Polynesians and those living here have a saying. "J'etais pique par le tiare." Translating into "I was bitten by the tiare flower," the phrase really means I fell so in love with the place I didn't want to leave.
It happened to me on Moorea (www.gomoorea.com). While on a scooter whisking through the surf town of Haaptiti on the island's southwest coast on the only paved road, I found myself on a shady stretch in a tunnel of Tahitian teak trees. The cool air, the views up front through a clearing of surfers by the turquoise waters of the reef, and two late 19th Century churches, one after the other, both with low stone gates out front and volcanic mountains behind, sent a lightning strike through my body that said, "Wow, you are here." If Moorea is here, then here is tropical paradise.
Inhabited by native Mahohis for thousands of years and first sited by a European in the late 18th Century, Moorea is 12 miles from Tahiti. Meaning "yellow lizard" in the native language, Moorea is a lush, tropical, garden.
"Throw any kind of seed in the ground and if you come back a month later, a plant will have grown," says Blanc Blanc, a tour guide for Albert Transfers (tel. 689 55 21 10; www.albert-transport.net), a jack-of-all-trades local touring company that also handles inland island 4x4 tours, catamaran tours of the water surrounding Moorea, airport transfers, car and scooter rentals, and private tours. His father having arrived on the island from Switzerland in the 1920s, the company's founder, named Messieur Albert, now in his 60s, drives a taxi for the only tour guide company on Moorea owned and operated by native Polynesians. The 4x4 tour, costing approximately $40 per person takes you by vehicle to one of Moorea's highest peaks, overlooking the island's northern coast of Cooks Bay and Opunohu Bay. The Albert clan can take you anywhere on the island as well as tell you where to go.
Different than Tahiti, Moorea is all about "island time." Things can take a little bit longer here. You may have to walk half a mile to a local store or wait a few minutes for service in the restaurants lining the island's circular road. Why care? Once you see the place, and are stunned by its floral and fauna beauty, see the changing colors of its waters, you don't mind waiting all your life in Moorea.
You don't have to wait to get to Moorea. The Moorea Express (tel. 689 82 47 47; www.mooreaferry.pf) ferry departs at least six times daily with rates of $9 per adult, $4.50 for children and $7.16 per senior. The Express takes 50 minutes. The higher speed Aremiti Ferry (tel. 689 50 57 57; www.aremiti.pf) takes just 35 minutes with the cost of an adult ticket coming to $9 as well. The ferry ride keeps Moorea in front of you and Tahiti behind you. As one fades away, the other comes into focus.
Like all places, you can experience Moorea inexpensively, or you can spend a wallop. In Moorea, spending a wallop means living like a king in an over-water bungalow with nothing between you and the South Seas except the barrier reef that surrounds the island and great sky above.
On the inexpensive side, like Tahiti, Moorea has a public transport system called Le Truck. Here, however, there's only one Le Truck and it only takes you from the ferry terminal to your hotel and back. Running from 5am to 4:45pm, Le Truck costs about $3 per adult and $1.50 per child.
To best experience Moorea, take a tour of the island with Albert's Transport and set out on your own with a one-day car or scooter rental. Scooter rentals start at around $56 per 24 hour period. They're simple to use, safe, and super fun. With top speeds of about 50 m.p.h., scooters can go just about anywhere on the island. In addition to Albert Transfer, Tehotu Locations (tel. 689 56 52 96) rents scooters at several locations on Moorea. Car rentals, available through big companies such as Avis Pacificar (tel. 689 56 32 68; www.avis-tahiti.com/indexus.html) or Europcar (tel. 689 56 34 00; www.europcar.pf) and local companies such as Albert Tours, start at around $55 for a half-day. Either automatic or shift, the rental cars I saw were all new, spiffy, very compact, and available in shiny island colors such as bright red or metallic blue. When driving at night, the local dogs sometimes play on the side of the road. They're not wild or at all aggressive, but they can cross the road at a whim. I was warned and saw a few frolicking, but none jumped out. In the rain, take your scooter speed down a bit as well. Better to be safe than sorry as Moorea roads get slippery when wet. If you rent with Avis, there's a 20 percent off coupon in the Moorea Guide, available everywhere you see tourism brochures (which are everywhere once you step off the plane in Tahiti).
