#73272 - 05/26/08 11:19 AM
Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
|
Patti.
Expert Advisor
Registered: 03/28/04
Posts: 2460
Loc: Las Vegas, NV
|
I went to Moorea for a week with my Mother, sister (Lynn), and daughter (Rachel) for a very special Mother’s Day trip. My Mom had been with me once before (last year), but my sister and daughter had not. My daughter has been all over a pretty fair portion of the world, but never got to French Polynesia. My sister had never even been out of the US. And… the 4 of us had never been anywhere together…other than maybe out to dinner a few times. So it really was a pretty special trip for my Mom.
Mom and I flew to LAX from Vegas. We were meeting Lynn and Rachel at LAX, as they both live in the area. We arrived a couple hours before they did, so we just hung out looking around in the duty free store and people watching. The LAX international terminal is a GREAT place to people watch. When the check in counter for our flight finally opened, we got in the already fairly long line. Knowing what time Lynn and Rachel were planning to arrive, we figured we’d be up near the front of the line when they got there. Sure enough, we were 2 groups from the front when they arrived. Check in was smooth. Our luggage was WAY under the limit! ….even though we had a ton of food in there. Heck, we had bacon, pancake mix, syrup, cereal, salad dressing, vegetable oil, olive oil, mayo, mustard, microwave popcorn, cookies, crackers, hummus, nutella, beef jerky, trail mix, mixed nuts, spices, instant coffee, crystal light mix, a bottle of rum, paper plates, napkins, plastic cups…….what can I say?? I’m cheap and everything is WAY too expensive to buy over there!
Our flight from LAX to PPT was relatively painless. This was the first time I have tried the red eye to PPT. I normally hate red eyes, but its early arrival time essentially gives you a full extra day in FP. Totally worth it in my opinion. It leaves LAX at 11:30pm and arrives in Tahiti at 5am. We then had a 7:10 connecting flight to Moorea.
The flight was very full. I only saw 3 or 4 empty seats. There may have been a few more I didn’t notice. About an hour after take off we were served a very late dinner. Not great but not bad. I had the Tilapia with turmeric sauce. It was rather bland in my opinion….but edible. I was a good girl this time and only had 1 glass of champagne. As usual I could not sleep on the plane….but I did do some pretty serious dozing this time. Ear plugs, eye mask, socks, and 2 blankets helped. As usual, the plane was freezing for the first few hours….then suffocating hot…then freezing again. Doesn’t matter what you wear, at some time during the flight you will either be too hot or too cold. Blankets on, blankets off, blankets on….. The flight was relatively smooth. We always seem to hit some turbulence…seems like it’s usually around the equator area. Nothing really major though. Just 10-15 minutes of some bumpiness. It’s nothing like the turbulence I hit flying in and out of Vegas in the summer.
Because our seats were in the middle cabin, we were off the plane relatively quickly. Getting through immigration was very quick this time. For once, I didn’t get in that really slow guys line! Woo Hoo! Took a while for our luggage to get to us because the flight was so full….there was a ton of luggage coming off that plane! After collecting all our bags (no missing ones this time!) we walked right through customs. We met our tour operator to get our flower leis and travel vouchers. Rachel exchanged our money at the bank….got a horrible exchange rate! God, the dollar just sucks right now! 72xpf for $1. I got 77 in Feb, 85 last year, 92 the year before!!!! Rather than take the shuttle bus to the Air Moorea terminal, we walked. After an 8 hour flight, it felt good to walk for a bit. Air Moorea overbooked their 7:10 flight, so we were put on the 7:30 flight instead. Not really a problem for us. We just chatted with the others who were waiting.
The Air Moorea flight was fun. It’s such a quick flight, you barely have enough time to enjoy it. Actual flight time is like 7 minutes. If you add in the taxing time at each end, it’s 10 minutes. I sat on the left side of the plane this time, so I was able to get some nice aerial photos of both Tahiti and Moorea.
My sisters jaw just dropped when she saw the mountains at our hotel around Cooks Bay. It truly is a spectacular view. Rachel said the mountain crags and peaks reminded her of places she visited in Laos. We arrived at our hotel around 8:30. We checked in right away. Our room was not quite ready. It had already been cleaned, but the floor was not quite dry yet, so we just sat out on the patio for a half hour until it was dry.
