Anchorage at Opunohu Bay, Moorea

One of the most beautiful anchorages around. Search for Opunohu Bay and you'll come up with lots of people talking about how wonderful this place is. We add our support for it being one of most unique and beautiful places we've been.

When we arrived, we had just landed after a 36 hour transit from Europe to Tahiti and motored over from the main island to this one (Moorea). It was a little gray and rainy for the first two days but we needed the time to adjust to the time zone difference (12 hours!) so it was OK. Then the clouds gave way to sunshine and the place became magical!

For activities, you can find nice snorkeling off the beaches, good diving in the pass and hiking in the mountains. Also, there is an area where lots of sharks and stingrays congregate and are calm enough for you to swim with. A very exciting experience for all of us. We were able to take a GoPro camera with us for some amazing video (to be added to a video later on our visit to French Polynesia). Stingrays feel so smooth that you just want to run your hand along their body as they swim past but you need to be careful of the stinger on the top of their tail. You can also put a small piece of fish in the palm of your hand and let them 'vacuum' it off as they swim past you. Sharks skin is very rough, almost like sandpaper, so you need to be more careful!

Aside from just 'vegging' out and relaxing of course, there are lots of things to do! Our anchorage is in deeper water however there are plenty of places that are much more shallow and suitable for any-sized yacht.