Living The Dream In Moorea: Please Don’t Wake Me Up

Christmas is in the air

By now, Christmas was in the air, and the islanders were getting ready for the holiday. The local supermarket was packed, but the best way to buy groceries in Moorea is by just stopping along the main road, where you find dozens of friendly local stalls selling anything from passionfruit to freshly caught red tuna. I’m living the dream in Moorea… please don’t wake me up!

Christmas also marked the start of my neighbor, Yann’s rare 4-day vacation. So we decided to start things off with a hike into the rainforest. It was the start of the wild pig hunting season, so we had to be careful not to cross the gun sights of a local hunter. We walked through the ancient forest, crossing a few streams, walking along giant mape and bamboo trees and even saw a couple of snails getting it on. On the way, we picked fresh passion fruit and mangoes for tonight’s dessert.

After the hike, we stopped for a dip at Temae Beach, another local’s favorite swimming spot. This is the widest beach in Moorea, and aside from the clear waters and white sand, the other attractions are Tahiti, just across on the horizon, and the overwater bungalows of the Sofitel resort. How pretty is this? The beaches of Moorea are so different than Samoa’s wild beaches or even the ones in Rarotonga. The reef in Moorea breaks far from the coast, creating a huge lagoon that’s like a giant bathtub.

My favorite spot on the island

On the ride back home, the clouds on our side of the island were starting to clear up just in time for the sunset. We stopped at Atiha Bay, a sleepy little fishing village, to watch the colors of the sun hitting the lush mountains. Amplified by the water, the show was simply stunning. This is going to be a beautiful night!

When we got back home, Yann fired up the BBQ for our Christmas dinner. This would mark the start of a series of royal dinners, with tuna steaks, Yann’s world-famous grilled chicken and New Zealand beef alternating on the menu along with some local Tahitian rum.

At night, we would just head to the beach to enjoy the stars, the sounds of the waves crashing on the reef and the occasional reef shark hunting for a late dinner. Moorea is so peaceful – there’s not much to do and it’s just perfect!

The next few days were spent in a lazy fashion. Here’s a typical schedule: breakfast out on the deck (the kitchen is outside, so there’s no choice), a bit of kayaking off the bungalow to get the blood flowing, then off to the beach for some sun and snorkeling, capped off by a sumptuous dinner with the local catch of the day.

What to do with the leftover food?

And what do you do with the leftover food? That’s easy. Back home, you would just toss it in the garbage. But over here in Moorea, you just walk down to the beach, toss the leftover tuna in the water and wait… After a few minutes, stingrays start to arrive from the deep end of the lagoon to feast on the easiest catch they’ll ever make. These creatures are amazing and it’s just so unbelievable that you can see them every day from up close! Here’s a video of one in action. 

Speaking of beaches, aside from the beaches of Temae and Mareto, a sure candidate for the top spot must be motu beach at Les Tipaniers. This is really the stuff dreams are made of, and when you think about French Polynesia, you probably have these images running through your head.

Just a few hundred meters offshore, lie three motus, or small islets inside the lagoon. You can swim, kayak or head out by boat, but the classiest way is to be picked up for dinner at one of the restaurants on the motus.

With Christmas wrapping up, locals had one more party up their sleeve. Dozens of Tahitian families gathered at Painapo Beach for a massive ma’a Tahiti feast, very similar to the Samoan umu, where food is cooked for hours in an earth oven. All that food didn’t stop them from getting on the dance floor to the sound of local tunes. Perhaps it was all that booze that was flowing like water. The local residents of Moorea seem to know they live in paradise, so why stop them?

The Magic Mountain

The days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve were marked with exceptionally clear days. It was as if the seasons flipped, with a fresh breeze blowing away the warm moist air in the valleys that usually form the clouds. It was the perfect opportunity to do some more hiking, starting off with a climb to the badly named ‘Magic Mountain’. Visitors usually make it up the steep mountain on quad bikes but I decided to hike it all the way up. My timing was perfect, as there was a massive cruise ship anchored in Opunohu Bay, providing unique photo opportunities. The island did feel a bit busier on this day, as passengers from the ship were consonantly ferried to shore via small boats for short excursions. Not my kind of thing.

