Trip Report Mo'orea

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One thing I liked about the diving was we only saw other divers once, and only for about 5 minutes. Moorea isn't a dive-heavy destination like Cozumel, so there is much less traffic on the dives. It was also nice because there is very little current. Our traveling partners are newly certified so they appreciated the rope descents and lack of current.
 
Trip Report Moorea Feb 13 to 25

My wife and I chose Tahiti/Moorea for our 3rd dive trip this winter. We settled on Moorea because we wanted to see shark species that we have not previously seen, and because French Polynesia has a reputation as a very beautiful location with friendly people. I booked the flight over on Delta using miles. We left Montana, connected in SLC, and then had to overnight in LA. We left the next day for Moorea. We exchanged currency in LAX, which turned out to be a mistake. The cost was high, and the hotel exchanged money for close to the exchange rate. I would not use the airport exchange again. The flight was 8.5 hours, and we had good service on the Delta 767-300. We arrived at 6:30 or so in the evening, and went to our hotel in Tahiti, the Le Tahiti Pearl. We were given an upgraded 2 story room with loads of space and 2 separate balconies looking over the ocean. There is a black sand beach just steps from the hotel and we enjoyed the location and amenities.

The next day we took a day tour of Tahiti in a 4x4. The tour takes you across the entire island, stopping to swim at different locations, looking at waterfalls, and a stop at a restaurant for lunch. It turned out to be a long day, and if we were to do it again I would have selected the 4 hour tour instead. The next day we caught the ferry to Moorea.

We had booked an overwater bungalow at the Manava Beach Resort. The property itself is very nice, with a nice pool, beach area, and a lagoon area you can snorkel in. You can check out snorkel gear, paddleboards, and kayaks if you wish. The Premium overwater bungalow was very nice, and plenty spacious for the two of us. We enjoyed seeing black tip sharks swim past and under the bungalow, as well as nurse sharks, a turtle, and loads of fish. There is a window in the floor with a light so you could watch the fish at night. There were families with kids there and they seemed to enjoy the resort as well.

It is a pretty expensive place, especially compared to other destinations and resorts we have visited. The overwater bungalow is listed at $900 per night, and we booked a week for around $750 per night. The food and drink were also expensive. When we checked in they said the bungalow wasn’t quite ready, and asked us to wait in the bar until it was complete. My wife and I each ordered 1 drink, and the bill was $44. The meals were expensive as well, and the service was painfully slow. We only ate 1 meal in the resort due to the slow service. We attempted to get drinks at the bar on two other occasions, but in both cases we waited over 20 minutes for a server to come by, and seeing none we left. The village of Maharepa is very quaint, and there are several good restaurants within walking distance of the resort. We ate at Ke’Iki twice, Carmel’in several times, Fanua Pizza, Rudy’s, and Moz Café. They were all excellent, with the lone exception being Moz Café, which was just ok. Rudy’s specialty is crab stuffed parrotfish, and it was delicious. Their chocolate mousse is one of the best I have ever eaten. There is a small grocery store there as well, and we shopped there several times. The pastries in the grocery store are surprisingly good, which makes me wonder if they got them from Carmel’in. Prices in Moorea are high for most everything. A six pack of beer in the store is approx. $18, to give a frame of reference. Most restaurants charged around $7 to $10 for a beer or glass of wine.

The huge positive to the resort, aside from the overwater bungalow, is the onsite dive operation, Moorea Blue Diving. They were very friendly and ran a top notch outfit. We were always in small groups, and one day we had 5 divers and 3 dive masters. The boats are nice, and we never felt rushed to get in, or rushed to end a dive. During the surface interval they provide hot tea, water, cookies, and dried fruit. We did 5 days of diving and enjoyed it immensely. The reef has lots of healthy coral with a large variety of fish. We enjoyed seeing a lot of species that we don’t get to see in the Caribbean. The reef in Cozumel is probably prettier, but we still really enjoyed all of the sites we visited.

We came for the sharks, and we were not disappointed. We saw lots of blacktips, white tips, one gray shark, one hammerhead, nurse sharks, and a glimpse of a lemon shark. We were hoping to see lemons and tiger sharks, but unfortunately the lemon was shy and kept his distance, and we did not see any tigers. The blacktips were very curious and would often come up to see you when you entered the water. In the video, the first sequence is of the gray shark, and at the end you can see the lemon swim by in the distance. The gray shark was much larger than the other sharks. The lemon was supposedly even larger, but because of the distance it didn’t appear as large.

There was also more turtles than I have ever seen. On every dive you would see so many turtles that I had to tell the DM to stop pointing them out. There were so many interesting fish species that I had not seen before. The Moorish Idol was one of our favorites, but they were very cautious and hard to photograph. It wasn’t as good for macro critters, but that may also be because we told them we were more interested in seeing sharks. Perhaps they didn’t take us to spots with smaller stuff? I would definitely go back to dive with Moorea Blue. They recommend we return in October when the whales are there, and we will probably look at doing so. I would probably just rent a beach house the next time though.

We took the ferry back to Tahiti on the last day. The flight home was on United 787, leaving at 10:30 pm, arriving in San Francisco around 8:45 am. We had a 5 hour layover, then the flight to Denver, and finally back home in Montana. It was a long day, but luckily we did get some sleep on the overnight from Tahiti. Overall it was a good trip, and we are glad we went.

Montana? Where is home?
 
Great Falls. Son lives in Missoula.
 
@Guitarcrazy
A few things about Moorea (and FP in general):
1. All of FP is expensive (for tourists) - don't blame the locals, blame the french. They tax the locals for running businesses, etc. All in the name of being a french protecterate (with really the only advantages being that shark fishing has been illegal & enforced for 40+ years, and the best students can opt to study in France for their secondary education). Staying at a Pension can help w/the cost of the trip, but food & diving will still (always) be pricey.

