AdventuresAboardAvatar: Moorea feeding the Rays and swimming with Sharks!

Cousins Mike and Katie's Vacation

The Rendezvous was just the beginning of their vacation. We did so many cool things. We inflated the kayaks and all got to take turns in them, so happy to be in Paradise! I got everyone suited up with our guest snorkel gear. Getting in this crystal clear water is one of the main events! Our friend Jasna came over and showed Mike how to hold up the boat while standing on the bottom. Yes the water is either very deep or very shallow around here. Luckily this anchorage in Baie D'Opunohu is mostly sand bottom.

We went on several snorkels and saw many amazing critters and fish. Mike found one of these spiked conch shells, many of them were alive and crawling on the bottom. There are always lots of little fish around coral heads, but sometimes you can see the Pinktail Triggerfish, or Orange-Lined Triggerfish or the Yellowmargin Triggerfish which can be up to two feet long! We even saw a baby yellow and black eel. There is also an entire snorkel with several underwater Tikis to find.

Once we were all comfortable in the water, we followed Rick and Jasna to the magical shallow water snorkel spot. The view on the ride over was awesome again. The peaks here are so dramatic! We saw cool hotels with over-water bungalows. And the water was so clear we saw a turtle swim under the dingy! At the designated spot, they fed us to the rays.... I mean we fed the rays and watched the sharks swim by. At first, once again, it takes some getting used to being in the water with sharks, and there were a lot of them! Thank God, we are not on the menu and they are just there to clean up in-case one of the rays missed his food. The Black Tip sharks, do not seem to be bothered or interested in humans. They are actually almost like puppy dogs (with sharper, bigger teeth!).

Pedro and Jimmy were the first ones in the water. So since they did not get eaten, we got in too! The Tahitian Sting Rays are surprisingly soft. There were lots of them and they were checking out to see if we had any sardines. They are very graceful the way they cruise thru the water too. Several of them liked playing “swim thru Mike's legs” game. Three of them did it several times. I think it is Mike's animal magnetism ;-). Miguel decided to try some cut out blood lines from a Tuna he had caught, and let me just say, the rays like that way more than the sardines from a can! They practically mauled him for more. He finally had to push them away so they would know he had none left. One of the needle fish hanging around, got hold of some of my sardine and he could barely fit it in his mouth!

You may notice that we have on two different outfits while doing this. That is because feeding and playing with the rays, was one of the highlights of snorkeling. Actually it was so fun, we did it twice! And just so you don't think we are too crazy, most people pay big money to be brought here on a tour boat to do this. After a long time in the water, our body temps began to drop so we got back in the dinghies and watched more from the surface. Even then, the rays followed us up to the boats and still begged like puppies for more fish!

One evening Katie cooked us up a massive stir fry which was out of this world. I love it when someone takes over my galley! The sunsets don't suck here either. I got a great shot of one of the local boats sailing in thru the channel at sunset. Mo'orea is a spectacular island!