Our Thanksgiving and Black Friday in Moorea

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with pumpkin pie, turkey, dressing (southern stuffing), green beans, and mashed potato with gravy. We have two ovens one propane and one electric, so cooking everything was a breeze. Our Black Friday was busy exploring opposed to shopping. We started with the Moorea Tropical Garden, then tasted the natural juices from Jus de Fruits, and wrapped up our day fixing King Neptune’s Garden.

We learned on Friday’s and Saturdays from 11:30 to 2 pm for lunch the Moorea Tropical Garden serves a yummy traditional Tahitian meal for $15. We found a great spot to pull our dinghy to shore. There was a private dock nearby, but a friendly local told us it was better to pull the dinghy up on land. Just our luck we docked as close as any boater could get to the road leading to Moorea Tropical Garden (17° 29’57” S, 149° 51’12” W). Our lunch overlooked an exceptional view of the Opunohu Bay and Tareu Pass. We spent the afternoon admiring all of the pretty flowers, vanilla garden, and fruit trees. We purchased Tiare jam or preserve for $5. The Tiare flower also known, as the Tahitian Gardena is very fragrant, so we were surprised by the lovely taste as a preserve. We were leaving as a tour group showed up; although, we wish we would have stayed because the tour guide spoke English and we might have been able to ease drop on the explanation of vanilla production, but we were trying to be at Jus de Fruits by 2 pm for a distillery tour.

Our luck for finding a good dock to visit Jus de Fruits did not run out. We found the Gordon and Betty Moore Field Laboratory (17° 29’27” S, 149° 49’34” W) and they kindly allowed us to tie up our dinghy to they’re dock. We walked up the road about a 100 meters and a large sign indicated the entrance to the juice factory. Jus de Fruit happens to be the makers of several pineapple wines, rums, and our favorite the all natural, 100% juice, and non-alcohol juices. In the grocery store we wondered why some of the cartons are white and some are black, we learned yesterday it is because the black cartons contain 100% juice and no additives, while the white cartons are 60 / 30 split juice to additives. Sadly there was no tour through the factory yesterday so we headed back to the boat to find King Neptune had over filled and poured out much of the water.

After each sail we watch King Neptune’s Garden very carefully and generally we clean the strainers each day. We had thought we were in the clear, but yesterday continued to have troubles. When the garden doesn’t drain back to the reservoir the roots sit in water, basically drowning the plants. When the pump runs again to fill the full garden, the water overflows the pots the plants live in, and cause stem rot. If the garden is overflowing and we don’t see it, because we’re off the boat, the roots get soggy and start to break off even more. The cycle does end once we stay ahead of the breaking roots.

Today we rented a scooter for $50 and we’re having it dropped off at Papetoai village pier (17° 29’32” S, 149° 52’17” W) so we can chain our dinghy to a steal cleat while we go around the island. Haha we love our bicycles and we’re always up for an adventure but 37 miles and up steep mountains is just not how we want to spend today.