This was my 4th stay at Club Bali Hai on Moorea. As always, I enjoyed my stay. The staff is utterly delightful. Full of smiles and laughter. Always helpful when needed
Club Bali Hai is a great property if are not looking for 5 star quality. It is not 5 star... or 4 star...not sure it's even a 3 star...but it is a very solid 2 star property. I call it funky rustic. It is not fancy by any stretch of the imagination, but it is a clean, comfortable, very friendly place to stay. The location, with the view of Cooks Bay and the surrounding mountains, is totally amazing. If you like luxury and all the amenities, this is NOT the place for you. If you want a comfortable, reasonable priced place to stay, then it's great.
The rooms are fairly basic, slightly worn in places, but still totally functional. Might find a stray bug or two, or maybe some small ants...but they have a large can of bug spray in the room to take care of it. Colorful tropical design fabric window coverings and bed covers. The rooms have kitchenettes in them. A fridge, an electric stove, microwave, plates, pots and pans, utensils. Makes eating meals much less costly, as you can purchase food at the local markets and cook it yourself. The maids come to give you fresh towels each day and dump your trash. They only come twice a week (Wed and Sat) to change the sheets. CBH also has laundry facilities, so you can do a load of wash or two if you need to.
The hotel location is great. There is a market about a 5 minute walk to the left. And 2 more about a 10 minute walk to the right. A mini market at the gas station about 1 minute away. Several restaurants with a variety of prices within a 5-10 minute walk. There is a restaurant, the Blue Pineapple, on the property. They are open for breakfast and lunch every day. The prices are very reasonable and the food is good.
I have stayed in a Bay View Room, an Over Water, and a Beach Bungalow on previous trips. This time I stayed in a Beach Bungalow again. Although the beach bungalows are good sized, and I do enjoy staying in them, they are very close to the road and the traffic noise can be very loud. There isn't much traffic at all from about 11pm to 4 am....so you need to make the most of your sleep hours during that time. The Over Waters are not fully way out over the water like they are at so many of the upscale hotels. But they are still fun to stay in. The Bay View rooms are actually the coolest and quietest (and smallest) room category....as they are in a solid 2 story building rather than the thatch roof bungalow with open air bathrooms the OW and beach bungalows have....so the air conditioning tends to work much better in them.
Because our trip was centered around Mother’s Day, I wanted to get some nice flowers for Mom while over there. I emailed ahead of time to see if there was a floral shop somewhere within walking distance of our hotel. There wasn’t. So they suggested to me that I have Rosalie (the woman who runs the gift shop) make a lei for her. They said I just needed to send another email a few days before I needed it, and I could just pay Rosalie after I get there. We picked it up the Lei on Mother’s Day morning. My Mom had no idea what we were handing her when we gave her the gift bag. The lei was beautiful. It wasn’t one of the really colorful flower ones, but rather made completely of Tiare flowers. Rosalie had strung the flowers in different directions, different patterns and bundles for a pattern effect. It was just beautiful! OMG…the fragrance could just knock you over…it smelled so good!
We took some really silly pictures of Mom opening her gift bag. She was only in her bra and panties! Obviously those pictures are for family viewing only! We kept the lei hanging in the shower all week, and the scent just overwhelmed us every time we walked into the bathroom. We realized several days later that we had never taken a “official” picture of Mom wearing her Mother’s day Lei with clothes on….so we made her put it on so we could take a few pictures to share. It was a little bit wilted by then, but it still smelled great!
We did something I had never done at Club Bali Hai before…despite my 4 previous stays there…..we went snorkeling off the shore. It was surprisingly good. I had heard there was a nice snorkeling area about 40-50 feet off shore, but it just never looked that good to me. This time I decided to give it a try. The water is not that crystal clear turquoise blue you get out in the lagoon, but the visibility was surprisingly good…more like lake water. There were tons of fish out there along a coral wall drop off. We went snorkeling there almost every day. It was much better first thing in the morning before the wind and boat traffic kicked up.
We went on an hour long snorkeling trip through Hiro’s Tours one afternoon. They take you out to an area near the reef out past the Pearl Hotel. There is some very nice snorkeling out there. Tons of coral heads, tons of fish. It’s a great deal for $1000xpfs. Even a better deal when you get it thrown in for free by your travel agent. My Mom, Rachel, and I really enjoyed the snorkeling. But Lynn…OMG…she’s a total water rat! You couldn’t keep her out of the water. She was out snorkeling every day, 3 or 4 times a day. She had never been to Hawaii or any place like that, so she really had no idea what was really out there. But once she discovered all those pretty little fishies, you couldn’t keep her out of the water.
