Anniversary Trip to Tahiti and Moorea 2023 - Pt2 2023/01/09

Earlier in the vacation, Therea and I were on the island of Moorea at the beautiful Hilton Moorea, but our room was on the land. The great news though was that we were told an upgraded room was available after a couple days! 

And so, Theresa and I are moving all our stuff over to our favorite location. A fantastic over-the-water bungalow! Just look at the amazing turquoise water! 

The inside is just a little smaller than the room on the land, but no matter. It's the location that's important. 

The bathroom that has curtains to block off the main room. All of our food from the mainland of Tahiti is still hanging out in a cooler bag filled with ice, and in the tub just in case it leaks. 

The best part of these rooms though is the private deck overlooking the water. And if things get a little too sunny, the lounge chairs can just pull inside the room a little bit for some nice shade. 

And so, that's where Theresa and I would spend most of the day. Reading our books for hours and hours. 

We've got a glass bottom floor in the room. 

Beautiful water and mountains to look at. 

And even our own private dock! 

Our favorite relaxing spot in the world. 

The fridge was stocked daily with drinks, which we very much appreciated. It's warm here, so we're going through the water. 

And we had our own special gift in the room. 

Coconut macarons! Yum! 

Just a little toasty from previous days on the beach. But enjoying a cup of coffee by the water was pretty great. 

And atmosphere changed as the sun went down. 

The next morning, we woke up and rain was really coming down hard! 

I'm happy that each of the rooms comes with an umbrella! 

Just a little damp from the walk, we arrived at breakfast. When you arrive, there are a variety of juice drinks the host will serve you before leading you to a table. Today I tried banana juice. Yum! 

Every time we'd request something on the balcony overlooking the water. 

It's a nice view, even with all the rain. 

Oh, hello. 

Do you maybe smell this? 

Theresa was not interested in sharing. 

A muffin Theresa got with a whole bunch of chocolate chips. 

After breakfast, we got changed and borrowed some snorkel gear from the pool attendants. 

Time to go under the sea! 

I said we had a glass bottom in the room. 

And this is what Theresa sees looking up! 

Let's go check it out! 

We love all the colorful coral at fishes here. And here in this lagoon, you can go out for hundreds of yards and still only be in neck-deep water. Everything is pretty close to the surface without any big drop-offs. 

Theresa just loves all these colorful clams that are seemingly everywhere here. 

Well, that rain from this morning decided to come back again and started stirring up all the sand and silt in the water. We'll have to postpone our snorkeling for another day. 

Grabbing more ice for the cooler. 

And enjoying a hot beverage on the deck. 

Looking back over to the island at a few of the other huts. Those are "over-the-water" but so near the shore that it's not preferred for us. That's a really interesting tall "palm tree" too. 

The rest of the day was us just hanging out, eating snacks and reading books. 

I remember on our previous trip here, we had a suitcase filled will paper books. It's so much easier to travel with e-readers. 

Dinner on the porch. 

The next morning, we woke up a little early in order to get out and snorkel before any weather picked up and while the water was still nice and calm. 

A crab making a temporary home on our deck support. 

The water was much more clear in the morning. 

It seems like there's a few coral gardens around where new pieces are growing. A diver was tending to them. 

This guy has some big chompy teeth! We could hear him really well through the water. Other fish would swim nearby to pick up any leftovers that might fall away after he picked something off and crunched it up. 

Time to get to breakfast before it closes! For breakfast we certainly eat like kings! 

Tasty island pineapple. 

Crepes. 

Mapple syrup. 

Now that's the kind of bacon I prefer. Chewy instead of crispy. Theresa and the kids disagree, so I made sure to send them a photo. 

The eggs benedict were delicious with a perfectly runny yolk! So rich and delicious. I love them when they're done right. 

And this has to be the happiest dog in Moorea. 

After breakfast, we wandered around the hotel grounds. So pretty. 

Hi cat. 

The rest of the day was spent out on the deck of our room, overlooking the ocean. 

And just like it has for the last few days, a warm afternoon rain storm came in to cool everything down. 

I don't know why it took us so long to realize it, but instead of those deck chairs, which are nice enough, we could also rearrange the room a little bit and pull the couch over and be even more relaxed! 

What a great idea! 

The island birds finding the heel of a baguette that I left out. It's gone stale, but they don't mind. 

I had a feeling that might happen... 

Dinner in the room made use of the kettle, for us to make instant noodles along with ham from the cooler. Yum! 

The next morning, breakfast was great as always. 

We've already snorkelled, but there's something we've carried around in our luggage that we need to make use of. 

This deck will be perfect. 

We've previously brought these floats to Hawaii and absolutely loved them! These pack down well and are great to float in. 

Our Kindles are waterproof too! Great to just float and read. 

You can see the rain coming. We didn't sweat it though. It's not ruining any of our plans. It's nice and peaceful on the porch to read while the rain is coming down. 

Walking around after dark, the giant island snails are out. 

And we got caught in a downpour while we were out. The kids are into Pokemon Go right now, so we thought it would be fun to catch a few Pokemon for them all the way from Tahiti! 

Tomorrow I'm sure will be another fun and relaxing day!