We were staying at the Moorea Pearl Resort (top right) so we started our "Circle Island Tour" (as they call it) there.
Luckily, the rental car place was right across the street! This is Albert Rental Cars, and come to find out, Albert seems to run just about every business on the island from a small hotel to a restaurant, even a tattoo shop! Notice the large selection of cars!
Jason wanted to rent this:
but I vetoed that idea and decided on a car that was comfortable and had a/c... not too many choices when there are only 3 cars, so we took the white Hyundai!
We really wanted to get up to Le Belvedere (the Lookout) early because we were told by locals that early morning is the best time to view Opunohu and Cook's Bay from there. The early morning light, they said, is the most beautiful. So that was to be our first stop of the day (even though everywhere was just so beautiful that we stopped a dozen times to just take in the scenery!)These next few pictures were taken from the side of the road in the town of Paopao.
We were told that we should stay on the main, paved road that circles the island, although there is another road- a bumpy, narrow dirt road called Pineapple Rd that takes you to the belvedere. Somehow, because we can never do anything the easy way, we ended up on Pineapple Rd! It was narrow and so bumpy at times it was really uncomfortable and actually hurt, but we were so glad we ended up taking that way (so glad that, in fact, we decided to go back that way later in the day!). It was beautiful and filled with towering pine trees- something I never expected to see in French Polynesia!
At least we finally know we're headed in the right direction.
And the road is paved again!
We made it!
The view was just beautiful!
Wild chickens EVERYWHERE in Moorea!
After we left the lookout we continued circling the island to see what we could find. We came across a small area where vendors were set up selling everything from pareos to black pearls, jewelery made from volcanic rock to tiki statues. There were even Tahitian dancers. It was really pretty there, and of course we did some shopping! We bought a necklace made from volcanic rock for me and a tiki for Brady- the tiki was part of a "family" and they were sad that we didn't buy the whole family. Brady would've just loved the topless mom tiki!
Our rental car!
The water is crystal clear!
After doing some shopping for pareo's for Maddie & I (and meeting a really nice Italian lady that I enjoyed speaking italian with!) we came across this beach (and since my Tahitian isn't that great and there is no way I could possible correctly pronounce the name, I decided to just call it Tiki Beach!)
My favorite flower- the Tiare
We decided to head back over to the Belvedere for a late day view of Opunohu Bay. The view was just as beautiful and it was less crowded so we were able to get more pictures... a lot more!
Tons of chickens!
Even baby chickens!
They even tried climbing into the car with us when we were leaving!
We decided to go back down the bumpy dirt road on the way back to the resort because it was just so pretty!
We saw these pineapple fields in the distance and continued down the dirt road for a better look.
Soooooo many pineapples!
Breadfruit (YUCK!!!!) and pineapples (YUMMMMMM!!!)
When we finally returned our rental car and got back to the resort we saw some Polynesian dancers out by the pool... the little girls were adorable! There was one little blonde girl that reminded me of Maddie... made me miss M & B.
The little blonde girl in the middle reminded me of Maddie
We finally went back to relax in our bungalow before showering and dressing for dinner. I was so glad we got to drive around Moorea and see just how beautiful it is!
If you're not totally bored with all the pictures, the next update will be Moorea day 3, when we took the ferry over to Papeete, Tahiti!
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