The next part of our trip took us back to Moorea (with an obligatory layover at Chez Myrna in Papeete again, since the flight arrives at midnight).

In the morning, we took the Moorea Express boat over to Moorea from Papeete. The ferries leave from the port in the middle of town.  There’s a couple of companies that run the ferries, but they leave at the same time, for the same price, and take the same amount of time for the trip. (?!)

Our arrival in Moorea was a bit of a rush.  We had arranged a whale watching trip with Michael Poole, but we had to run from dropping off our bags at our hotel to the dock of the Sheraton where he picked us up (thankfully late!).

  

The Dr. Michael Poole Dolphin and Whale Watching Expedition (see the full slideshow here) tour was well run, though a little expensive ($55 US each for a 3 hour tour).  We’re a little spoiled with some of the whale watching trips we’ve done at home with the fantastic Santctuary Cruises, so this didn’t really measure up.  The dolphin watching

was great, however.  Dr. Poole is extremely organized – ground rules were reasonable and ensured a good trip for everybody, even with a full boat. The cruise is mostly on the edge of the reef – he doesn’t have time to go far outside – so the only whales he sees are humpbacks. We followed a couple for a while, but they did not get that close to the boat.

We finished the cruise, and walked leisurely back to our hotel.