Author: amyewhitelivecom

Our breakfast was included in our room and the breakfast buffet was pretty amazing.  Don usually had the grilled fish and rice.  Yes, grilled fish and rice for breakfast.  Quinn has some sort of pastry or pancakes with some bacon.  And I had something different every day.  We would let Quinn sleep and then hit the buffet around 9:30 before it closed at 10 am.    Sorry, no pics. 

We decided to hang out around the hotel today.

Quinn wanted to SUP and as soon as we got in the water I saw these two rays swimming around. 

The coral garden under our hut.  You can see all the different sizes of the black and white striped fish which are damselfish. 

We saw lots of these maximus clam.  They are a really bright colored clams until you get close and they close up.

I pulled a photo off the internet to show what they look like open.  Crazy!

A coral garden being planted under the crepe restaurant. 

Kisses from my love.

For lunch we walked across the street where a lady has a food truck in her yard.  It was quite lovely and a nice change of pace.  Quinn got the kids chicken sandwich and it was huge!

And a look up.

I gave Don a little assistance in setting up this shot and I love how it turned out. 

Monday we rented a car for the drive.  It\’s about 40 miles around the island with one main road.   Our first stop was the bay right next to the hotel that had a black-ish sand beach.

Then we drove up, up, up to Belvedere Lookout.  It was stunning!

At the bottom of the mountain there were these amazing trees with vines hanging down.

Then a quick stop for a coconut water for the kid!

 We passed this giant warrior statue and had to stop.  And so glad we did.

Quinn was great about finding these little shells with creatures inside.  Of course they went back down to the bottom of the ocean.

I love floating over coral heads like these and just watching fish life in action.  Beautiful little aqua fish congregated around this coral head.

 And a look towards the mountains.

One last look before we continue our adventure.

Our cab driver on the way in told us that this overlook was the most photographed spot in the world.  I\’m not sure about that but it was beautiful.  That is the Sofitel hotel below.

A view towards Tahiti.

The shape of the island of Mo\’orea.

Then a late lunch at Moorea Beach Club.

A much needed ice cold Tahitian beer.

Our first stop was a sand bar where the sting rays and black tipped sharks like to congregate.  It might be because they are fed. 

So we were happy to have only 8 people on our boat but this location probably had about 100 people there when we were there.  It was still great!

The sand bar has deep water on the one side so the sharks come in for food and then swim back into the deep.  It was a little unsettling. 

 After the sharks and rays we went to a spot between two motus (islands) to snorkel. 

We walked up the beach and drifted with the current back to the boat.  We didn\’t even have to wear fins. 

A look across the lagoon to Mo\’orea.  I was using the GoPro so there\’s a little distortion and water spots. 

Quinn found a coconut that Tom cracked open for him to drink the water and then cut it in a way so that we could nibble on all the coconut inside.  Yummy!

Then it was back to our hut for an afternoon swim. 

And sunset.