Hiking and Scooter ride around Moorea

Mike and Katie's vacation (the land part)

There are many things to see and do on land in Mo'orea too. This map shows the big W shape of the island, where the two bays are on the North side, Cooks and D'Opunohu. Both are spectacular. A bunch of us hiked up the hill to the Tropical Gardens. On the way we noticed even the entrance to the houses have tattoos on them. These type graphics are every where. The road up the hill was a bit steep, but the views and the flowers along the way made it worth the effort. There were so many different colored flowers and plants there! They had a large greenhouse where they are growing Vanilla Beans. These plants were as tall as Mike. The Vanilla orchid flowers were just breath taking. But then again, so was the view! You can see the fringe of reef that keeps the anchorages calm, but makes the butt pucker as you go thru the passes to get in. We could even see our boats at anchor down there! On the way back to sea-level we saw some amazing trees. One palm was hanging sideways out over the water making a lovely view of the boats behind it. Another palm had a huge Philodendron climbing up its trunk, giving a very jungle type feel. Then from the beach park we could see our boats anchored thru the palms.

On another day we dinghied back over to Cooks Bay to visit some friends of ours who decided to vacation here with some inspiration from us. Ingo and Espie had been clients of ours, who's boat we sold back in La Paz. It was their 48^th wedding anniversary and Espie's 80^th birthday. Knowing we were sailing down there, they decided to make a very special vacation for themselves and hoped we would run into one another. They stayed at the hotel Kavenka. They are such wonderful friends and had some great stories to tell us. We all had a laugh of a good time that day!

We wanted to see the island all the way around, so we rented scooters with Rick and Jasna and did the full 65 kilometers easily in one day. First we went up to see the view from Mount Belvedere. On the way up the hill we stopped at a Marae (ancient sacred grounds). It had many big trees growing up in the middle of the big rock walls. From the viewpoint at the end of the road, you can see both bays and Mount Rotui between them. We went on a short hike to see the plants and trees. There were more of the big skinny rooted Chestnut trees, like we had seen in Nuku Hiva. The path was very tropical jungle like and some of the plants were quite interesting looking. We stopped at the University on the way back down the hill, where a lovely girl sold us some fresh Vanilla Ice cream. Yummy!

Onward we rode on our cool little scooters. We followed the road along the water, looking both at the lovely houses and land scenery as well as the ocean views. We stopped for lunch (since we had already had dessert!) at a road & waterside Barbecue. Rounding the East side, we could see the big island of Tahiti out across the channel beyond the reef. We passed the ferry dock and a small marina on that side too. The water was a gorgeous turquoise blue inside the reef. Some locals have boats, and others have horses. We stopped to look at Painapo Beach Paradise. We assume it is a restaurant or someplace to have a party, but no one was around. They had lots of interesting Tiki's and great views of both the mountains and the sea. We knew Grandma Mike was there watching out for us, when we saw the Japanese fishing ball hanging from the tree. There was a fire pit, where they used to cook the white people (just kidding) and old wood blocks, maybe used to hang the white people up before they cooked them (ok, just kidding again!). Actually they don't admit to cannibalism on this island, but one guy said they quit eating the white people because we are too high in cholesterol! Funny!

Once we made it back around to Baie D'Opunohu, we still had about an hour before we had to turn in our Scooters. So we stopped at the Hilton for happy hour and had a couple of drinks. The Scooter guy was nice enough to meet us there and pick them up. This is a fabulous resort with over the water bungalows and a comfy hammock on the beach. The drinks were awesome too, with huge Mango Daiquiris, Pina-Coladas, and Katie had the Moorea special.

The sun was setting on our awesome day. We looked around at the hotel and saw more Tikis beautifully carved from wood, a cool Coy Fish Pond and one Tiki with a great butt!

Back at the anchorage a small mega yacht moved in named Virtigo, which you definitely got if you looked up to the top of their mast!! It was as high as the mountains!!

The Island of Moorea is shaped like a big W

The wide angle shot

House tattoos

Up hill to the Tropical Garden

Hiking up the hill

lovely scenery on the way up

lovely pink and red flowers

Very tropical flower to left and Hybiscus behind

Pretty little orange flowers

Spiky stems, do not touch!

Red and Purple leaf plants

The Vanilla Greenhouse with Mike at end of row

Vanilla Orchid

View of reef from the Tropical Garden

More Garden views

Front Jasna, Katie, Andrea, Back Pedro, Patsy, Jimmy, Shelly, Mike, Denise, Miguel

View of our boats from Garden

Palm tree overhanging the water

Palm with Philodendron growing up trunk

Avatar at anchor from beach park

Miguel with Moorea in back

Friends Ingo and Espie

Miguel, Shelly Mike and Katie at Kaveka Hotel

Espie, Shelly, Miguel and Ingo

Road up to Belvedere on Scooters

Winding up the hill with Pine trees

Marea ancient temple

Marea in the woods

Katie at Belvedere

The pointed peak we see from the boat

Cooks Bay

Bay D'Opunohu to left and Cooks to right

Hiking thru the woods

More trail

Mike with Chestnut Trees

Close up of Chestnut roots

Tropical plants

Red and White trim leaves

Jungle Plants

Jasna, Rick, Katie, Mike, Miguel and Shelly with Bahi D'Opunohu behind

Big Cliff behind our hike, the Belvedere

Tropical big leaf plant with red baby leaf in middle

Beautiful Tahitian Girl who served us Vanilla Ice Cream

On the road again with the scooters

Big Banyan tree

Mountains of Moorea

Mountain Peaks from the road

Cooks Bay with Mona Puta peak in back

Lunch stop at BBQ hut water/road side

View of Tahiti in distance

The reef extending to the South with another fancy over water hotel bungalows

Bay where the Ferry Landing is

Beautiful water we are Scooting by

Local Boats at anchor

Nice house

Horse under trees

Big Tattooed man statue

Katie and Jasna photo the big tattoo man

Ceremonial Circle

Shelly and Miguel with turquoise lagoon waters in back

view of mtn from park

Japanese fishing float like the ones at Grandma's house

Fire pit where they cooked the white people (just kidding)

Big wood blocks with scooters across street

stone Tiki

Bahi de D'Opunohu

view of Cooks bay

Turtle statues at Hilton resort

Katie in Hilton hammock

Shelly in Hilton hammock

Happy hour drinks at Hilton

Katie enjoying life

Mike had to try the Mango Daiquiri 

Sunset after fantastic day around island

Tikis at Hilton bar

Tiki close up

Coy pond at Hilton

Tiki with nice butt!

"Vertigo"

Katie and Mike with Vertigo