A quick word on safety in Moorea, there is absolutely nothing dangerous here. Nothing. For a population of 15,000 people, there are only 11 policemen. There are no guns on Moorea. No one hunts, and everyone knows each other so there are barely any fights. There are no dangerous animals either. No scary snakes, no biting spiders. The most dangerous entity on the island outside of a tawdry, bothersome mosquito, is the centipede. About as long as an inch, these leggy creatures can and do bite, causing fast and unsightly swelling that persists for two or three days. I didn't see nary a centipede during my stay.
If you smell burning at night, it's just the natives burning their coconut skin to keep the bugs away, or their after dinner trash, which is always something natural like banana skins, orange peels or fish bones. Considered poor by fiscal standards, Mooreans have been known to use banana leaves for plates. Because of the expense of buying manufactured products on such a remote island, Moorea can be costly for natives living on an average salary of roughly $1,300 per month. To deflect the cost, Mooreans live like the natives of old. The all have gardens out back, pick coconuts, oranges, grapefruits, vanilla, and pineapples right off the tree. They drink water as it descends from the rainforest in the hills into faucets set up intermittently around the island. It's a natural, healthy way of life. The Nonu plant, recently discovered by a multi-national pharmaceutical to keep heart disease at bay, is prevalent on Moorea. Because of its use in the Occidental world, Nonu has become one of Tahiti's largest industries behind tourism.
For places to stay on Moorea, family pensions are affordable, convenient, and more than comfortable. Small in size, some pensions have water views and small restaurants while others are further back toward the hills operating on idyllic locations offering more privacy than the big hotels.
Mark's Place Paradise (tel. 689 56 43 02; www.marks-place-paradise.com) is a bungalow and camping Garden of Eden located in Haapiti on the island's calmer (if it's possible) and laid back southwest coast. Set back off a dirt road, the unassuming wooden fence entrance to the small hotel/pension gives way to a Garden of Eden paradise highlighted by several bungalows, campers pitching tents, a full kitchen, and several acres of wide open flat space marking the land in between the hills and the beach. If you camp, and that includes sleeping outside under the stars, it'll cost you $10.50. For a bed in a dorm room with a sleeping curtain over your bunk, expect to pay $25 per night.
Reachable by walking on a plank over a small creek, the Honeymoon suite at Mark's offers complete privacy with a terrace, a small sitting area in the bungalow and a bedroom surrounded by a stone igloo-shaped wall perforated by the bottom rounded edges of colored soda and beer bottles. When the sun shines on the bottle ends, they form multi-colored dots, or a polka-dotted rainbow, making for a romantic and very design-conscious setting in the middle of this remote hotel's island grounds. Cost comes to $75 per night for the Honeymoon Bungalow. Mark, an American who built the place with his bare hands, can take you to the airport, ferry, and give you Internet access. You can rent a bike or kayak for the day as well. Almost of all of Mark's rooms have stereos and you can cook anything you want in the property's large kitchen area.
On the island's north coast off Cook's Bay, Pension Motu Iti (tel. 689 55 05 20) offers accommodations right on the Cook's Bay. The small hotel with water views has bungalows for $105 in the garden and water view bungalows for $120. The bungalows offer individual bathrooms and television. If you go with a bunch of friends, you can take over the dorm-style room for $10.50 per night. The hotel's small covered dock offers those same water views as an overwater bungalow.
