kept intending to find somewhere that seemed particularly populated and park to get out and walk–maybe grab a coffee–but that just didn’t really seem to be the vibe the whole way round. So, we just kept driving. It was amazing to take in the landscape, though: lush with dramatic rocky green mountain peaks wearing cloud crowns. This was kind of an activity in and of itself so when afternoon rolled around, we decided to do the shortest hike we saw mentioned: a quick half hour in, half hour out.
It was about a 10 minute drive from the main road up to the parking area for the falls. Based on my research, I was expecting this parking area to be obvious, but, instead, a man just suddenly appeared and told me to park on a little bump out of grass and then asked me for 200 francs. The internet had prepared me well for this man’s arrival and I handed him my coin (about $2) and he pointed out two possible paths: one to a smaller waterfall and one to the bigger one. Obviously, bigger is better, so we went that way. The hike was relatively easy, though it did involve three different stream crossings (neither of us fell in). It was quite windy, which probably helped with mosquitoes, though I had slathered us with Off! anyway.
There was a little sign welcoming us to the waterfall before we could see it properly and then a fun little rope that was sort of helpful but mostly a good prop from playing mountaineer (CS went up and down it 3 times before I suggested maybe we could keep going to the actual waterfall). Once we got there, though, I was pretty impressed. Totally cool and all to ourselves. 5 out of 5 stars!
Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays
This adventure happened on the north side of Mo’orea, near Motu Tiahura (a “motu” is like a mini island, it seems). We wandered on the grounds of the Hotel Les Tipaniers, to a little blue rental shop called Tip Nautic and suggested we might like to swim with sharks etc. The very nice lady said we should just rent a double kayak and use good ol’ fashioned arm strength to paddle out to a spot that was dotted with a couple tourist boats and other kayaks. She was very confident we could do this easily and so I too became very confident. So, we piled into a kayak and CS mostly just dragged his paddle in the water unhelpfully and we motored our way over to the Banc de Sable Raies et Requins (Ray and Shark Bank). It was, actually, very easy. We had been told there would be buoys to attach our kayak to so it wouldn’t float away while we snorkeled, but I saw no such buoys. A nice man offered to hook us to the same place he was hooked, though, and soon we were ready to snorkel! CS has had a little practice with snorkeling but he is not currently in love with putting the mask on and off. Thus, after a little bit of snorkeling (blacktip reef sharks spotted! Triggerfish spotted!), we had a wardrobe malfunction that took awhile to manage. Meanwhile, a couple tourist boats had arrived and, clearly, their guides had fish in their hands, because the rays suddenly appeared in numbers (at least 4) and were swimming right up to the guides so their clients could pet them. CS and I both got to briefly touch a ray, but mostly just watched them. I do not have photo evidence of our shark and stingray sightings (iPhone + water felt dicey) but, trust me, they were epic! And we could touch the ground the whole time (well, I could). Afterwards, we paddled back near shore and tooled around in the kayak until we both were just sort of done.
Temae Public Beach
Supposedly Temae is the best beach to swim from on Mo’orea. It was near the cute little overwater huts at the beginning of this post, and the water was beautiful to be sure, but the beach itself was rather small and full of coral. Definitely a water shoe-wearing situation. We had brought our snorkels for more snorkel action, but CS left his on the beach and opted for his tried-and-true swim goggles. I was motivated to use my snorkel and did, but the current was actually quite strong and it wasn’t really easy to just hover and look at things without risking drifting into coral. So, instead we just sort of frolicked and CS had the best time fighting the current and locating the occasional fish.
Three Pines Lookout
In French: Les Trois Sapins. It felt like there several ways to skin this cat and the best starting point wasn’t immediately clear to me, but we ended up driving up to the Belvedere Lookout via the windiest road (hairpins much?) I think I have ever driven. We then parked there and I saw and scrutinized a trail map entirely in French that I committed to memory (just kidding: I took a picture and used Google Maps to make sure we were going the right direction). The hike started off downhill, which is never my favorite way to start a hike, as it means you will finish going uphill when you’re at your most tired. But, overall, it was a lovely little hike (about 2 hours total) that took us around tall trees with giant buttresses and beside a tinkling stream. We saw cute little iridescent lizards (skinks, maybe?) and tons of prehistoric vines and ferns. We “bonjour”ed everyone, which I found a bit funny as we were very likely, at least on occasion, speaking French with other English speakers with no one the wiser. The end of the hike featured a couple rope handles that added some fun and we finished on the top of a mountain that, indeed, DID have three pine trees (what?? how??) and a little wooden swing, as well. The view was AMAZING (see my panorama below)!
Au revoir, Mo’orea!
I’ll take it on faith that snorkeling with sharks was epic. But having watched Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D on the big screen I’m a little sad that you didn’t let your iPhone be drowned in salt water to convey the full, immersive experience. The above-ground photos of the place are plain wonderful. Fare forward, voyagers!