French Polynesia: Moorea and Papeete, Tahiti

February 25-26, 2024

Several days at sea lets me get caught up – which does not mean I actually did catch up on things. (I still have cold weather socks in the drawer and sweaters in the closet). I continue to play guitar with whoever shows up at the pub at 1PM – which is a rotating cast of players. Gary boarded in LA and also plays a Donner Hush travel guitar. With the relaxed sea day schedule, there’s more time to appreciate sunsets and moon rises. 

Early in the cruise, Royal started presenting the Employee of the Month ceremonies during our “top tier” events – and Sun, my favorite barista (and one of my favorite staff overall) – won “front of the house” for January. 

 Moorea’s weather was conducive to tendering – so another successful port. To explore the island, John, Liam, Alan and a few other friends took advantage of a ½ day tour in the back of a 4×4 truck – for $40 pp promoted by the touts at the pier (about 1/3 of the Royal excursion price).

Our guide drove us up the steep roads of the mountains to the pineapple plantation planted on public lands (the government grants individuals the right to plant a certain amount of land).

When ripe, pineapples are picked and taken to the juice factory (Moorea is too far from from anywhere to export the fruit itself). We continued to an ancient graveyard, and to several lookouts to take in the views of the two major bays formed by the caldera.

I’d hoped to go to the vanilla farm/botanical garden but it was closed on Sunday. The driver dropped John and me by the beach, where we walked to a hotel’s beach bar/restaurant. The pizza was good, the beer was cold, and the water was warm (although the beach itself was very small).

After a couple of hours, we grabbed a cab with another couple for the trip back to the boat ($5 pp). 

We have fond memories of Papeete, Tahiti from the CMV world cruise in 2020, when we had an overnight and took advantage of the night life celebrating Liam’s Birthday. This time, all aboard was 7:30. Daytime Papeete was not as interesting. We found the same bars as before, all of which were quiet during the day. We took a van tour out of the city so I could see some waterfalls.

We went by a surfing “beach” (great waves but lots of rocks),

black sand beach and lighthouse,

and a blow-hole that was blocked off due to recent damage from a tropical storm a few weeks earlier. We weren’t sure if the tour was worth $50pp, especially since the driver was mainly that – a driver, and not a tour guide. She did tell us that the Olympic surfing competition would be held on the island since France was hosting the 2024 Olympics. 

After the tour, we walked around and found a little French restaurant where we enjoyed baked mussels coated with a garlic/breadcrumb/parmesan/butter sauce – we loved them so much we ordered a second plate. French Polynesia is very expensive – almost everything is 50-100% more than a similar dish would be in the US, except the wine. My lovely glass of sauvignon blanc was about $8.50 – the same price it would’ve been most other places. After those two glasses of wine, I needed a nap. We didn’t set sail until 8PM, but I was done for the day. The heat and the humidity (especially mixed with alcohol), is very draining, so I enjoyed the performance by local dancers brought in for the evening.

History lesson:

French Polynesia consists of several groups of islands – the Marquesas (which includes Nuka Hiva where John and I visited in 2020), The Tuamotu Archipelago, The Gambier Islands, The Tubuai Islands, Austral Islands, Bass Islands and The Society Islands (which includes Tahiti and Moorea and Bora Bora). Tahiti was first colonized by Polynesian explorers around 500BC, bringing trees, chickens, and root vegetables. When they first arrived, the main native plants on Moorea were ferns. Over the next 2 ½ Millenia, the flora incorporated trees, which brought more birds. The steep slopes of the volcanoes channeled water and the volcanic soil was ideal for crops. Europeans arrived along some of the atolls as early as 1520, but Tahiti did not see any western ships until British Captain Wallis claimed the island for King George in 1767. A year later, French Admiral Antoine de Bougainville discovered the other side of the island and claimed it for France. Captain Cook made the islands famous as he and the scientists on the HMS Endeavor documented the transit of Venus in 1769, and went on to chart Moorea, Bora Bora and the rest of what he named “the Society Islands”. In 1789, the area gained further European interest due to the infamous “Mutiny on the Bounty”, when Fletcher Christian put off Captain Bligh and escaped to Pitcairn Islands. France and England “shared custody” of the island (which technically had its own monarchy) until competing missionary groups called in for support in the early 1800’s, though it was not an official French colony until 1880. Although each individual island is small, as a group the islands provided strategic areas along trade routes with Asia and harbors for the Navy, not to mention the islands being rich in pearls and coconut production. Now it is an “overseas country” but part of France – citizens have French passports, vote for the French president and have representation in French Parliament. They have their own elected “presidents” with role like that of a Governor of a US state, and their own currency – the CFP Franc.