We also went on the Motu Picnic/Shark/Ray Feeding Tour with Hiro’s Tours. That is always such a fun trip. This time was no exception. First stop was the shark feeding. My Mom got in for a few minutes again this time. She didn’t require near the coaxing she did last time. She only stayed in for a couple minutes, but at least she got in. Rachel took a bit of time before she was comfortable enough to get into the water with the sharks. But once she was in, she stayed in until it was time to leave. Lynn got in right away and was practically the last person in the boat when it was time to leave. It’s really such a cool rush to be in the water with around 25 sharks, swimming less than a foot or two in front of your face. It’s really a strange feeling. You are totally out of your comfort zone, and yet you feel strangely calm about the situation at the same time. I about crapped my pants a few years ago when I saw my first shark on this trip. Now it doesn’t freak me out at all to see 25 or 30 of them.
The neatest thing happened on the way from the shark feeding area to the Ray Feeding area. We came upon a pod of dolphins just outside Oponohu Bay. OMG! They were so cool! They just frolicked in the water on either side of the boat. Then lead the boat for quite a distance.....surfacing every few seconds jut a couple feet in front of the boat as we followed them across the front of the bay. We spent a good 10 minutes or so with them. I had never seen dolphins before on this tour. I guess maybe May is a better time of the year for them than February. I can’t even imagine how cool it would be to be there at the right time of year to encounter the whales out there.
Ray feeding was crazy as usual. The rays just crawl all over you looking for food. To say they are friendly is an understatement. I usually move away from the main group of people feeding the rays. There’s too much going on and too much sand being stirred up to get any good pictures. Off to the side of the boat, there are always tons of rays swimming about along with a fair amount of sharks who have discovered the ray feeding site. I always get some great shark pictures here because the water is quite shallow and there isn’t quite the frenzy there is at the actual shark feeding site.
The motu picnic was also great as usual. Grilled fish, grilled chicken, pineapple, bread, rice, and that same weird bland pasta salad with the little wieners cut up in it. The Hinano beer and rum punch really hit the spot after a whole morning of snorkeling. A coconut demonstration always follows lunch. Usually pretty funny stuff as they choose a few tourists to try their luck at husking a coconut. We also ordered the DVD of our trip. It’s not cheap, but it’s such a great souvenir to bring home.
I had my first experience driving in Moorea. We rented a car from Avis at CBH for 24 hours. Car was quite new, in very good shape. I think it was a Ford something. Fiesta??.. maybe??? Because none if us could drive a stick we had to bite the bullet and pay the extra for an automatic. I got to be the lucky one to drive, as I was most familiar with the island. The car was very strange to me to say the least. It was a combination stick/automatic. It had no clutch, but the gear shifter thingy worked both ways. What a weird concept. It took me a while to get going each time because there were so many steps I had to remember to do to get it started. Once I got it going I was fine, the car ran great.
We drove up to Belvedere, to the Marae, the agricultural farm, completely around the island with stops at various scenic places, stores and shops to do some shopping. We made the mandatory stop at the Fruit Juice factory to sample (and buy) their liquors. We went shopping at the large grocery store over near the ferry docks. They certainly do have a lot of stuff there. Prices are better than at the smaller markets, but I think I prefer shopping at the smaller Are Market in Pao Pao. They carry pretty much everything I need and it’s just easier to shop and to get to than the large grocery store. We had lunch at Carmaline’s. They make really great crepes. I got some filled with seafood curry. YUMMY!! Also bought a couple coconut croissants to bring back to our room.
The free activities at CBH are always a treat. The crab races on Monday nights are always the highlight of the week for me. They are so silly, but so completely entertaining. I actually won one of the races this year! Woo Hoo! I won a whole $300xpfs...that's like about $4US. :-) The free Tahitian dance show on Wednesday nights is always a treat too. It’s neat to see the family who puts on the show growing up. This year Rachel got to get up and dance with the same young boy I danced with 4 years ago, and Mom danced with last year. I don’t know what it is with this kid…why he keeps picking our family. Maybe he just needs to choose someone short and we all seem to qualify. :-) He looks to be around 13 or 14 now. A few more years and he might just turn into a hunk! THEN I won’t mind dancing with him.
Each evening we went down to have happy hour with Muk. He is one of the owners and one of the original Bali Hai Boys. He tells great stories about the old days when he and his partners first came to the islands. I think he embellishes his stories a bit, but they are still entertaining. Rachel especially found his stories quite interesting.