Speaking of those overwater bungalows, they're available at three island properties: the Sheraton Moorea Lagoon Resort and Spa (tel. 689 55 10 10; www.sheratonmoorea.com), the Intercontinental Resort and Spa Moorea (tel. 689 55 19 19; www.moorea.interconti.com), and the Moorea Pearl Resort and Spa (tel. 689 55 17 50; www.pearlresorts.com/moorea/main.asp). In this order of luxury, the Intercontinental is known for its service, the Sheraton for its amenities such as high speed wireless Internet at the hotel bar, and the Pearl for its cuisine and pool/bar proximity. Overwater bungalows with a horizon view, the least expensive of which are at the Pearl, start at around $850 during the low season and $945 during the high season from April 30, 2006 to December 31, 2006.
For food, restaurants in Moorea are easy to find as they line the main road (the only road) circling the island. You can eat practically in the water at The Papino Beach (tel. 689 55 07 90; www.painapo.com) restaurant in Haapiti. It has a natural terrace overlooking a public beach onto the island's southern reef. Tables are under thatch wooden roofs with open sides to give 360 degree views. The amusing owner, Ronald Sage, holds court over the bar out front with a gruff sense of accommodating humor. When I was there, he offered guests a ride back to their hotel when their taxi was running late. The food is almost as refreshing as the view. The raw tuna plate is a sashimi and tartar combination served over a garlic butter sauce with taro served on the plate's edge. You use the vegetables as a toast to add texture and taste to the bite sized morsels. You won't spend more than $20 for an authentic water view meal at this tranquil spot open for lunch only.
The Snack Coco D'Isle (tel. 689 56 59 07), also in Haapiti, serves heaps of local and French food for lunch and dinner all week long. For between $12 and $20 you can eat shrimp scampi, grilled fish, steak frites, sashimi, and a huge T-bone steak. Try the chocolate omelet for desert cooked with sugar and chocolate. "Everyone who tries it, loves it," said a local shop owner who raved about the ten-table restaurant. They do a live show on Saturday night with a local orchestra and Tahitian dancers. Bring a camera. They get creative with their presentation at the Coco D'Isle.
For shopping, the La Maison Blanche (tel. 689 56 13 26) hawks pareos, black pearls, and local wooden carvings as well as small novelty items such as shell necklaces, Hanano bottle openers from the local brewery, and post cards. Cotton pareos start at just $10 at this hard to miss shop located near the Pearl Resort on the island's northeast side.
Lucky for anyone who can't get away from it all or feels more comfortable being somehow connected to home, Moorea is lined for DSL. Only certain spots such as the select resorts and family pensions offer high-speed Internet access. To check your e-mail or make an inexpensive phone call to anywhere in the world, go to Moorea Computer (tel. 689 56 35 55), located in the Maharepa section of the island. The owner Rudolphe, a Frenchman who has lived in Moorea for 11 years can connect you to home or work as well as suggest a restaurant or two.
Not surprisingly with all this natural beauty, the local art scene in Moorea thrives. French, German, Swiss, and Scandinavian artists have all set up shop here. The resorts have exhibitions for the local artists all over their walls. Lithographs from Duday, a Frenchman working in line drawings of large Vahines (Tahitian women) doing everyday things like lounging around, sweeping, and getting on the bus, are available at the Pearl for about $150. The Intercontinental has an exhibit of the work by Nataly Jolibois, a French artist who has painted all over the world but has a studio and boat in Moorea. Nataly's own shop and gallery, the Green Lagoon Gallery (tel. 689 56 18 30; www.artoftheworld.info) sells Nataly's work as well as those by other local artists and jewelry makers. The objects d'art are so unique in Nataly's store you won't find anything like them anywhere else in the world. Driftwood sculpture, wooden frames, and other natural resources such as bone are featured. Nataly's own paintings are gentle interpretations of the island's soft way of life, working as a metaphor for the mellow pace one should have while spending time on the island. It's almost as if her paintings say, "Slow down and see the colors."
When in Moorea, remember that all the beaches are public. All you have to do is find a spot you like, throw a towel down, and take a swim. Like everything in Moorea, it's that easy. The hard part is leaving.
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