Moorea Buffets: July, 2004

After we had soaked up the views, we headed on to more stops. A scenic lookout from which we could see Cook’s Bay and Oponohu Bay, the ruins of an ancient temple, and a waterfall that we reached with a twenty minute hike, all proved to be fantastic.

Following our gloriously scenic and comically bumpy ride through the interior, the truck headed back to the coast and stopped at a beautiful beach. While we relished the gorgeous surroundings, our shabby-looking guide Tommy climbed trees and gathered fresh ingredients for an impromptu buffet.


Tommy laid out large green leaves over the dusty truck tail gate and then proceeded to prepare pineapple, coconut and other freshly picked fruit using nothing but a machete. By the time he finished, the truck bed looked like the work of a tropical Martha Stewart rather than a scraggly-bearded, scruffy-looking guide.

We were so impressed by the entire tour, we decided to sign up for the shark and stingray dive offered by Albert Tours the next day.

We returned to the ship for lunch in the Veranda Restaurant, where once again we enjoyed plentiful choices from the buffet and menu. While everything was delicious, how can you spend time in French Polynesia without enjoying all of that magnificent fresh seafood and tropical fruit?

The Pineapple Factory in Moorea: July, 2004

On our favorite island, Moorea, we wandered over to a hotel by the port and found a tour desk selling 4X4 tours of the island for $40 per person. Albert Tours had already departed, but the enterprising tour desk entrepreneur made some calls and then drove us to the first stop, a pineapple factory, where we joined the group led by Tommy, who was one of Albert‘s nephews.

Missing his front teeth, wild haired and wearing a tattered tank top, Tommy made a worse first impression than the Windstar, but he was certainly personable.


The pineapple factory turned out to have an unexpected feature: a tasting bar. At 9 AM, we were being served a sample of pineapple punch by Tommy. As we gulped it down, he said, “This one’s 10% alcohol.” He quickly poured another shot...and another...and another. The alcohol content of these pineapple and coconut based drinks jumped to 25% to 40% to 80%, with the last being a rum that he assured would make me a hero in the bedroom that night. I couldn’t help noticing the hand rolled cigarette that Tommy lit, and I thought this was really an unusual tasting room, but it turned out that he was just feeding his tobacco habit.

Off we went into the interior of the island, standing in the back of the truck as we bounced along tree lined dirt roads that often required that we duck to avoid being whacked by low branches. We stopped at a beautiful pineapple field in the heart of the volcano that is Moorea. In every direction, the views proved to be breathtaking.


Tommy told us all about pineapple plants, the business of raising pineapples and lots of things unrelated to pineapples, proving himself to be quite knowledgeable, or so he seemed after all the free drinks we downed.