Last night the seas were as rough as they were the first day/night, so while we weren't sea sick, we did not get much sleep. We kept getting jolted awake by violent rocking or banging and clanging. We docked at Papeete around 6:30 am at a different dock than the one from which we sailed. We got a chance to say farewell to most of our new friends and the crew before getting off around 7:30. We caught a taxi to the other pier for our ferry ride to Moorea. Taxis certainly aren't inexpensive. If I read the fare chart correctly, it costs about $10 just to get in, plus $1.30 per kilometer and $1.50 per bag. Our ride cost almost $18 for a 4 or 5 minute ride. A nice man who was selling tours on Moorea showed us to the ticket gate upstairs where we waited a few minutes for the 8:10 ferry. It departed at 8:25 (perhaps 8:10 is the time it arrives for boarding) and a quick 30 minutes later we were in Moorea. Here we had a slight problem because our transfer to the hotel was scheduled for 12:30 and we weren't sure if using our phone would cost 20 cents per minute or $4.10 per minute since I hadn't verified with T-Mobile whether French Polynesia was on our international plan. As we were getting ready to figure out how to make a call, a very nice older French lady asked us in English if we needed help; I guess we looked like we needed it. We explained our problem and she found a man who seemed to be helping another group of tourists get along and he called the transfer company for us. They said they'd be along in 20 or 25 minutes and to wait at the little outdoor restaurant right across the street - a place that advertised pizza. Being a little early for pizza, we opted for 2 coffees instead. Almost an hour later (island time remember) a nice air conditioned bus arrived. The driver explained that we would stop at the airport to pick up a few more passengers, then be on our way. Since there's only one ring road, as usual on these islands, we had to pass that way anyway. The airport made Redmond look like JFK. A half dozen people got on and off we went. Moorea is much quieter than Tahiti, but a bustling island compared with the Marquesas, and it has beautiful green mountains as well. The skies were overcast so we didn't see the beautiful ocean colors.
We are staying at the Hotel Les Tapiniers in a bungalow looking out at the beach (between 2 others ). The reception lady was most helpful in changing our pickup times tomorrow. Since we saw 2/3 of the island on our way here, we've decided to just hang out here, have lunch, a nap, a swim and dinner. No TV in the bungalow so we're not even tempted to hear more about how "Brexit" is wreaking havoc on the world stock markets. We had CNN international on the ship so we got our fill already.
Tonight will be a quiet dinner, then off to dreamland in a bed that doesn't move - although we still feel like we are at sea!
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