Three Californian guys decided to leave the rat race and bought an unseen Vanilla Farm in Moorea, this was 1960...from that they bought a plot of land and built the first tourist place on Moorea....it became very famous with the " yachting" folk.....who moored in Cooks Bay and breakfasted st Bali Hai.....it was a party zone then for the rich...but they've moved on.....now it's a sleepy beautiful spot to stay....we loved it there...our bungalow was yards from the sea and we had our own beach...saw black finned sharks daily as they like shallow waters...plus an array of coloured fish.......sadly Bali hai is closing in January due to excessive new rules and the original owner in his Nineties ( the other two are deceased), can't take on the work.....what a project!.....we got into " moorea time" fairly quickly....meandering at a slow pace....well it was so hot ....has some downpours that came and went....
Met a super American couple , and had meals our with them....culminating in the last night with Stuffed parrot fish......time to go home....we left yesterday and took a small propeller plane over to Tahiti.....we were only in the air ten minutes...then had to wait till midnight for our Los Angeles flight.....
We loved everything about the Windward Islands.....the blue lagoon, the amazing scents wafting from the exotic flowers.....the midges we did not like.....and we both took a bad hit with those chaps!!....but onwards and upwards...great memories!