Mo'orea: I started smoking today...

...there is not enough sunscreen to protect you from the noon sun in the tropics. Both of us are burnt and tired from the Friday activities.

The day started with us waking up at 4:45am so we could watch the sunrise. Our beach faces south-east, so it should be possible. Except that Tahiti is in the way. Wah. The sky was lovely, though. We will try again once we're in Bora Bora.

We were eating breakfast and nerding on the computers, when at around 7am, our host, Clement, shows up. (He is French, so his name is pronounced "cleh-MANH".) We grabbed a quick photo.

Clement popped by to tell us that he got us in on a Whale tour at 8:45 at the Hibiscus. The weather is promising, and there may be whales in the area, although most of them have already migrated.

Once again, I make Rob late, because I'm on vacation time and in no hurry and not looking at the clock. Rob is being very polite and not rushing me, but he finally tells me the time and how far away the hotel is. Oops, better get running.

The hotel is on the exact opposite side of the island, so Clement tells us which of the two possible directions will be faster. You really can't get too much speed up on the island because of construction, and other cars, school zones, cyclists, etc. We get to the hotel by 9am, and Rob is worried that they've left without us.

At the beach, there's a man talking to a couple. The man looks like a local, and the couple look like tourists. The man asks us if we're here for the boat tour, and then points us to where the boat is (It's still here!). He talks a bit more in French to the couple, and then starts walking with us. It sounded like he was trying to talk them into coming on the tour. As we walk, there is another French tourist couple walking on the beach. Beach-guy strikes up a conversation with them while we watch the boat come closer to shore. This time, I can definitely tell that he's trying to sell them on the tour as well. They eventually shoo him off,

When the boat comes, there are two tour operators on it. They are both young, weathered-looking, and look like you hope boat-tour operators will look. They chat for a few minutes with the guy from the beach. Beach-guy tells them (in French) that the bearded tourist was almost sold on the tour, but his wife said no. I finally figure out that Beach-guy works the beach to sell the tours. And it looks like Rob and I get a private tour because they couldn't find anyone else. I feel bad for the operators, but it's a great bonus for Rob and I. Beach-guy stays on the beach, Alex on the boat will be our guide, and the other fellow will be the captain. We never learned his name (he didn't talk much).

The two operators say that they will be able to give us a better tour, because it is just the two of us. Boy, do they ever give us a great tour!

The Boat

The boat heads out to the part of the lagoon where they're allowed to go a little faster. While we're travelling, our guides would swing the boat out of their way to pick up any trash that was floating on the ocean. "Got to keep our office clean!"

Alex starts explaining things: migration season is mostly over, we might not see any whales. However, some babies are too young to migrate to Antarctica yet, so we might get lucky. They were lucky yesterday, but didn't want to promise anything. If we do find whales, we have to be super-quiet getting into the water and swimming. Absolutely no splashing, as the noise might frighten them away. Get no closer than about 5 or 6 meters. Always stay behind Alex. Always stay to the side, where they can see you. Do not follow them if they swim away; they'll think you're a predator. If they decide you're harmless, they'll hang around and check you out, because they're curious. These rules all become important later...

Humpback Whale Tutorial Aid

Then they tell us to look for the "blow", when the whales surface to breath. The expulsion of breath can spray up to 2m in height. That's what they are watching for. We get to a breach in the barrier reef (called a "pass") that will take us out to deeper water. Alex asks if we want the boat to tow us through, because there are lots of fish in the pass. Why yes. Yes we do.

They hook a knotted tow rope to the boat, and Rob, Alex and I jump in. Alex stays in the back so he can signal if one of us falls off. It was fun being towed, although our arms were getting sore at the end.

Being towed

We couldn't see a whole lot, but we did see a pod of spinner dolphins, and we missed a huge ray that the guide spotted.

Spinner Dolphins! You have to squint.

Alex keeps telling us we might not see whales and then...Whales! There's a tiny blow, nowhere near 2m high. Because it's a baby! We see it surface and are so happy. The trip is a success.

Oh wait. We're going in? Alex says, "If baby is playing at the surface, mommy is probably sleeping nearby. We should be able to see them up close."

We gear up and sneak into the water. There's some swimming around, while Alex tries to find the mom and baby. We're getting awfully far from the boat, but that's because the motor may scare them off. Then we find them.

At first, mommy surfaces and checks us out. Because of Alex's rules, she decides we're mostly harmless and then goes back to sleep. About a minute later, she wakes up and checks us out again. Below is an edited video of the best parts. I mostly stay in back of Rob and Alex, because although the whales are beautiful, they're also terrifyingly huge.

I try to keep most videos to under 30 seconds, or under a minute at most. However, this video is almost five minutes long, because...whales. Rob edited it for me - thank you! We used music because the sound wasn't great. There was no actual whale singing; apparently only the males do that, and only sometimes.

Around this time, another whale tour boat shows up. It's got about 10 people on it, and they're kind of noisy. The boat operator yells out to Alex, asking if we see something. Alex signals that there are two whales in the water. People start jumping in and splashing (some have life preservers, so they understandably may be panicky-first timers. It really is scary being so far out). However, mommy whale freaks out and takes off. The other boat tour sees the mommy take a big breath as she runs away. He calls everybody in, and then the boat takes off to chase the mother. We are all shocked.

Turns out the other tour is the "Dr. Poole" tour. He's the guy all the guide books recommend, because he's a marine biologist who lives out here. Alex is really pissed off, but holds it in. Well, except for rolling his eyes when he says "Docteur Poooole!" I was amazed to see the Doctor break nearly all the rules, and so relieved that we were lucky enough to find Alex.

We make our way back to our boat. Once there, Alex and the captain can't wipe the smiles off their faces. I think they were more excited than we were, if that's possible. I guess it's really rare to find a mommy and baby, and even rarer to do it two days in a row. They keep chattering about "les baleines", "maman", and "bébé".

The blog is getting long, so I'll gloss over the next THREE OR FOUR more hours we spent on the boat or in the water. The tour was only supposed to be 2 or 3 hours long, and ended up being about 5 hours. Because they only had us in the boat, they made sure we had a great time. Some of the highlights:

We went to a pass between two motu (small islands) where there was some great snorkeling because there were tons of fish and rays. My favorite was a fish called a Picasso fish (you'll see why), who was trying to threaten Rob and keep Rob away from the fish eggs. The fish was trying to be fierce, but sadly, only managed to look adorable.

Attacking fish

Close up of said (adorable) fish

The Interloper

The boat's mascot showed up. He's a sea bird they call "Old Broken Beak". Apparently, his broken beak means he can't fish for himself, so the boat's owner has been feeding him for the last year. Every morning, the bird is waiting for the operators, and then he just hangs around the boat all day.