Moorea: Paradise Island in French Polynesia

As you saw from the previous photos, Moorea is a little bit of paradise in the South Pacific. It's a short 20-minute ferry ride west of Tahiti.

I want to try and catch you up now that I'm in New Zealand and internet access is cheap by comparison.

I spent 3 nights on Moorea and lucked out with a private dorm room the whole time.

Camping Chez Nelson was set on a fantastic stretch of (rare) beach along a beautiful section of the blue lagoon which encircles the entire island.

My first night I happened upon Lucy from New Zealand. We had first met on the brightly lit airport terminal bus at an ungodly hour like 1 am in Los Angeles.

Serendipity had her staying in the dorm next to me, along with Madeline from Scotland, who was working on her first novel and planned to finish it up with a 3-month stint on Fiji.

We dined on (tiny) lobsters and had an all-around great time together.

The next day it rained (a lot) and I said a wet goodbye to Lucy and Madeline, and let the day pass slowly.

Later, I met 4 new arrivals – Christina and Alexandra from Colorado and Alex and Robert from Germany.

I had taken Benadryl due to what appeared to be a swelling bug bite, though it unintentionally drugged me to sleep for 11 hours.

The next day I went snorkeling on the northern side of the island – which gave me a whole new appreciation for the views of the green mountains and wispy clouds.

Even when it rained, the views above and below water were perfect. We saw stingrays, blacktip sharks, tiki sculptures carved underwater out of coral, and plenty of pretty fish.

That third night I played a card game – Phase 10 – with my four new friends until we retired a little after 10 pm (late by Polynesian standards).

The next day I awoke, ate some more crepes with Alexandra, took the bus back to the ferry, and the ferry back to Tahiti.

See all my French Polynesia photos.

To be continued….

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Bonus Video – I couldn't resist this monologue, though the turquoise waters don't show up as well due to the clouds.

Tahitian postcard goes to the first person to peg where I got the quote. While not original, it perfectly described my feelings at the start of this journey. :)

Dave Lee

Dave is the Founder and Editor in Chief of Go Backpacking and Feastio. He's been to 66 countries and lived in Colombia and Peru. Read the full story of how he became a travel blogger.