The steep and sweaty climb to the summit of Magical Mountain was well worth the effort. The view from up here is even better than that of the belvedere, with 360-degree panoramic views of the bay, the beautiful lagoon and Moorea’s mountains. You can even see from up here the overwater bungalows of the (former) Intercontinental Resort, one of Moorea’s finest.

On the drive back home, I stopped once again at my favorite spot on the island, Atiha Bay, where the mountains were free from the clouds and the fishing boats just coming back with today’s catch.

Just suck it up and climb like a Tahitian

The exceptionally good weather continued as 2016 was approaching. During the rainy season, sunny days like these are a rarity. I headed to the other side of the island, to the village of Vaire, to attempt a crossing of the island to the other side. The lagoon was radiating on this day with deep shades of turquoise and blue. You could even clearly see Tahiti’s massive volcanic peaks and deep valleys. What a sight!

The trailhead was super difficult to find. You start off by walking through local orchards, filled with mangoes, papaya and that smelly yet super healthy fruit called Noni. I nearly gave up but at the last minute, saw a local farmer walking out of the bush with a massive payload of fruit on his back. With my limited French, I managed to understand that I’m at exactly the right spot and from here to the top – “just suck it up and climb like a local Tahitian”, in the farmer’s own words.

The trail was steep, forcing many stops along the way with fending off the hungry mosquitoes. On the positive side, the water breaks gave me the chance to once again admire from up close the unique Tahitian chestnut trees (mape), with their fairy tale-like roots that often served as stairs.

After about an hour of sheer climbing, I made it to the top of the ridge. From up here, you can see the eastern and northern coasts of Moorea, with the mountains providing shelter for the pineapple fields down in the valley. What a view! This is what I imagined a hike in French Polynesia to look like.

With public transportation virtually nonexistent and New Year’s Eve just hours away, I decided to walk back the same way I came from and escape to the comforts of my little car’s air conditioning.

Happy new year Moorea!

New Year’s Eve in Moorea was spent in classic local fashion – doing absolutely nothing. There weren’t any parties around and it was just the sounds of the crickets and the waves throughout most of the night. Occasionally, there were some makeshift fireworks tossed into the night sky, prompting Yann and me to head to the beach and check out the rare nightly highlight. As tough as Harley, the owner’s dog is, he couldn’t handle the sounds of the fireworks and dug himself deep inside the house.

The first day of 2016 was relaxing, even by Moorea standards. Locals weren’t up for any dancing like on Christmas Day, this time just opting to camp out on the beach with their extended families and enjoying some food and a splash.

Yann and I, on the other hand, decided to check out the local waterfall. We parked the car at a local’s house, where we had no choice but to accept the offering of Coca-Cola cans and leftover New Year’s Eve cake for the journey. A quick 30-minute hike via endless avocado trees and tropical flowers brings you to a mighty high waterfall, that was just starting to fill up with the start of the rainy season. Since everybody was at the beach, we had the waterfall all to ourselves, cooling off before the sweaty walk back.

Man, that guy is super fit!

That weekend, Yann’s childhood friend Fred, arrived from New Caledonia to do some catching up and windsurfing. With surf conditions not optimal, we headed out to attempt what hasn’t been done before (by me at least): two hikes in one day!

We started off with one of the island’s famous hikes, the 3 coconuts pass. The hike is not difficult at all, except that Fred was leading the pack and it’s as if he’s on some kind of race. Man, that guy walks so fast!

When we got to the top, we discovered that the three coconuts were long gone, blown away in some cyclone many years ago. Nonetheless, the view of Cook’s Bay and the mountains was worth it. I’ve gotten so used to these views by now that I take them for granted.

Our second hike was on the other side of the island, just above Temae Beach. This was almost a vertical climb straight up to the summit, and Fred was pretty much running this one all the way up. Even on a cloudy day like this, the lagoon still looks spectacular!

I’m living the dream in Moorea… please don’t wake me up!

What’s Next?

Over the next few weeks in Moorea, we’ll check out some of its exquisite marine life. Ready for some sharks, dolphins, stingrays and who knows what else? Stay tuned…

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