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| Moorea |
The Society Islands are part of
French Polynesia and contain some of the most sought after destinations in the
world. They are made up of 14 islands,
and of those 14, we spent time in Tahiti, Moorea, Maupiti, Huahine, Bora Bora,
Raitea, and Taha’a. The islands are visually
stunning, each with its own unique mountain composition, and all surrounded by
calm turquoise lagoons filled with manta rays and sharks. The islands are lush and tropical, some with
waterfalls cascading off the steep mountainsides. Activity wise, the islands have it all:
hiking, snorkeling, diving, surfing, kiteboarding, nightlife, shopping for
world famous Tahitian Black Pearls, seclusion, and best of all, swimming with
humpback whales!
Swimming with humpback whales has always been a
dream of mine and it happened not once, but three times during our time in the
Society Islands. To this day I can say with confidence that it was the
most amazing thing I’ve ever done.
The first experience was on a very sunny, calm
morning. We had just left Tahiti for a
three hour motor sail to Moorea. The
channel of water between Tahiti and Moorea is notorious for humpback whales,
and it wasn’t long into our sail that we spotted a group of three. It was a mom, baby and a male companion
breaching and splashing around on the surface.
Three soon turned into five or six
different whales as they often travel is small groups. The etiquette of viewing whales and swimming
with whales can be tricky. It’s not
right to chase after them. The whales
have to invite you. It sounds silly, but
it’s true. Luckily, we have someone
onboard who works extensively on whale research in the Atlantic and has a lot
of experience viewing whales. We watched
the whales for nearly an hour before we decided it was safe to get in the water
with them. When we jumped in the water,
the whales were about 100 yards off the side of the boat. Nervously, we swam away from the safety of
the boat, completely exposed and in 6,000 ft of water. It was a crazy mix of fear and excitement as
the first whale came into view. It was
the mother and baby coming right at us!
My mind wanted me to turn around and swim away because she was
approaching so close, but my body just froze.
To my relief, she turned slightly and we watched the enormous and beautiful
mother and calf gracefully swim by.
I began to swim after her, when I
heard the underwater yelling of everyone behind me. I stopped to see what they were yelling about
and realized that there was another humpback following behind her and another
following underneath her. I’m glad they
stopped me or else I would have gotten way too close for comfort.
The group of whales circled the
boat a few times, and eventually lost interest in us and went on their way.
The second experience was hands
down the best. We had just finished a
dive on the outside of Maupiti’s lagoon, when we spotted a water spout near the
stern of the tender. We quickly stopped
and watched as a young humpback whale approached us only a few feet from the
tender. Then the weirdest thing
happened- the young humpback swam about 15 ft underneath the tender, and sat
still. We waited for it to come back up,
but it just stayed right underneath us.
That was when we decided to jump in the water
with it. I’m so glad we did, because
this whale, whom we named Willy, was so playful and such a show-off. He swam graceful circles around us, diving
deep and coming up slowly showing us his beautiful belly.
He would swim away and soar out of
the water, only to return to swim with us again. He swam so close to us we could touch
him.
After a while we decided Willy was
getting a little too comfortable with us, so for safety reasons, we decided to
part ways. It wasn’t an easy goodbye for
either of us, as Willy followed us in the tender for a few minutes before we
sped away.
The third experience we had
swimming with whales was off the coast of Huahine. There were so
many whales that morning that we actually were not sure which group we
would get to swim with. There were small
groups in nearly every direction we looked.
We slowed the boat down and waited to see if a group would approach us,
and luckily a group of 3 adults did.
These whales were not as playful as Willy was. They briefly danced and twisted around each other.
They came right up to the boat and spy-hopped
those who were still onboard. It was fun
to hear their song underwater as they were communicating with the other groups
nearby. After a while they sat still in
the water with their backs to us. I
think they were giving us the cold shoulder…
Even if we hadn’t swam with the whales, I would have still
loved the Society Islands. Here are a
few of the other highlights of our trip:
We found one of the best snorkel spots we have ever seen in Taha'a.
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| Giant Clams |
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| Anenome |
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| Anenome Fish |
We went on an amazing hike in Maupiti with incredible lagoon
views.
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| We squeezed in a couple of kiteboarding sessions in Maupiti as well. |
We visited the pineapple farms of Moorea.
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| Moorea Lagoon View |
And we had some fun kiteboarding in the
iconic Bora Bora lagoon.
