Huahine and Moorea: the land of pineapples!

Labels: 50 - Huahine and Moorea: the land of pineapples!

Huahine and Moorea: the land of pineapples!

01/8/2019 En route for Moorea, the promised land of pineapples 😎

Quick sail from Tahiti and some quality time with my youngest daughter 😍

We first off all discover Moorea to be the island of water cabins ...

and yachts !

Beautiful landscape though!

And while Anna feels a bit cold (it is winter here 😳), Geoff and I still enjoy "debating" anchorages under the warm sunlight. No, it's true that the air coming from the South is quite cold, so in the shade you can actually get goosebumps!

Arrival at the entrance of Cook's bay. There was no space left along the reef so we anchored deep inside the bay, which was beautiful.

Very dramatic landscape!

The bay is good for a bit of shopping and a visit to the Juice factory.

If you want to really visit the island it's better to start at Opunohu Bay.

There's a nice anchorage in front of Papetoai.

From here you can go for a snorkel between Motu Fareone and Motu Tiahura.

It's mainly a place where you can 'cuddle' Southern Stingrays.

Well ... Geoffrey touches them, I 'tried' 😳

And you find quite a lot of Unicorn fishes, very cute!

But as you can see, tourism has damaged these corals quite badly 😭

And back to the boat...

3/09/2019. Time to go on a tour around the island. It's also the last day for my dad 😢

You can rent a car in the Continental hotel. I've seen worse places to check out your Avis car 😋

And then we're off for a day of touring around the island. In between heavy rainshowers it's nice, however we wouldn't rent a car next time. Only the Belvédère seems worth visiting 😲

Belvédère in the rain: to the left Opunohu bay and to the right Cook's bay.

Needless to say we didn't really got out of the car ... So hup to the Tropical garden. It's ok, cute to see. The first time for me to see so many vanilla creepers!

And you have a nice view over our anchorage from up there.

We continue the roadtrip and stop around Cook's Bay for a nice lunch. A bit too French, but it was good 😋 Calvados for my dad and crêpe flambée for Geoff. Ice cream for the girls, and I got to taste it all, so everybody happy!

A bit further you have a view point over the Sofitel. You can see Tahiti in the background.

And the locals have cars adapted to there canoe's or is it the other way around?

Last stop: we went in search for the Afareaitu waterfall's. You really have to earn this one. The road is very bad. You have to ask where to stop several times as there is no sign. And unfortunately we didn't make it to the waterfall as it was getting darker. But we got a true sense of Moorea's forest. Smells are wonderful and the vegetation dense and rough 😍

And random horses run around, ready for a hug.

After saying goodbye to my dad we had a bit of a hard time finding our boat back in the dark. We touched the reef once (luckily no damage to Bob), and the girls thought it was really cool to search for LouiseAnna with a flashlight 😎

4/09/2019 We have to return the car, but decide to try and check out the Belvédère again as the sky was clear this early in the day!

And we were lucky! A lot nicer under the sun. so again to the left Opunohu bay and to the right Cook's bay.

It feels a bit like autumn in Belgium with the coloured leaves 😜

On the way down there are some Marae's you can visit and so many hiking trails. We are sad to have to rush through but we're leaving to Tahiti again in a few hours 😲

Small trees in this forest ...

A pineapple field

And while dropping off the car, the hotel let us check out their turtle nursery.

Each turtle get's to go in another basin according to their healing. The basins are inside the hotel lagoon and so it's a very natural environment for them.

This one we found in the last basin and he's really ready to swim off!

Murène:

We were also just in time to see a dolphin show 😍

And then off to Tahiti to lift out our boat. The spare propellor we installed in the Marquises will finally be replaced by a new one!

So ciao Moorea !

The girls were happy to find their friend one more time. It's crazy hot, but they insist on keeping a dress on!

05/08/2019
Lift out. The bay of Papeete is very busy. And we need to get out of the bay to enter from the east as we're to tall to go under the bridge to the ship warf.

They're already waiting and a diver places the slings at the right position under the boat. Impressive!

We just stay on as one hour later we're off to Huahine! The girls love having a view high up!

Quick check up. Antifouling still great!

7/09/2019 Arrival at Huahine. What a night sailing. We haven't seen that many boats since Gibraltar. Just crazy! And so few with AIS! So no sleeping watches! Check out this radar view with our Marpa targets (you set this when you detect a boat on radar).

After a heated conversation by VHF to an American sailing vessel 😏 we quietly arrived at Huahine. Looks beautiful!!! We have to go around quite far as the reef is enormous!

And to make sure we don't forget it's rainy season: we arrive in a big rainshower again!

Curious water hut. It's moving!

Not too bad when the sky clears up! The is at the very south of Huahine: Avea bay.

We go for a local taste of the food!

View from the terras 😎

A bit of intellectual occupation while waiting for dinner 😏!

And we get to see the women cleaning the Parrot fish we will get on our plate (two hours later) 😜

08/08/2019 We take Bob to check out a temple on the west side of the island. You can only go around by dinghy. It's a bit rough, but beautiful colours!!!

Not that much else to see and as it gets choppy and very very windy, we decide to move a little towards the north: Teapaa. The short sail towards this bay is gorgeous! And you realise how well you are protected by the reef!

Teapaa is a large inlet where the two islands of Huahine are connected by a small bridge. It's too deep for us to anchor, but we do go around for a scenic tour 😎

As usual, the girls go for a 'waaaaaw' and then back to their business 😝

So we anchor just at the entrance of the inlet.

Just in time for another rainshower!

But after the rain ...

... a beautiful sunset with Tahaa in the background!

10/08/2019 From this tiny beach you can go on a great hike towards the bridge. You really have to try and find the footpath, I guess not many people hike over here ...

View over this anchorage. Not too bad hé?!

Very dense forest, full off beautiful flowers we usually only see inside greenhouses in Belgium! Geoffrey feels like the bird ringtones, might have been recorded right here! 😂

And very far up, away from any road, some remnants of an 'early settlement' 😏

A Hummer asks us if we need a ride. The three girls are REALLY mad at Geoffrey for telling them no!!! I mean, just for once, no?!

Huge bamboo here and there!

Almost at the bridge, but at 9:30 in the morning it already gets too hot, so we decide to head back...

Since it's still early, we can squeeze some beach time and an hour of snorkeling in, before the 5 o'clock apéro 😋

It's actually very nice spot to snorkel. And in memory of a boatfriend, that decided to stay another year in French Polynesia, we tried to catch some fish by hand!

11/08/2019 Time to get to the capital of Huahine, Mare, for some groceries. Quite cute, this village! With a really cool yacht club bar! The way up there was again very nice. Huahine is truly beautiful and if you have the time, worth exploring a lot longer!