Mo’ore’a

 

Mo’ore’a

Jen writes:

Our ship anchored in Cook’s Bay (but we later learned that Cook never used this particular bay…rather the NEXT one over) This neighboring island to Tahiti is 18 miles by sea and takes almost 3 hours to navigate by ship.  We arrived at 8:00 am and enjoyed seeing volcanic mountains covered in greenery.  This island has more of the grass covered huts—predominantly on resorts as bungalows.  We took the second tender on to shore and waited and watched for about 10 minutes for our tour to arrive in a safari-type truck.  Pierre greeted us and introduced us to the two already in the back—a couple from the Seattle area who are in the islands for about 11 days for her birthday.  Pierre is a native to the island, learned his English by staying in New Zealand for two years, studying tourism.  He proudly drove us ahead of the tourist rush to the two main viewpoints on the island:  Magic Mountain and Belvedere Point.  (See photos)  The main road was in really good shape, but the side roads were narrow to path-like, so his manual-transmission 4x4 truck was helpful.  The first side road after the two main spots took us through a large pineapple farm where we picked a tiny one that was yellow/done.  Located in the caldera of the volcano, this is rich, rich farmland.  Did you know that pineapples take 10 months to grow…that it needs 2 months rest before it can grow another fruit…that one plant can yield 3-4 in its lifetime before it needs to be replaced?  No wonder they are expensive!

Nearby was a garden entirely enclosed by a web-mesh in a perfect rectangle.  Inside, on rows upon tight suspended rows (kind of like a tight vineyard) were tall green vines with thick green beans hanging in clumps.  Nope.  Not green beans.  Vanilla beans.  One clump held in one hand was probably $150 in the market.  Vanilla beans need care and intentionality to brow.  Each must be hand pollinated,  after picking, need 2 months to dry but also need to be touched daily as they dry!  Each must be massaged by hand to yield all its flavor and aroma.  Why the enclosure? Vanilla beans are in the same family as orchids, so need shade.

We then left the roads and headed through the backyard alleys of a village and parked near a woven leaf covered picnic table near the ocean.  Pierre invited us to walk the beaches for about 20 minutes while he prepared lunch for us:  ceviche created right in front of us, fried rice, fresh coconut, pineapple, bananas, and mango, coconut sweet bread, and gelatin cubes of coconut that tasted like sticky rice.  He had an entire small cooler full of beer, so we enjoyed a bottle of Tahiti lager.  He mixed the ceviche and “cooked”’ the fresh raw tuna with lots of fresh lime juice.  The ceviche is the main dish fixed on this island.

After we walked along the white sand beach (caused by coral reef particles on sand as opposed to black sand beaches caused by volcanic particles) Pierre told us about a group called Coral Gardeners.  They discovered a super coral of sorts which does not appear to be affected by the rising temperature of the ocean and are planting it in hopes of repairing damaged reefs.  Here’s a teaser from their website: “Our project was born on Mo’orea, the sister island of Tahiti in French Polynesia, in 2017. We started as a small group of island kids who were witnessing the rapid degradation of the coral reef around us and decided to take action. Today, the small group of island kids grew to an international collective of scientists, engineers, creators, and advocates determined to save the reef by revolutionizing ocean conservation and generating collaborative action around the world. This is just the beginning of the ocean revolution.” https://coralgardeners.org

After filling up, we headed onto yet another backyard alley area, this time of a mostly gated community, driving toward the waterfall.  We think the walls are actually to keep animals out, not people.  Not much crime here, and nowhere to go.  We had about a 30 minute hike on a rocky trail dampened by rain from yesterday,  At a couple spots, we climbed rocks through a run off creek, with lots of help from our guide.  He and the other couple got into the water at the base of the 250 ft.  cascade waterfall and enjoyed getting dripped upon.  Not lots of water coming over today, After hiking back, Pierre drove us to a taxi who would take us the final 20 minutes to the ship. 

We were able to watch the second half of the second playoff game.  We were plenty tired from the sun and humidity.  Another fantastic Polynesian day!