Moorea
On June
2, we motored to Moorea because there was no wind. It was only 15 miles. We
anchored in Opunohu Bay. This bay was used in the movie South
Pacific.We were able to experience the hospitality of the islanders here. Clemencia, Steve, Pete and I walked up a small dirt road that had a few houses on it. Everywhere there were fruit trees - banana, mango, and papaya. While we were walking I said, "I wish we could have some of these bananas." Steve said he wished he could have some papayas. But we did not pick any. It is common knowledge on these islands, especially the small ones, that someone owns the trees. Therefore it would be considered stealing if you pick any of the fruit. At the end of the road was a house with four women standing in the yard. They looked at us curiously. One said, "Bonjour". We replied the same. Then she said something else in French that we didn't understand. Realizing that bonjour was the only French we knew she said, "Do you speak English?" We replied, "yes". It turns out that she lives in Hawaii and was back on Moorea visiting her family who owns all the land we were walking on and the house at the end of the road. She told us we could help ourselves to any of the fruit and gave us two bags to use to carry it. I picked out a huge bunch of bananas. Unfortunately, we didn't have a knife with us so we had to rip the stalk from the tree, not an easy task. We also got about 10 papayas. We walked about a quarter of the way back to the boat then left the fruit on the shore. When we returned to the boat, Pete, Duane and Steve took the dinghy and retrieved the fruit.