Our first stop, a mere 15 miles  and 3 hours sailing away from Papeete, was the island of Moorea.

On my previous visit to Moorea, I drove around parts of the island and visited one of the resorts. The islands of French Polynesia.

This time I signed up in advance for one of the Princess excursions. It was described as a lagoon trip to a beach on a motu (island) with a beach  barbecue.

Despite dancing till 11 Pm the previous night and falling asleep easily, I slept very fitfully. I thought I would be exhausted and just pass out, but I guess I was a bit anxious about that nasty cut on my toe and whether it would be affected by the salt water, since I would hopefully be swimming in the beautiful blue waters surrounding the island.  

We anchored in Cook’s Bay, and passengers were taken ashore in tenders. Our excursion to the lagoon for swimming and a beach barbecue, was a whole day one, and we had only had to assemble at 8:45 so that meant a little less rush in the morning. Margaret had also signed up for this excursion.

As we came ashore on the tender there was a torrential downpour so that by the time we were seated on the boat that was to take us out to the motu, most people were soaked. But it was so warm that we dried out within moments of the rain stopping.

The ride out through the lagoon was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. The shades of blue in the water changed from deep blue to turquoise to sea green from minute to minute. We passed by the Intercontinental with its huts out over the water, and watched Jet-ski riders zoom past us. We saw the snorkeling group in the distance as well as parasailers.

E we reached the motu, our guide let the ramp down and we waded ashore. The sandy beach was quite narrow and we had to walk over coral, rocks and pebbles to get to the beach. My sandals were great in the water but later when I got back to the ship I realized that the blue dye had come off and stained my feet. Not even soap and a vigorous scrubbing got the dye off so for several days I walked around with purple feet.

The water was clear and a comfortable temperature. We watched the stingrays swimming around and coming up to the guide to be fed. They were quite huge and I did not feel too comfortable when one swam up to me. In fact to be truthful I exited the water pretty rapidly.

Lunch consisted of barbecued chicken, fish or sausage, with salads, and buns.  We sat under the shade as much as possible but I still managed to get some tanning.

After a demonstration of how to open a coconut and use just about every part of it except the outer husk, we lazed around in the water or on the beach till it was time for the boat ride back to the ship.