Day 77 of Traveling the World, Moorea, French Polynesia. April 18, 2018.

“Moorea.” That is always our answer to, “What is the most beautiful island in the world?” It is warm, lush, tropical, stunning, with turquoise waters in many shades of blue. It has interior parks and forests as well as peaks formed from molten lava. But it is the beaches and the water that turns heads and just make people say, WOW!

Moorea is twice as old as the island of Tahiti, and it has been said to be the inspiration for Bali Hai in South Pacific (although the movie South Pacific was filmed on the island of Kauai in Hawai’i!). Like the rest of French Polynesia, the inhabitants lived a quiet existence before the European explorers arrived. When the explorers returned to Europe with stories of an earthly paradise, whalers, missionaries, and the French military soon arrived. In1889, Moorea and the other Society Islands were united as a French protectorate, and it became an overseas territory in 1946.

The day included some rain and clouds, as you can see in the photos, along with the stunning white sand beaches and colorful ocean. It was a day in Paradise, truly.

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