The Honeymoon Portion of the Honeymoon

Ever since Jeff and I first decided we would be doing our trip, people seemed to be confused that a year of backpacking was going to be our honeymoon. I was amazed at how many people asked me if we would be going on a separate honeymoon prior to our departure. Jeff and my mother keep insisting money does not grow on trees (I'm still not entirely sure I believe them), so a separate honeymoon before the honeymoon was not really a financial possibility. Unfortunately, in order to make our trip from Easter Island to New Zealand with our Around the World Ticket, we had to stop in Tahiti (life is so unfair). In an attempt to appease me for not having a traditional honeymoon, Jeff said Tahiti could be our honeymoon portion of the trip. Not overly disgruntled by the prospect of spending a year backpacking around the world to begin with, I happily accepted the offer.



Though we did have a break from "roughing it" when my mother and Lee came to see us in Chile, I was still quite ready for some R and R in Tahiti. Most people do not actually vacation in Tahiti, but rather at one of the other islands nearby, which offer better beaches and snorkeling. Moorea is the closest island to Tahiti (just a 30 minute ferry ride) and is known for its amazing snorkeling, so we decided that we would split our time with three days in Moorea and then five days in Tahiti.

We arrived very late to Tahiti and thus planned on spending the night there before making our way to Moorea in the morning. A combination of excitement and body clock confusion (Tahiti is five hours behind Easter Island) had us out of bed before seven even though we were exhausted from our long day before. Despite being one of the most inexpensive places on the island, our hotel charged $15 for a continental breakfast (criminal!), so Jeff and I decided to make our way down to the grocery store to pick up supplies to make our own breakfast. I also needed to get some aloe for a bad burn I managed to get while hiking around Easter Island (I know, I'm an idiot, you don't have to say anything). I even managed to get my lips sunburned in the process, which is something that hasn't happened to me before. The darn things ended up blistering to grotesque proportions - not exactly something you want happening on your honeymoon. Oh, and raw skin feels awesome when you're snorkeling in salt water. But I digress . . .

Moorea Pearl

For three glorious nights we were lodged at the Moorea Pearl in a Premium Overwater Bungalow. What is a Premium Overwater Bungalow, you ask? In a word, it's heaven. Situated over the water, the bungalow includes a private sitting deck and then an additional deck from which you can easily get into the water and go snorkeling (I'll get back to that later). And that's just the outside! The inside of the bungalow was just beautiful and even included a glass portion on the floor through which you could watch the fish as they swam underneath. At night, when you turned on the lights to the outside deck, lights would also come on under the bungalow, illuminating the water so you could watch the fish at night too! I spent more time than I would like to admit lying on the floor watching the fish. It was just so cool!

When we walked into the bungalow, our bed had been covered in flowers in the shape of a heart in honor of it being our honeymoon. We also received a bottle of champagne on our first night as well. So romantic! (Please remember, my lips are blistered)

Snorkeling

Jeff's exposure to snorkeling prior to our trip to Tahiti has been limited to the sandy shores of various beaches.  Consequently, he was not overly enthused by the prospect of getting to do a lot of snorkeling in Moorea. His attitude about snorkeling quickly changed, however, after our first venture into the water outside our bungalow. Though we could see plenty of fish swimming around as we walked along the decks to our room, we were blown away by the amount of sea life that lay literally right outside our door.

Luckily, we had our super "Lee" camera to capture a lot of cool shots. Of course, no picture could ever do what we saw justice. The plethora of colors was spectacular. We even saw a few octopi and sea turtles. I had four sea turtle sightings in total outside the bungalow, but each time I either didn't have the camera or the battery had died. garg. A couple times the turtles were really close, but they seemed to not be too bothered by us. We were in the water minutes after we arrived on the first day and got in many times during our short stay. We still agree that we could have spent many more days just snorkeling in those waters because there was so much to see. 

Swimming with Sharks

As I said, we could have spent our entire time in Moorea just snorkeling outside our bungalow. However, since it was our honeymoon, we decided we would splurge and do at least one of the activities the hotel offered. We chose the two-hour Jetski tour around part of the island that ended with a shark and stingray swim. Our tour included two other couples and a happy-go-lucky guide who enjoyed ending every other sentence with "and voila!" I was extremely disappointed when each couple was given a Jetski to share, though I figured I would be just as happy snapping pictures from behind and allowed Jeff to take the driver's seat. In all honesty, I had a ball as we ripped through the water, snapping away at all the beautiful scenery around me and enjoying the cooling wind. As I have done many times on this trip, I couldn't stop saying "We are the luckiest people in the world!" 

Our first stop was to watch as a huge school of dolphins swimming around in one of the coves nearby. They were actually swimming all around and right up to us, but I had a terrible time getting a good shot.

We then cruised over to the famous Cook's Bay, where Captain James Cook landed in 1774, to snap some shots.

We also got to see some underwater Tiki statues.

If you look really, really closely, you can see a face

Finally, we ended up at a sandbar. As I looked down I could see sharks and stingrays swimming all around me. Perhaps a bit overly excited, I asked our guide if I could get in as I was splashing into the water (good thing he said "yes" . . . "and voila!"). Everyone else soon followed suit and we were swimming around delightedly (well, most of us were) looking at all the sharks and stingrays.

For the most part, the sharks took little notice of us, but the stingrays were quite friendly, swimming up to check us out as well. We were able to snap some really cool shots. No, these images have not been edited - we were really that close! I was amazed at how unscared I was by the whole thing; swimming with all those animals around just felt exhilarating. 

We actually got to swim around for quite some time before we had to hop back onto the Jetskis. Jeff kindly let me take the driver's seat on the way back, though I think he regretted his decision because he kept having to tell me I was getting too close to the person ahead of me... I can't help he was going too slowly! I'm fairly sure they could hear my peels of laughter back in Tahiti.

Jeff and I agree that swimming with the sharks was definitely one of the coolest experiences of our lives.

OK, kiddies, that's enough about French Polynesia for today. I will do a second portion on our time in Tahiti later. And voila!