north end of the island between Cook's Bay and Opunohu Bay. Excellent pool, excellent resort, and superb location... probably the best on Moorea! Here's my video of our stay on Moorea. The weather was gorgeous the whole time, too, with temperatures that felt like the upper 80's to lower 90's. We had a couple of brief rain showers which felt nice. We were also lucky in that there weren't many people there. That seems to be the case wherever we go. It was so quiet and beautiful. I would definitely stay there again. One of the cute things about the resort was it had a small group of resident chickens wandering about. We'd be eating right on the beach and a couple of red hens would strut by. It was funny. I love cute, quirky surprises. They keep the bugs away, apparently (the chickens, not the surprises). Like Le Meridien Bora Bora, a kitty also lived here at this resort... only this one almost looked like a teeny spotted jungle cat. Very polite, too, and so pretty. Can't go wrong with a kitty, right?

We saw a black-tipped shark under the boardwalk right by our bungalow one evening. Walking around at night shooting with my tripod, we saw the most vivid, breathtaking, panoramic view of the Milky Way I've ever seen. In the absence of any light pollution and set against a pitch black sky, it left us practically speechless. The whole trip was filled with lovely new experiences, for example, seeing a pod of dolphins after a morning of diving! That was really special. I couldn't get any photos because it happened so quickly, though. We dove with Top Dive Moorea and really got to see some big sharks, which is always the height of excitement for me. We saw lemon sharks and black-tipped reef sharks, of course. Lemon sharks, like sand tiger sharks, look creepy in the face but are actually quite docile as far as sharks go. Their size makes them imposing, magnificent, like giant torpedos slithering over the reefs... and they sort of sneak up on you. We saw huge schools of fish that seemed to like us. (Yeah, right... they probably hated us). It was quite a show with throngs of longfin bannerfish, several varieties of triggerfish, parrotfish, butterflyfish, guineafowl puffer, boxfish, trevally, porcupinefish, sea urchins, grunts, sergeant majors, lionfish, moorish idols, surgeonfish, moray eels, Christmas tree worms, spotted eels, damselfish, sea cucumbers, and the list just goes on and on. Here's a cute fish video.

It always renews my faith in the resilience of nature to explore the underwater realm of French Polynesia, because, like the brilliant expanses of her plantlife above, the reefs are an explosion of color and activity. Unfortunately, there was some reef damage due to the cyclone that happened the previous month... and an invasive species known as the 'crown of thorns' sea star kept making appearances. There was still an abundance of healthy fish and marine life, though. We went on a shark and stingray adventure, too, which was so marvelous... standing in the lagoon surrounded by all those sharks, stingrays, and fish is always such a lovely, magical feeling and an opportunity to spend time on some gorgeous beaches! We wandered around a bit on this private island beach after the sharks and stingrays took off, then we had a lagoon tour by boat. Moorea has such enchanting coastline and topography. The dramatic way the mountainous terrain slopes down to the water is so striking like a prehistoric landscape.

the left ear means you are married, engaged, or otherwise taken. Worn behind both ears means you are married but still available. Worn backward behind the ear means you are available immediately. I've always worn my flowers behind my left ear, so as it turns out I was doing the right thing quite by accident. The album for the next half of this vacation is in the "Bora Bora 10" link on the menu page and right here. Our Bora Bora beach wedding album will be in the "Wedding Bora Bora " link which is also under construction. I hope you enjoy the Moorea photos which are below... click any image to make it larger: