Incredible Cruise: Day 7 - Moorea- Dolphin Watching excursion

    The cruise spent two days at Moorea.  On the second day we decided to take the Dolphin/ whale watching excursion while on Moorea. I was so glad we made that decision because it was by far one of the best things we had done on this vacation.  When we got to the dock the guide told us we were so fortunate because only 9 had signed up for the trip and he needed a minimum of 10 to run it.  Someone on the boat chipped in for the other spot and we were able to go.  And oh what a excursion that was!! 
     I wasn't expecting our guide to be a doctor of marine biology.  We had his undivided attention for the whole morning answering any question we may come up with and lecturing us on so much.  I couldn't believe we had someone like that taking us to where the dolphins maybe hanging out.  When we got on the boat we were told there would be no guarantees of sighting anything since these were wild animals and sometimes they can be unpredictable. The one thing he did guarantee was that we would be seeing some unbelievable beautiful scenery.    He pointed out that the dolphins are sensitive to the wind patterns and try to be away from it.  On the day we went the wind was blowing a certain way and he said that they would most likely be on the other side of the island.  This was good for us because it meant we would get to see more of the island than most people ever get to see.  It also made our excursion last longer that way since we had to travel to and from it.

Wasn't he right about being incredibly beautiful?

Moorea - Society  Islands

One of the many things he told us was when the water is this blue green shade you know its shallow water, while if you see the deep blue waters that's the deeper water.  The dolphins like the deeper blue water.  And they like to eat at night.  The go out into the deeper ocean waters and like to go over a 1000 feet deep looking for food, that's why they go at night so they will be protected from the whales.

Our guide Dr  Michael Poole

I've had friends ask if this is the place that has huts over the water.   Here's the answer.

I did not do anything to touch or auto-enhance these photo's - this is just the natural color of the waters.

Here was just looking straight down onto the coral reef floor of the lagoon.  It was worth the trip just to see this.  The water is so clear and everything seems so pristine.  It doesn't surprise me at all to find out that this area is one of the best scuba/ snorkeling places in the world.

One of the things I found out that was so interesting was he had us look at this valley.  Then he had us look at the coral reef development around it.  What we noticed but doesn't really show up in this photo is that the water was a deeper shade of blue - which means deeper water.  Then he told us that the fresh water runs out into the lagoon and the corals don't like it.  They don't grow as well there as they do in the more salty water.  Since the coral isn't there as much as it is in other areas there are these natural inlets into the lagoon.  That's what the dolphins look for - the deeper inlets into the protect lagoon areas.

The boat was taken on the ocean side of the coral reefs.  You can see how blue the water is yet the wave is breaking on a coral reef.  The water drops off pretty rapidly on the fore side of the reef.

Here's a better view of the waves crashing on the coral reefs.

It was so interesting just watching the reef and the beautiful scenery that for awhile you could forget you where there to watch dolphins.  But then all of a sudden we spotted some and boy was that exciting.   He told us that even though these were wild dolphins they have already have a natural aversion to man and as a general rule they like to stay about 200 feet away - about two football lengths.
   I was okay with that - since we went whale watching before and had that same type of viewing.

Then we noticed some other dolphins on the other side of our boat.

It was exciting to see them on either side.  I had a tendency to look to my left since I was on the left hand side.  When I looked right I had to look around some of the other watchers.

But the dolphins would come to the surface for a couple of minutes and then dive down and disappear  so I would switch sides and look at the other side when I would hear things like oooh, & look at that!!! and ahhh.  Most of the time they were doing tricks and I was lucky if I got to see the tail splashing into the water after it had done a flip or some other aerodynamic fete.
     Here's the typical splash that I was able to capture on film.  My camera was too slow to get them while they were in the air.  But the pictures were still pretty anyway and were worth keeping.

 Then the one group started to come closer and closer to our boat.  This was really amazing.  The two groups had decided to merge together.

I liked this one because one was out of the water.

The next thing we knew the two groups were merging right around us and didn't seem to notice our boat there.  It was so exciting to see. 

The water was so clear I could look down and see them swimming all around the boat. And I was actually able to get some half way decent pictures of  them.

dolphin watching in Moorea

My husband went to the front of the boat and was able to get these incredible images with his cell phone.

dolphin watching in Moorea

It didn't take long for the two groups to combine together and then they remade different groups which is a common thing they did and were off again to where ever they were  going to spend the day.  What an incredible time to see the dolphins.  They were so beautiful and the water was so clear - I could believe we were seeing so many dolphins in their natural habitat. 

Our guide was so excited over our excursion.  He said we got to witness just about everything dolphins do in the wild.  We saw them hitting the water with their tails, we saw them doing flips, we saw them getting together, we got to see baby dolphins with their mothers.  He said that they put on quite a show for us and it was one of the better excursions he's ever had and we were so lucky to see all that we did.   He could wait to get back to get all of his notes written up.
    One of the things Dr Poole did do while we were watching things, was he was recording his observations into a tape recorder and also taking his own pictures with his high powered lenses.  You could tell the man truly loved his job and didn't mind going to work like that.  Us signing up for these trips helps pay for his research and his living on the island.  Since most things are imported living on the islands can be quite expensive for doing research.  

All good things have to come to an end and after a couple of hours it was time for us to head back.  While we were heading back we did see a lot of people surfing/ para-sailing using the wind to pull them through the water.  It sure did look like it would be fun to do. 

We went over so shallow waters to get back and even that was interesting to look at.  This trip the boat was going slower so not to damage the coral and to keep in the proper routes. 

This was a group of people who were scuba diving and or snorkeling.  Just look at that water that they were in.  It must have been some experience for them.  Even though that look like it would be so much fun I am glad that we did the dolphin watching instead. 

I was amazed to see this person get pulled out of the water and was actually as high as those sail boats.  It did look like he may have been pulled by the other boat to the right.

We got back to the cruise ship and was exhausted.  I was grateful to be able to rest.  When the cruise ship started to leave the area the boat motion woke us up and it was finally time for us to head out to sea. They like to be in the deeper water at night and try to leave shallower waters before the sun goes down.  We were able to sit on our balcony and watch the sunset.   What a sunset is was to see!!!

If you ever get a chance to go watch the dolphins in Moorea,  I highly recommend it- its worth it just for the scenery alone.  We got to see more of the island than any other excursion group on it.  Plus it was fun to see the dolphins in their natural habitat doing the things they naturally do and not seeing them in some aquarium or Sea World show.