Day 14

When we walked up to Deck 12 for breakfast this morning, the cruise ship was already surrounded by beautiful dramatic mountain peaks formed by volcano eruptions many millions years ago. We were tendered to the port and welcome by locals with live music and flowers. Moorea is one of the Society Islands discovered by James Cook.

We later went on a Dolphin Watch Expedition. Our tour guide was an American who came to the island to study dolphins, but after getting his PhD, he ended up staying there for good. The dolphins inside the lagoon are the smallest dolphins species. They like to swim against the waves underwater and surf. In order to watch them surf, he took us to the barrier reef where the waves are highest. We did see several dolphins riding the waves. However, several of us on the boat got seasick. We swore no more dolphin or whale watches for us. After the boat tour, we took a 2-hour land tour to see the crater and Opunohu Bay and Cook's Bay. We think Moorea is the most scenic place in French Polynesia we have visited so far.

We went to Uma Umi for dinner again. We had ramen noodles and red bean mochi, both of which are special items not on the regular menu and needed to be requested one day in advance so that they could be prepared. The noodles and mochi were very good.

Chenggang took some art lessons during this segment of the cruise. Today, there was also an art show in Palm Court. At 6 PM, we left Moorea for Papeete, which is only 20+ miles away from Moorea. By 7:20 PM, the ship docked at Papeete. Chenggang went out after the ship docked and found a truck food court nearby.