Location: Cook's Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia
Today was our last full day in Moorea. Facing another blazingly hot morning, we devoured some delicious fruity spice bread and prepared ourselves for a hike to Belvedere’s lookout. About an hour’s walk away, we passed houses, ananas farms, and several ATVs before we made it to the stunning view of both Opunohu Bay and Cook’s Bay, where Argo was a teeny tiny dot in the distance compared to the magnificent mountains of this extinct volcano. Feeling adventurous, many of us continued on to another lookout about an hour and a half deeper into the island. Passing lovely streams, ferns, and a small bamboo forest, we suddenly recognized the familiar sound of rain. To our surprise, we spent the next 10 minutes listening to the downpour but feeling nearly none of it due to the thick canopy above us. That is until it finally broke through and drenched us for the following 20 minutes. An hour and 10 minutes later, covered in mud and navigating through a nearly non-existent path, we made it to a ridge in the center of the island, where we still had an incredible view of the bays but also the southern tip of the island. As someone who has been, to put it mildly, fairly enthusiastic about hiking on this trip, it was the perfect finale. Sore and exhausted, we stuffed ourselves with some baguettes and ice cream bars before heading back to the boat for a nice swim and Christian’s Aunt Theresa’s pasta sauce for dinner for the last time on this trip. Tomorrow marks our last time doing passage prep as we brave 12 whole nautical miles to our final destination of Tahiti.