Dave and Val's Travel Blog: Tales of the South Pacific

Cruise Day 38

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Today we are in Moorea, another tender port. This is another port we visited in 2013, but we had forgotten just how beautiful the island is. We are anchored in the middle of Opunodo Bay dominated by the sharp peak of Mount Rotui. There is not much development around Opunodo Bay as most of it is on the nearby Cook Bay. Moorea has its share of beautiful beaches, but it's the lush hillsides and jagged volcanic peaks that dominate the island. The last time we were here we rented a car and drove the thirty-six mile road around the island; it was a beautiful drive. Luckily for us, the ship is anchored so that we can sit on our balcony and enjoy this beautiful view.

We are anchored in Opunodo Bay. Cook Bay, the next bay over, is more developed and where Moana Pearls that we visited today is located.

Looking out to sea from Opunodo Bay.

The view from our balcony.

We had nothing planned for today in Moorea but decided to take the tender ashore around eleven and see what we could find. I had just taken my antibiotic (thankfully the final one) and wasn’t feeling too good, but I didn’t just feel like hanging around so off we went.

Some views from the tender. This is captain of the tender taking us ashore.

When we arrived at the tender pier there were many vendors stalls set up and there were performers dancing, singing and playing so we watched them for a while and then strolled through the vendor area. The last time we were here, the vendors were all in makeshift tents and the whole area was gravel, but now there is a nice pavilion, and they have really improved the area.

Val is still shopping for pearls, so we decided to find a taxi to take us to the same store she had bought pearls at in 2013. There was a lady offering a shuttle to a pearl shop, and although it wasn’t the one Val was looking for, she decided to take us up on that as the driver had offered to take us to the one we wanted to go through afterwards. Val didn’t care much for the first pearl shop, and when we didn’t buy anything, our driver remembered she had another appointment and took us back to the tender dock. She was nice enough, but clearly wanted us to buy from her shop, so we were fine with just going back to the dock.

After returning, we found a lady with a taxi, and we asked her to take us to Moana Pearl Shop where Val wanted to shop. It was quite a ways away and it took about a half hour to get there, but it was a beautiful drive, and the driver was very nice. We talked to her a lot about her family and her life here in Moorea and her background. It was very interesting and we really liked her. She is currently running for the council of her village and from there she hopes to move on to be mayor.

We had an enjoyable time shopping at Moana Pearl and the talking with the young man who helped us. He was an American and his father had arrived by yacht many years ago, met a woman and married her and started a pearl farm and this business. Val found just what she wanted and also bought a gift for Marsha who is taking care of our house while we are gone. Marsha has gone way beyond the call of duty on this trip and deserves our gratitude and a special gift.

After making our purchases, we drove back to the tender dock. We stopped several times on the way back for pictures and continued talking to our driver about life in Moorea. Sadly, she never told us her name, and we never asked, so unfortunately, we only know her as our driver. When we got back to the dock, we said our goodbyes and got some hugs from our driver and after a photo together, we parted ways.

I wish I knew her name, but this is the taxi driver who drove us around. She was very nice and we really enjoyed our time with her.

Val spent some time looking through the vendor stalls again while I watched some more of the entertainment that was going on. We finally got on the tender and headed back to the ship. What a great day this has been, after feeling under the weather for the last couple of weeks, we are both feeling much better, and after I got over my antibiotic sickness, I felt great. We met some really nice local people, learned about island life and culture and Val found her pearls.

It was around three when we got back on the ship, so we had missed lunch, and decided to just grab some snacks in the Neptune Lounge. We had a little time to relax and then headed off to trivia. Arthur was gone again, but Donna was there so we had a partial team anyway.

After trivia, Val and I relaxed until dinner time. We weren’t very hungry since we had eaten lunch so late, so we decided to just have a couple of appetizers and dessert. After lunch, we went to the casino where Val had a successful evening, but my luck had run out.