Once Around on a Bicycle
This is the view from Papeete, Tahiti across to Moorea. Papeete is the capital of French Polynesia, a French Overseas Territory. Despite being a capital, it's still a very small town. Traffic is pretty bad and the streets could be cleaned up a bit. But its always got its views.
There are very few reminders left of Papeete's colonial past. Here are two, City Hall and the Catholic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception. City Hall and its grounds look OK from the outside. I didn't venture inside. The Cathedral is showing its age.
This pink, green and white church on the Papeete waterfront is over the site of the first protestant church built by the London Missionary Society. It's considered the site where Papeete was born.
Here's a view of Papeete taken from the Moorea Ferry. The large blue cruise ship is actually blocking the view of its sister ship right beside it. The company that operated them went belly up. The ships have been sitting in the harbor for months waiting for a buyer to be found. You can see that skyscrapers haven't come to the capital of French Polynesia just yet.
This is one of the two deep, parallel bays on the north coast of Moorea. The two bays are seperated by Mount Rotui (899 meters). This is Cook's Bay, named after Captain James Cook who never dropped anchor here. On his third voyage to Polynesia he did stop at the other bay, Opunohu Bay. The scenery in both bays is spectacular.
Here's the spectacular Opunohu Bay, where Cook did visit. Mel Gibson acted in 1984's The Bounty here. If it's good enough for Cook and Gibson, you know it's one of the nicest places on earth.
This is the main road around Moorea. I took this shot around Opunohu Bay. Points on the road are designated by Postal Kilometers from the airport (PK 0). This is around PK 20.
Here I am at PK 1. The roadside markers are all in the shape of Moorea. You can see the two bays cutting into the island on the top. The airport and I are on the upper right side, the northeast. I stayed for two nights at a Hotel Sofitel and for two more nights on the northwestern side of the island at the Hotel Fare Via Moana.
Here's the fare, or bungalow, where I stayed at the Hotel Fare Via Moana. It looks like a typical polynesian dwelling on the outside, but has most of the modern conveniences we pampered western tourists expect on the inside. No TV or air conditioning, though. From the sandy beach, one of the few on Moorea, I was able to do some kayaking. Great fun.
Here's where I spent my three days on Huahine, the Hotel Sofitel Hieva. Other than a couple of kayak excursions around a nearby motu (little island), I never left the compound. It was a great place to relax and catch up on my journal, and my tanning.
My over-water bungalow at the Hotel Sofitel Ia Ora on Moorea is, hands down, the best accomodation I've stayed in on the trip. It's difficult to describe the "champagne wishes and cavier dreams" type of luxury. Scrape together the airfare to Tahiti and $US 400 per night to experience it yourself. Of course, I didn't pay full price. I updated my journal and some of this web site on the deck of my bungalow with the Pocket PC. Of all of the places where I've passed a kidney stone, this was the nicest. The staff at the Moorea Hospital down the road are very nice, too.
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