When I looked out my balcony this morning, anchored in Cook’s Bay Mo’orea, I saw the pointed peak of the mountain and thought, the same thing I thought the first time I was here, “OMG I have dropped into the Movie South Pacific and this is Bali Hi.”  It was that beautiful.  And after yesterday’s rain the sunshine was welcome.

True to our promise to ourselves we waited until open tendering so got on shore just after 11 AM.   Giving us time to walk around the ship taking pics.

We had decided to take a cab tour so started talking to the touts on the shore.  One woman said she could offer a tour for eight that would leave at 1 PM when she had gathered enough people.  I told her that I didn’t think my leg would stand more than an hour and a half of wandering so would move on.  She then said that she had two more people and we could go in a group of 4.  I agreed and she ran my credit card.  Then she ran the card of the two others and told us to wait.

“Why?”

“I need to get two more for the group of six.”

“But you said we would go with four.”

“But I need six.”

I told her that was not acceptable and that I wanted my money back.  She haggled a little and finally said we could go with four but I still insisted that I wanted my money back.

“I don’t go on tours with people who lie to get my business.”

She was insulted “I did not lie.”

“Really?” 

She ran a refund on the card and we went to find another operator.  It was a good thing because we ended up on a tour with just the two of us, yes, it cost more, but we like traveling as a couple, and the driver/guide, Virginia, was a hoot.

She was so entertaining because she was so opinionated.  She said her family has lived in Mo’orea for over two thousand years.  She is Polynesian but also Scottish.  She talked about the Scotts who had to leave Scotland during the removals from land and offered “The British Crown is no better than Putin.  They did to Scotland what he is doing to Ukraine.”  Already I knew I liked her.  She went on to say that she and most Polynesians loved Americans.  We saved them in the Second War, and we also saved France.  She said she respected America because we could have taken French Polynesia as our own after the war but we didn’t, we were honorable.  But she sometimes wishes we had.  She does not particularly like the French.  They test exploded nuclear weapons in French Polynesia and although it brought jobs and some prosperity to the islands, it also brought cancer and protest riots.  Forty one atmospheric blasts and nearly 200 total blasts went off between 1965 and 1996.  (I didn’t mention to her that the US also exploded nukes in the Pacific.)

I saw several blue and white flags with yellow stars and asked Virginia what that flag was. She said it was the flag of the Independence Party which had taken power in the last elections.  The Tavini Huiraatira -FLP (Servant of the People – Front for the Liberation of Polynesia) took power in the 2023 elections and has a platform that will lead to a referendum on independence in 10 to 15 years.  I asked Virginia if she thought French Polynesia would become independent.  She said “no.”  When I asked why she simply said, “France has an Army, we do not.”

She has a lot of other opinions.  She does not believe, for a minute, that French Polynesians are descended from voyagers from Taiwan and Southeast Asia.  She believes her ancestors are from Peru.  She is a follower of Thor Hyderdahl’s theories.  (“Or maybe we are Myan, that would be good too.”)

It was a thoroughly delightful three hours where we learned about Mo’orea from her perspective, learned about her Polynesian, Scottish family, about growing up without electricity and running water and going to Tahiti in a motor schoner, about her son who is in High School on Tahiti and takes the ferry over every Monday morning at 5 AM and returns home Friday night, staying in a dormitory during the week.  There is a high school in Mo’orea but there is only the choice of agricultural studies and general studies.  Her son is in Business Administration but is switching to a trade school to learn how to service electric vehicles.

One particularly interesting discussion was about house building.  Traditionally they used bamboo, coconut frond and rope made from coconut husk.  To protect against insects, you needed to soak the fronds and bamboo in the sea for several weeks to impregnate them with salt, then sun dry them.  This made them insect, especially termite, resistant.  A thatch roof would last seven years.  Now they use concrete block and metal roofing or sometimes use the roofing for the sides of the house as well.  More expensive but less work over time than rebuilding every seven years.

On our drive we circled the island, stopped at a fruit stand operated by friends who retired, started a garden and now make some extra retirement money, went past the high school, visited a pineapple farm, stopped at a distillery for a tasting of spirits made from things like ginger and pineapple. 

Then we went to a pineapple farm where she showed us the different stages of pineapple growth.

We visited a scenic overview just as the rain came.  Virginia noted that the lagoon was “turning chocolate.”  The clear water was browning up with all the runoff from the rain, bad for snorkelers.  The tour was completely enjoyable.

When we got back to the tender pier the woman who had sold us our first tour came up to us and said that the removal of our charge had not gone through and handed us $120 in cash and