2. Moorea has always had decent diving - I'm glad you were able to experience some of this in your time there (my wife and I dove there on our honeymoon ~30 years ago). Unfortunately much of the reef inside the lagoon is completely overgrown with algae due to the runoff from several of the local farms/plantations. It's killing off much of the coral at an alarming rate (the fish can't keep up). The outside is still very good though.

3. They may have told you that the lemon sharks used to come in closer - that's only partly true. If you waited about 30 min after one of the old baited shark feeds was over, a lemon or two might come in to investigate, but they have always been very wary and would stay around the periphery.

4. You mentioned Tiger sharks - there is a very good Tiger shark dive off of Papeete where Tigers (up to 6 at a time) are seen very often (along with the elusive lemons). This is dived on a site called "White Valley," most of the shops in Papeete offer this dive.

5. If you want to dive with "a lot" of sharks, both Rangiroa and Fakarava offer pass dives where you will encounter 100's of grey reefies, along with the occasional larger shark (like a great hammerhead, tiger, or bull shark). The term "wall of sharks" has been coined to describe the experience at Fakarava.
6. There are opportunities to dive with the bigger sharks on the other islands as well. On Huahine we mentioned to our dive master that we wanted the opportunity to see what sharks they had around the island and he asked if we were up for a unique experience (hmm...) We tentatively agreed, the next day he took us for a dive in the main shipping channel that enters the lagoon. Under each (small) cargo ship that came in to port there would be 5-6 big sharks - they follow the ships in because ships would dump all food scraps (and rotting supplies) overboard before entering port so they wouldn't have to dispose of them after docking. Not sure I would repeat this dive, but it was an interesting experience.

7. Last, we returned to Moorea to snorkel with the whales a few years ago. Other than my wife getting a bit seasick it was an amazing experience (easily the best diving experience we've had on Moorea). on a 4 hour trip, we were able to get into the water with almost a dozen whales, including two calfs with their mothers. Absolutely worth the return trip to Moorea during the right time of year... (side note: we also snorkeled with whales in Tetiaroa, which was equally good, and the water was a little calmer).
 
@Guitarcrazy
A few things about Moorea (and FP in general):
1. All of FP is expensive (for tourists) - don't blame the locals, blame the french. They tax the locals for running businesses, etc. All in the name of being a french protecterate (with really the only advantages being that shark fishing has been illegal & enforced for 40+ years, and the best students can opt to study in France for their secondary education). Staying at a Pension can help w/the cost of the trip, but food & diving will still (always) be pricey.

2. Moorea has always had decent diving - I'm glad you were able to experience some of this in your time there (my wife and I dove there on our honeymoon ~30 years ago). Unfortunately much of the reef inside the lagoon is completely overgrown with algae due to the runoff from several of the local farms/plantations. It's killing off much of the coral at an alarming rate (the fish can't keep up). The outside is still very good though.

3. They may have told you that the lemon sharks used to come in closer - that's only partly true. If you waited about 30 min after one of the old baited shark feeds was over, a lemon or two might come in to investigate, but they have always been very wary and would stay around the periphery.

4. You mentioned Tiger sharks - there is a very good Tiger shark dive off of Papeete where Tigers (up to 6 at a time) are seen very often (along with the elusive lemons). This is dived on a site called "White Valley," most of the shops in Papeete offer this dive.

5. If you want to dive with "a lot" of sharks, both Rangiroa and Fakarava offer pass dives where you will encounter 100's of grey reefies, along with the occasional larger shark (like a great hammerhead, tiger, or bull shark). The term "wall of sharks" has been coined to describe the experience at Fakarava.
6. There are opportunities to dive with the bigger sharks on the other islands as well. On Huahine we mentioned to our dive master that we wanted the opportunity to see what sharks they had around the island and he asked if we were up for a unique experience (hmm...) We tentatively agreed, the next day he took us for a dive in the main shipping channel that enters the lagoon. Under each (small) cargo ship that came in to port there would be 5-6 big sharks - they follow the ships in because ships would dump all food scraps (and rotting supplies) overboard before entering port so they wouldn't have to dispose of them after docking. Not sure I would repeat this dive, but it was an interesting experience.

7. Last, we returned to Moorea to snorkel with the whales a few years ago. Other than my wife getting a bit seasick it was an amazing experience (easily the best diving experience we've had on Moorea). on a 4 hour trip, we were able to get into the water with almost a dozen whales, including two calfs with their mothers. Absolutely worth the return trip to Moorea during the right time of year... (side note: we also snorkeled with whales in Tetiaroa, which was equally good, and the water was a little calmer).
Are you saying that you were able to scuba with the whales?
 
@chillyinCanada
In my previous post I specifically called out snorkeling with the whales in FP (did I mistate this somewhere?)... however it's likely worthwhile calling out that depending on the outfit you go out with, you can free dive down to the whales as long as you are not harrassing them (we did this both in Moorea and Tetiaroa).

Since you specifically mentioned scuba diving with whales, I'll add that you used to be able to scuba dive with humpbacks in Rurutu in FP. We learned very quickly that the whales don't like "noisy" divers - every whale (4?) that we saw while diving there years ago left the area when they noticed us. Free diving with them led to much better results.

The other place you can still scuba with whales is Mozambique. You don't specifically get in the water to dive w/the whales, however during July-October you will see them frequently along the coast, very close to the outer dive sites (the dive shops dive the inner, middle, and outer reefs based on the experience of the divers). One of my dive buddies got checked out by humpbacks on 3 or 4 of his dives there. These aren't long encounters, but he did mention one calf came close enough for him to look "eye to eye" with this curious whale.
 

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