🛵 Moorea Scooter Day 🛵

We both slept in until around 7, and then had french toast, yogurt, fruit, and coffee to kick the day off.

We decided to keep the lower body exertion to a minimum today, so we landed on another scooter day as the activity du jour. The rental wasn't available until noon, so we went to the gym for a bit to do some upper body exercises, and then spent another hour canoeing around the lagoon (no turtles 🐢 spotted).

We loaded up the backpack with water, snorkels, and towels, and went to pick up our scooter. This scooter was slightly larger than the last, and was equipped with two storage compartments that made life much easier for both of us. The rental dude asked if I'd ever operated a scooter before, and I assured him I was an absolute pro. Laura clambered on with me, and feeling his gaze, it was time for takeoff. We took off with only a slight wobble, so I'll call that a win.

Our first stop was to secure lunch. At the recommendation of the concierge, we decided to hit a food truck that apparently was quite well regarded in the area, which was evident by the line when we arrived. Bonus points for being super affordable, we both had BBQ and veggies, and also some fresh tuna carpaccio that was simply divine. It took a good while to get our food and settle the tab, so we were eager to get back on the bike and drive the ~30m to the Plage des Tipainers. It's worth noting the bike had a top speed of around 45km/hr with both of us and our full tummies to haul around.

The view of the mountains and bays along the way made it an enjoyable ride, but we were ready to jump in and see some aquatic life when we arrived. I kept a wary eye on all the trigger fish 🐠 I spotted during our swim. There were no further incidents, but one was definitely ready to go on the offensive after I accidentally snuck up on his lair.

After drying off, we hopped back on the scooter to continue the journey, and after driving another 10 minutes realized that we probably need to turn around if we wanted to hit our final attraction before it would be time to return our bike. We zoomed on back at our leisurely pace, and pulled into the parking lot of Manutea Tahiti - Rotui Juice Factory & Distillery.

The factory offered fresh squeezed juice tastings, along with some pours of their various spirits. They had pre-made maitais, coconut and ginger based liquors, and rhums for us to sample (the rhum was stroooong but heavenly), and gave us some juice chasers -- pineapple and mixed tropical. I decided to buy a bottle of the rhum as our second souvenir of the trip. The pours were very modest so we were able to resume our journey to refill the gas and return the bike at the resort immediately.

We had some downtime to swim in our pool, read, and shower before it was time to be picked up for dinner at Rudy's Restaurant. We continued out theme of eating as much seafood as possible. We started with fruits de mer, Laura had a smoked salmon pasta with cream sauce, and I had parrotfish stuffed with shrimp. Dessert was a pineapple and papaya fruit tart (and a Cognac, of course). On the ride back, we chatted with our fellow dinner/resort patrons about our travels and traded recommendations.Read more