Morea, French Polynesia

We had the most incredible day!  Morea, from the air, looks like a beautiful green butterfly floating over a still aqua sea.  It is the sister island of Tahiti and is around 15 miles from the bustle of Papeete.  However, unlike modern Tahiti, Morea is an uncrowded tropical land of jagged mountains, lush forests, turquoise lagoons, coconut fields and glistening white-sand beaches.  The Bali Hai parts of the movie “South Pacific” were filmed here.  Our ship was anchored below Bali Hai Mountain.

We took the tender in and thought we would get a car to drive the island.  Instead Gary found a boat that would take us all around the island for about 3 hours and make various stops along the way. There were about 10 of us on board.  On our way to one of the many magnificent beaches, swimming In the middle of the beautiful turquoise water, were about 15 lemon sharks and countless numbers of stingrays.  We anchored here so that some of us could swim with the rays (clothes & all). They surrounded us even enveloping us at times but were actually very gentle.  Their skin is smooth and soft but for the very top of their body and, of course, the tail which is very coarse.  The sharks never bothered us but were ever present brushing against us at times. Surprisingly enough we had no fear of either the stingrays or the sharks but Gary was always on guard, just in case.  We both found it to be the most incredible experience and stayed in the water for quite a while.  We were going to go diving in the afternoon, but after this couldn’t imagine seeing anything more wonderful.  From there we went to a white sand beach and swam for about an hour, this time we were able to change into our bathing suits.  Morea is everything a south sea island should be…paradise.  We will long remember  our swim with the rays.