Our First Days in French Polynesia

Now that we’ve wrapped up the “Americas” leg of our trip, it’s time to kick off the next chapter: Oceania! When we decided to visit islands in the South Pacific, it was hard to decide which ones, they all looked pretty amazing. One of the countries we settled on was French Polynesia, and it did not disappoint. And while we’ll be spending a few days on Tahiti, most of our island time will be on Moorea — the smaller, quieter cousin.

We touched down in French Polynesia after an 8-hour overnight flight from Los Angeles. (everyone managed to get at least some sleep.) Once we landed, we picked up a rental car and headed straight to the grocery store to stock up for the week.

Because French Polynesia is technically part of France, the grocery stores are full of French products — which means yes, you can pick up a baguette and French cheese.

Next up: the ferry to Moorea, which is about 45 minutes long.

Since we couldn’t check into our rental just yet, we made a pit stop at a viewpoint overlooking the Sofitel overwater bungalows and the turquoise lagoon. This is when I realized that Moorea would be very special.

Toatea Lookout - The overwater bungalows are part of the Sofitel hotel

With some time to spare, we wandered down to the beach below the viewpoint. Now, I’m not exactly what you'd call a beach person — I don’t tan, I burn. But this beach? Next level. The water was crystal clear, bath-warm, and the same colour as Listerine.

Our house isn’t particularly fancy, but it does have a huge backyard with direct water access, which is very nice. Over the next few days, we plan to do some snorkeling, kayaking, hiking, and general relaxing — not necessarily in that order.

View from our backyard. Lots of space for the kids to run around!

Sunset view from our backyard. If you look closely you'll see a shark. There were 3 of them swimming around when I took the photo.

🐠 Snorkeling

So far, we’ve snorkeled in four different spots:

Temae Beach
Ta'ahiamanu Beach
Coco Beach
Ray and Shark Sandbar

Everyone has their favorites, but for me, Temae and Coco Beach were the top contenders — warm water, vibrant coral, and lots of fish doing fish things. And sharks not biting me. Here are a few photos from our underwater adventures.

Two black tip reef sharks! Don't mind the pee in the water.

Not sure what this fish is called but it looks cool.

Teddy has greatly improved his swimming here. Or maybe it's just that the water here is 27°C

I google lensed this one and it's a bluespotted cornetfish. Looks weird

A ray and a shark in the same photo. I guess this is why they call it the Ray and Shark Sandbank

A school of fish swimming with the coral reefs

We also did a whale snorkeling tour, which is like whale watching… except you jump in the ocean with a snorkel and hope a whale feels like being social that day. We got lucky and spotted one just a few minutes after leaving. We jumped in and got to see it from under the water. Impressive! It was pretty close but not close enough for a clear photo. Unfortunately we didn’t get in again because there were too many other boats. We’re giving it another shot in a few days. Fingers crossed for closer encounters (but not too close).

🥾 Hiking

We tackled the hike up to Magic Mountain, which isn’t super long, but feels twice as hard when it’s 32°C and humid. The view from the top? Worth it. The sweat? Debatable.

🛶 Kayaking

Our rental came with two kayaks: one double, one single. And let’s just say... the kid in the front of the single kayak is having a very relaxing time.