Take Us To Tahiti (Please)

Make like Moana.

Just off the coast of Tahiti, Mo’orea is the place postcards are made of. Part of French Polynesia’s Society Islands archipelago in the South Pacific, it’s a real-life Moana where the water is warm and crystal clear, the mountains lush and green and covered in rainforest and there are whole fields of pineapples. Even the local suntan oil makes everything smell like paradise. Here, you can hike, laze, explore, swim and even choose to drink solely out of coconuts.

Be prepared, though, to break Instagram with your shots. No filter needed.

Get there … As soon as you can after landing in Tahiti’s capital, Pepe’ete, make your way to the island of Mo’orea. It’s an easy ferry ride that will cost you about $30 / Oz. You might be best to rent a car in Tahiti (there’s more choice / chance of getting a car here) and take it across on the Aremiti ferry.

Stay … If you’ve got the moolah saved, in an over-the-water bungalow. If you’re doing it a little more on the budget side, rent an Airbnb. The best place to stay is around Maharepa – the water here is crystal clear and the snorkelling is out of this world. Plus, this means you can cook your own meals. The local produce is delicious but shop daily as food spoils easily in the heat. This is the island to live off baguettes, French cheeses and fresh fruit. Heaven.

Get around … Mo’orea isn’t big – it takes about an hour to drive around the whole island. If you are going to book a rental, be sure to book ahead. We went over Christmas and were lucky (?) enough to score the last available car on the island – an electric two-sweater called a Twizy. The passenger sits directly behind the driver and there’s zero room for anything else. Still, it’s zero emissions. And, with max speeds of 45, you’ll well and truly be running on island time.

Swim… With the sharks and rays. Yes, deliberately. Get an ocean tour out – they’ll take you to to the best place to swim with them. A word of warning though – Instagram is full of influencers posing gracefully with these beasts of the sea. Have your camera ready, sure, but know you might look a little less like this:

Thanks to @saltyluxe

And a little more like this:

Thanks to a very embarrassed author.

So you might need more than one take. We booked the Shark and Ray Tour through Mo'orea Activities Centre in Opunohu Bay. They took us to the most amazing lagoon first to snorkel before taking us to the sharks.

Surf… Off Haapiti when the swell is right. It’s a beautiful, clean left-hand reef break that you’ll need a boat to get to. It can get big. “Really big” more than one local told us.

Eat … Fish. It’s all caught locally and is insanely fresh. The tuna is off the charts. Also: the escargots at Le Mahogany in Maharepa, the fresh baguettes from the any of the local supermarkets and the bananas from roadside stalls. Our fave dinner? The parrot fish at Rudy’s (also in Maharepa). This place is super sweet, with pink stucco walls, plenty of cactus and old-school table clothes. Most restaurants will pick you up and drop you off too. Bonus.

Explore …. Drive around the island, stopping at roadside stalls to feast on sweet bananas and mangoes. It will take you a little over an hour, depending on how many stops you make (and if you’re driving the Twizy, you’ll take longer still). Be sure to drive up to the Belvedere Lookout – from this rainforest lookout, you can see over Cooks Bay and Opunohu Bay. It’s just magic. You can take a walk on clearly marked tracks – just be super careful if it rained overnight and be sure to lather up with insect repellent before you begin your adventures.

Be sure to … Relax. Read books under palm trees, float for hours in a lagoon so warm you will never want to get out, attempt to learn French, nap in a hammock, and conveniently lose your ticket home.