Location: Moorea
Today was a very good day. Drew took Ula, Skyler, Miles, Charlie, Magda, Gabby, and me ashore in the morning. We asked him to drop us off closer to the beach instead of the intended dock drop-off. We had no plan on where he would drop us off, though, and there were no docks, so we had to get out in the water near the side of the road. We then proceeded to walk to the juice factory. It was epic; rain was pouring, music was playing, and everything was so green. We got to the juice place, and it was closed, very sad. But we get to go tomorrow during our tour. There were some pineapples growing out in front of the juice factory. I had no idea that pineapples grew on bushes. After the juice factory, we google mapped a beach that was about a 1-mile walk and started off on that journey. We did some more walking in the rain. On our way to the beach, we passed a number of different potential lunch spots. We took note and continued walking until we could see the next bay. To our surprise, there was a massive cruise ship docked in the bay. It was the same massive crew ship that was docked next to us when we first got to Tahiti. We found a nice spot under some trees, and I put my hammock up. Charlie and Miles immediately went into the water. Miles brought a big stick into the water with him and started pocking at a stingray that he had found in the sand.
Eventually, everyone except Ted went in. Ted forgot a bathing suit, so he stayed on land. Poor guy. He got to play with a very cute dog, though. The dog had the zoomies, and Ted was absolutely loving it. After we had spent enough time in the water, we walked 2 minutes back down the road to get dessert from a dessert shop. I got an Oreo cake shake and split it with Gabby. I’ve never had anything like that in my life. It was a brownie on top of whipped cream that was on top of a shake. There was even a little stick with three crisped marshmallows on it. It tasted very good. Once we finished, we headed towards a pizzeria that we had seen on the way there. It was right on the water, and we played music from Miles’s speaker as we ate and watched the water. We saw a black-tip reef shark swimming along the reef. We also saw a big eel swim along the dock. It was a very peaceful and enjoyable lunch. When we finished eating, we got a taxi back to the Mobile Mart.
We stood on the dock waiting for Smash to come pick us up, and a sailboat came in. They docked on the gas dock, and we helped put their lines on the cleats. Then Smash came, and we went back to Vela. We took ocean showers and found the top of a pineapple floating in the water. Charlie made tofu tacos for dinner, and I got to ask Gabby’s squeeze question, “What is your favorite childhood playground memory.” The squeeze took a long time, but that was because everyone was telling long awesome stories. Apparently, Matt broke his elbow on the playground and then broke it again the day he got his cast off. Also, Tom and his friend managed to close down an airport with some balloons. What a legend. Overall it was a great day on land. Everyone had an amazing time, and we are all excited for our island tour tomorrow. Goodnight, blog readers. Ben out.