On Sunday afternoon they had a special guest speaker come to Club Bali Hai. His name was Doug (something???). Gosh I hate that I can’t remember. I knew I should have written it down. Anyway…he has lived in the islands for many years and is quite knowledgeable in a variety of subjects. He does guest lecturing on the FP cruise ship circuit. His talk was really quite interesting. It was like being back in college in a cultural anthropology class. He was really funny too…although not necessarily on purpose. He is obviously so excited about this stuff, he gets a bit scatter-brained because he just wants to talk about everything at the same time. It was really pretty cute. It’s neat to see someone that excited about sharing his knowledge.
One of the women staying at our hotel has a serious accident on her motor scooter one afternoon.….through no fault of her own. She ended up breaking her arm in 3 places and had quite a road rash on her arm, leg and chin. Thank God she was wearing her helmet and was not really seriously injured. They took her to the small hospital on Moorea, but the x-ray machine was not working. So they put her arm in a sling, gave her some Tylenol with codeine and sent her back to the hotel. At Happy Hour with Muk that night he put out the word asking for some “stronger” drugs for her. One of the guests had some vicodan and went to her room to give her some. Next day they had to fly her to Papeete to go to the hospital there. They x-rayed it and found it was broken in 3 places. She’d need surgery and some screws put in when she gets back home. They told her she could stay and continue her trip if she wanted to. They didn’t want to put her in a hard cast for fear of swelling on the flight home. So they just set it in the sling, gave her some better drugs, and told her she’d be fine snorkeling with it.
There were some really neat yachts in Cooks Bay while we were there. One was anchored across the bay right out in front of our room. It was called Ice and is owned by Russian billionaire, Suleiman Kerimov. It was huge. I can’t even imagine what the interior looked like! Came complete with its own helicopter. The other neat one was the 3 masted Maltese Falcon. Wow what a cool boat that is! I have seen pictures of the interior of it on the internet. Just amazing! From what I understand Paul Allen’s yacht, the Octopus, and Larry Ellison’s yacht, the Rising Sun, were both cruising in the islands too.
I had hoped to meet up with Jan Prince, the author of the Tahiti Guide tour book while on Moorea. I emailed her a week before I left, but she never got back to me, so I assumed it wouldn’t happen. Then one afternoon this red haired woman walked out to our beach bungalow asking for me. I knew immediately who it was. She and I went to the Blue Pineapple to visit for awhile. I had already eaten, so just she had lunch. What a delight she is. I really enjoyed chatting with her about all things Tahiti. Too bad the brand new edition of her book wasn’t due out until the week AFTER I got back. I would have loved to have her sign it for me. Because I wasn’t expecting her, I didn’t even think to grab my camera to bring to lunch to take a picture with her.
This trip (in May) was my first trip to French Polynesia that wasn't in February (supposedly the rainy season). Well...the first 3 days were spectacular...not a cloud in the sky, no humidity at all....then on Tuesday afternoon things changed. We had some rain most afternoons for the rest of the week. Also had some showers in the mornings...and had some very heavy rains at night. We got rained on a bit on our way back from the Motu Picnic. We ran into a few showers when we drove around the island. We had to delay a walk to the market a few times. But overall it didn't affect us much. Most of the showers lasted between 10 minutes and an hour....with long periods of sunshine in between. We actually had more rain this week in May than I have had in the past 2 February trips combined. Just goes to show you it doesn't really make a difference when you go. It's either gonna rain or it's not. So don't worry about it!
Our whole trip was going great until Friday afternoon…the day before we were supposed to leave. We received a note from the front desk that we had an urgent message. When we got there, Valestine, the receptionist, informed us our Air Moorea flight the next day had been canceled or over booked or something. We had been booked on the 6:15 flight back to Papeete. But now we had nothing. Supposedly all the flights on Saturday were full or canceled or whatever. It’s so hard to get an exact explanation of what the problem is. She spent a couple hours calling Air Moorea trying to get us on a flight. There was one at 9pm….our flight to LAX was at 10pm, so there was NO WAY I was going to take a chance on that flight. She tried again the next morning to find us a flight. The best she could do was get a flight on Air Tahiti at 10am. Again…there is no way I’m taking a flight at 10am to Papeete when our flight to LAX doesn’t leave until 10pm that night! So we finally opted to just take the last ferry instead. Another couple at our hotel who had also been bumped from the flight took the ferry with us. Between the cost of the ferry and the transfer from the ferry dock to the airport, we ended up spending close to $8000xpfs (over $100 US). I was informed by my travel agent when we got home that she would be refunding the cost of the air ticket we didn’t use. So we will actually come out ahead money-wise.
