We are back in Moorea, six months after we were here to swim with humpback whales. Then we anchored in Cook’s Bay, so this time we visited the neighboring Opunohu Bay, which is even more picturesque.
We watched the movie The Mutiny of The Bounty twice before we headed on our expedition to Pitcairn, and a main part of that movie was filmed in this bay. There are a few more buildings than was the case during the making of this movie in 1984, but not much. The bay has been able to keep its pristine, almost untouched beauty. No wonder we saw several visiting cruise ships during our stay there.
There is a marine research center, called CRIOBE, located in Opunohu Bay. This is where the marine researcher, Gilles, who we brought to Pitcairn, works. He was kind enough to show us around the center, which was quite impressive.
The center is beautifully located at the end of the bay, with the high, lush peaks surrounding it. There are several buildings on the premises, each either housing an office, a lab or dormitories for visiting researchers. They have many aquariums, tanks and other kinds of repositories which contain all kinds of sea creatures, such as sea urchins, shells, fish and corals.
Visiting students come from all over the world to do research here. We met an Irish master student who was doing an experiment on fish behavior, which was quite amusing. She observed whether clown fish got stressed with changes to their environment. The change she introduced was a red dog toy shaped as a bone, which she placed into the tank where she kept a fish by itself. She filmed the process, and could therefore compare its behavior with and without the toy in the tank. We cold not take any pictures though, as the fish were sheltered behind covers, so they would not be disturbed.
We visited the neighboring marine museum a few days later, but learned that there unfortunately is no connection to the research center. The potential could have been great if they managed to collaborate, but we found the museum to be more of a social gathering spot than an actual museum.
We enjoyed several other local activities while here, such as snorkeling a site with several tikis made by local artists, diving on the outer reef with plenty of turtles, having bagels at New York Bagels together with Karmen and Tom from SV Sauvage and watching the locals kayak training.
We also celebrated Easter Eve together with them on Noxoma, same as we did last year with them on Isla Isabela in Galapagos. The captain made an awesome sous vide lamb leg, so we are keeping the Easter traditions alive!
We left Opunohu Bay after a week, as we were keen to continue on westward. We would have stayed longer and enjoy some of the amazing hikes which starts from this place, but unfortunately we had rain daily. So, no hikes this time around, and we now start heading further west to places we have never been before. Next stop, Huahine, which is also an island in the Society archipelago in French Polynesia.