We're still in Opanohu Bay and loving it. Moorea is a high island and we've had a fair bit of rain, especially high up in the mountains. The bays are murky as a consequence. Out in the lagoon behind the reef the water is shockingly clear and there's a mild current almost all of the time.
This morning we decided to explore the island. We took the dinghy ashore and beached it near the public park. The tide here is a foot max so we just pulled it up a little bit and tied it to a tree. It was a short walk up the road to the Sheraton. We ate breakfast (which was ok) and then visited the concierge. The woman running the desk was wonderful and lined us up with a 4x4 tour of the island for the afternoon and also booked our friends an Air Tahiti hop from Moorea back to Faa on Tahiti ($40 each) for their flight home tomorrow.

We spent the rest of the morning looking around the resort which is quite nice. They have a water sports shack and dive shop, a great pool, a lovely section of lagoon with wonderful beaches and coral as well as the obligatory over water bungalows.

Our tour was in the standard French Polynesian truck with seats in the back. Our guide Teiva was fantastic. We visited some of the Moorea Maraes, the distillery (tastings of pineapple rum and that sort of thing), the agriculture zone with fruits and flowers, the Belvedere (vista) with wonderful views of both bays, and several other interesting spots. We particularly liked Teiva's great liner notes and in depth knowledge of the places and culture associated with the island.

Back at the boat we finished the day with some home made chili in honor of Pablo's last day aboard. Pablo used to have me make chili for him back home on his birthday but I wasn't sure how I was going to fair ingredient-wise out here. I bought come peppers from a Chinese outfit at the market in Papeete hoping they would give me the kick I needed. The bag came with maybe 20 peppers. I chopped up one for test purposes and nibbled on a small piece. The 5 alarm fire that went off in my mouth reminded me of habaneras. I used two little peppers in the chili and all five of us were sweating.