Seeking To Satisfy My Own Illusions: Lessons Learned. A really nice beach. Rainy view from on high.

Okay, so maybe I overestimated just how long I needed a car.

I had a nine am scheduled pickup of my car at the airport so I started walking towards the airport (rather than catching $20 cab) at around 8 am. I originally thought, hey I'll start out before it gets hot. Well with a high of 85 and a low of 75, that just didn't happen.

A nice walk, under sunny skies, took me around an hour to get to the airport. It afforded me the opportunity to check out some of the many houses along the way. Met a few nice dogs, checked out the golf course and saw more than a few pearl boutiques.

I got to the airport at around 9:10 and looked for an Avis counter. Ah, no. So I asked a lady at a tour desk where it was. "It's at the ferry terminal" Okay so how far away is that. "By car, 10 minutes" So I'm thinking another 30 minutes walk.

So I start off and in walks a guy with a Avis T-Shirt. Hi, you've got a car for me? "No I'm here to pick up someone" Would that be me? It was.

So off to the ferry terminal at Vaitape and I got my car.

A very nice lady helped me and of course tried to sell me all the insurance in the world. I declined. And provided me with a wonderful little Renault with a completely different auto starting device. It's the size of a credit card, inserts in a slot beneath the radio and push the start button, voila. Cute.

You can literally drive around the island, slowly, in two hours. It's really beautiful. Lush peaks and beautiful blue water of varying shades. I headed back to the north to do a counter clockwise drive, mainly to check out the possibilities for sunset views tonight or tomorrow.

The south and west sides of the island are more sparely populated than the north and east and the traffic dies off significantly once you pass the last major resort.

There are two major bays on the north shore. Cooks (which he never visited) and Opunohu. Cooks is much larger but not where the cruise ships anchor. The major town, if you can call it that, is Paopao. It has a large fish market and is the site of the original hotel on the island. Club Bali Hai was developed by three Americans from California in the early 60's. They were also the originators of the overwater bungalow.

Opunohu is the other bay and where the ships disgorge their passengers. It's quieter than Cooks and the beginning of laid back Moorea.

Opunohu Bay and cruise ship.

The Belevedere Lookout is touted in all the guides and blogs that I read as the best view in Moorea. Even though it was raining when I arrived behind a guided ATV tour, it soon cleared up and it was a great view. From the viewing platform you could see both Cooks and Opunohu Bays as well as Rotu'i Peak which is the tallest on Moorea..

Along the way up or down the road to the Belevedere Lookout, there are two archaeological sites (among some 100+ that have been found and partially excavated by the French Archaeological Society). They're call marae and are stone courtyards which were surrounded by living quarters.

At the top there were also hiking and biking trails that ranged from a half hour to 4 hours in length, but with the rain they looked way too muddy to try.

This one has a few "suicide" trees growing in it. So called because the fruit is poisonous but supposedly had medicinal qualities. Go figure.

On the way down I backtracked a bit to Paopao via the "Pineapple Road". It did have a few fields prior to driving thru what I'll call a "suburb" of lots of houses.

This is what a very young pineapple looks like. It's actually red.

Near Ha'apiti there was a church supposedly built in 18972, but according to guide books, Sainte Famille has been destroyed and rebuilt serveral times. A beautiful location though.

The southern shore near Ma'area with Tahiti in the background.

Completing my circle tour of Moorea, I passed the port town of Vai'are and came upon Plage Publique de Temae, a public beach not mention in my guide book. It was a very nice beach facing Tahiti and reasonably sparsely populated. I'll be snorkeling there tomorrow and hope to have some pics to post.