Our flight back was also easy and uneventful. For the late night dinner, I had a swordfish in sorrel sauce that was really pretty good. Again, I couldn't sleep, but I did doze off a bit now and then. Again...the plane is too cold, too hot, too cold....blankets on, blankets off, blankets on. I have learned that asking for a second blanket works well. Use one to cover your bottem half and one to use as a wrap for the top half.
All in all, we had another great stay. I just hope the dollar starts recovering soon. If it doesn’t improve, we may not be headed back next year. We may have to take a year or two off and go some place more reasonable, like Hawaii.
Here's my Photo Show link for those who haven't seen it.
http://www.dotphoto.com/go.asp?l=LasVegasPatti&P=&SID=211679&CID=2192008&Show=Y&E=Y&ILD=4373112
Edited by Patti. (05/26/08 11:22 AM)
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73274 - 05/26/08 12:21 PM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: Patti.]
|
DenverJoe
Expert Advisor
Registered: 09/10/02
Posts: 1878
Loc: Denver, Co.
|
Great trip report Patti. Sounds like you had a good time. Thanks again for the music. I loaded the songs to a CD and play them in the car. Keeps me happy when I'm driving in traffic.
_________________________
Nothing better than a Hinano in hand and toes in the sand.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73277 - 05/26/08 01:22 PM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: DenverJoe]
|
Poehere
Expert Advisor
Registered: 08/18/07
Posts: 2362
Loc: FP
|
Good to read you "girls" had a terrific week despite the weather... I tried looking at your slide show Patti but it blocked somehow halfway or so???
_________________________
* with sunshine *
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73278 - 05/26/08 03:06 PM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: Poehere]
|
BarbiJKM
Supreme Advisor
Registered: 02/14/07
Posts: 6150
Loc: Mesa, AZ
|
Thanks, Patti -- I've been waiting for your report! Nice to know things are great as usual at CBH. Suckful about the dollar... What a great trip to do with your mom, sister, and daughter for Mother's Day! A lifetime memory!!
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73281 - 05/26/08 03:57 PM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: BarbiJKM]
|
Patti.
Expert Advisor
Registered: 03/28/04
Posts: 2460
Loc: Las Vegas, NV
|
It was nice Barbi, I am really glad we did it. But I don't imagine we'll be doing anything like that againin the future. I KNOW my Mom totally enjoyed the family time...but I really do prefer going with just Paul. As much as he can be a total pain in the butt sometimes, I really do enjoy myself a lot more with him. :-)
Poehere~ Try it again. I just checked it out and it worked fine for me.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73284 - 05/26/08 04:42 PM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: Patti.]
|
Old Wife
Expert Advisor
Registered: 02/21/03
Posts: 2369
Loc: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
|
Great report, Patti. I felt like I was there with you.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73431 - 05/30/08 08:48 PM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: Patti.]
|
islandbreeze
Junior Member
Registered: 04/02/07
Posts: 25
|
Patti,
Thanks for the great trip report. I'd like to pm you with some questions but you're over your topic limit in your pm box....must have lots of questions waiting for you!!
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73432 - 05/30/08 09:06 PM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: islandbreeze]
|
Patti.
Expert Advisor
Registered: 03/28/04
Posts: 2460
Loc: Las Vegas, NV
|
islandbreeze~ For whatever reason the PM in here doesn't work. If you'd like to, you can email me at bruinpatti at yahoo dot com
I'd be happy to answer any questions you have.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73433 - 05/30/08 09:36 PM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: Patti.]
|
islandbreeze
Junior Member
Registered: 04/02/07
Posts: 25
|
Patti,
You've got mail.
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
|
#73436 - 05/31/08 06:33 AM
Re: Trip Report~ Mothers Day on Moorea '08
[Re: islandbreeze]
|
Pago
Member
Registered: 12/10/05
Posts: 189
Loc: Ohio
|
A nice report. Yes, the Airbus just doesn't have individual air vents so it's very easy to burn up and freeze on the flites. Too bad bad they can't fly Boeing Air craft, the worlds best.; .
|
|
Top
|
|
|
|
Moderator: BarbiJKM, hamara, DenverJoe, Poehere
|
6922 Members
15 Forums
10259 Topics
91469 Posts
Max Online: 118 @ 04/08/12 01:59 PM
|
|
1 registered
(Patti.)
and 15 anonymous users online.
|
|
|
