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| The Mountains of Moorea |
After watching many a beautiful sunset over the island of Moorea from our
anchorage in Tahiti, it was time to find out if it could actually live up to the
hype. This would be the most popular
tourist destination we had gone to yet and we were curious how the hotels,
cruise ships and tourists would affect the natural surroundings and our
interactions with them.
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| Spinner dolphins like to leap and spin - hence the name. |
First off, let me say that Moorea is an amazingly beautiful
place – completely living up to the hype in that area.
There were picture perfect white sand
beaches, crystal clear aqua blue water, spinner dolphins, sting rays, and sharks
galore and unbelievable sunsets from our lovely spot, anchored in Opunohu Bay.
The brochures don’t lie – it really is everything
they promise.
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| Sailing school made this a busy bay! |
Better yet, sailing is alive and well in Moorea.
Right next to where we were anchored, a large
sailing camp was operating with scores of kids from 7 to 16 sailing around the large
bay every day.
At times as many as 100 sailing
skiffs would be in the water, all being managed by about 5 instructors.
It was such a pleasure to watch these kids
having fun doing something we love.
Even
with the wind blowing 20-25 knots those kids would be out sailing around –
sometimes “turtling” the boat – but always managing to get them back upright on
their own.
I totally respect that the instructors
had a “you turtle, you correct it” policy, but they were always standing by
carefully watching to make sure no one got into serious trouble.
The older kids were impressive sailors and
could easily compete with the best and brightest we have back home.
We greatly admired what was clearly a very
well-run program, spreading the love of sailing to a whole new generation –
very cool to see.
Even better when we
found out that many of the kids are from poor families and are taken into the
program for free – fantastic!
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| Heavy winds made for lots of fun sailing! |
So what’s up with the title you may ask?
Stay with me a little longer…
One of the coolest parts of taking a trip like this is you
get to see places that very few people get to travel to. While there are many other boats doing what
we are doing, if you add us all up we’re likely less than a 1000 people
traveling to some incredibly remote areas.
So when you arrive in a known tourist mecca, it stands in stark contrast
to the places we’ve seen and it makes you a little sad to see how the people
that live there have compromised their lives and their surroundings in the
quest for the almighty dollar.
Now before people think I’m some sort of tourism Nazi, let
me try to explain. I have absolutely NO
issue with vacationing tourists and have been one myself MANY a time! In fact – I am still a tourist everywhere I
go – doing it by boat certainly doesn’t change that. I firmly believe that everyone has the right
to visit amazing places like this and to stay at fabulous beach front hotels if
they can afford it. In fact – I would
HIGHLY recommend a visit to any one of the Society Islands as they are
incredibly beautiful and definitely would make a “dream vacation” for anyone willing
to take the long flights involved to get here.
What bothers me however is seeing the nature of the area
changed to create a “tourist attraction” when it’s completely unnecessary. Let
me give you an example that has made a strong impression on me….
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| Lots of turtle sightings in from our boat. |
One of our favorite activities when it’s time to play is to
go snorkeling.
Getting out there in the
water and swimming among the sea life is a very special thing.
Observing sea life in its natural habitat, undisturbed
by humanity is one of the biggest gifts we’ve had on this trip.
We have spent a lot of time in the water and
you definitely develop a huge appreciation for the ocean and its creatures
after observing them for hours on end.
But when you have 1000’s of tourists in one small area, it
can’t help but change the ecosystem to some extent. For the hotels around Opunohu Bay, one of the
big attractions is swimming with the sting rays. Sounds really cool right? And let me be the first to tell you – IT IS
COOL! It’s amazing in fact! You stand in this shallow sandy area and you are
literally swarmed by sting rays. They
swim around you and even shimmy right up the side of your body, back or even
your chest, rubbing against you almost like a cat!
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| Feeding the sting rays... |
But why are they swarming you?
Because they are used to be fed several times
a day by the big tour groups brought out by the hotels – as many as 100 “guests”
will be in the water at one time – feeding the sting rays.
And it happens twice a day, every day but
Sunday.
This is a perfect example of how the local ecosystem has
been completely changed by the tourist industry. It is not normal for sting rays to come up
and rub themselves against you. Normally
they have a very healthy natural fear of human beings! But here in Moorea they are so used to being
fed that they actually recognize the tour guides, putting on a show worthy of Sea World – even taking food right from the tour guides mouths.
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| "Swimming" with the sting rays...see how it's rubbing me? |
Now – as I said, I enjoyed “petting” the sting rays as much
as the next tourist – because we are ALL tourists in this sort of
situation.
It was incredible feeling their
skin and having them practically climb up the front of me.
But later on, when I started to really think
about it, it left me feeling sad that we humans have created this environment
for the profit of the hotel industry.
I
am not so naive to think that this is not happening all over the world, nor am
I some crazed tree hugger.
But having
been out here for almost a year, I have had the privilege of seeing some amazingly
untouched areas and it has changed the way I think about this sort of
thing.
Several days later Brett and I were snorkeling in Huahine
and came across four beautiful sting rays buried in the sand. As we swam a little closer, they unearthed
themselves and silently glided away in front of us – absolute poetry in
motion. Watching them as they are MEANT
to act was so much better than our previous interaction that I just had to
write about it. It makes me want to
convey (my personal opinion) that it’s not natural (or good) for us to modify
nature in this way or to support tourism that creates this sort of
environment. Trust me that swimming with
sting rays FOR REAL – is so much better than a manufactured experience! Why must humans always try to “improve” on
something that is already perfect?
Okay – I’m putting away the soap box, but just a little food
for thought.
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| Yet another amazing sunset from Opunohu Bay |
Likes that!
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