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Music of Tahiti | |
Moorea is the closest island to Tahiti in the Society
Islands, commonly known as French Polynesia.
Moorea (pronounced Mo-o-ray-ah) means yellow lizard
in Tahitian.
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The Polynesia islands are a relaxing place not over-run by tourists
with a year-round temperature in the low-mid 80s (for you centigraders,
high 20s).
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| The island is a dormant volcano shaped like a heart with
two deep bays in the north side. This panorama is taken from about 12
miles out looking south to the north coast. |
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The island is surrounded by a coral reef and the Pacific Ocean gets
very deep straight from the reef. Here (above) it is over 10,000 feet
deep.
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Moorea is about 10 miles long and 6 miles wide. Above
you can see the view of the west end from outside the reef. On the left
you can see two of the island's motus (motu is Tahitian for small island).
These are named Tiahura and Fareone.
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| The panorama above is the north west tip, taken from within
the reef, between the island and the motus. The now-closed Club Med used
to be in the trees here. It has been a bad thing for the local shopkeepers
and the employees there. |
| The center of the island is a large volcanic crater. Within
it, there is the mountain named Mt. Rotui. To the left, Opunoho Bay and on
the right, Cook's Bay. The photo is taken from the Belvedere which is a
point about 800 ft up the side of Mt. Mouaputa. |
| Below is a panorama of the lush island center. This is the
volcanic crater bottom (or top, depending on how you view it). The
mountain in the middle that looks like a tooth is the Bali Hai mountain,
made famous in the movie South Pacific. It is called Mt. Tohlea in
Tahitian. To the left is Mt. Mouaputa and to the right is Mt. Mouaroa. |
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