Guides on Moorea will often refer to the iconic 2890-ft shark's-tooth peak Mou'aroa as 'The Bali Hai Mountain'. Some will state that it was featured in the movie South Pacific. True or false? Well, the answer is a nuanced Yes and No.
As far as the classic 1958 film goes, it's a No. The movie was filmed on Kauai (in the NORTH Pacific, no less). Mitzi Gaynor as Nellie washed that man right out of her hair on Lumahei Beach and Mt. Makana's peak in the background was used in some shots to represent Bali Hai.
But most of the scenes of Bali Hai in the 1958 film were painted, imagined creations.
Yet Mou'aroa did indeed make it to the big screen in the 2001 made-for-TV remake of South Pacific with Glenn Close and Harry Connick Jr. So it's fair to call it 'the Bali Hai mountain' in that respect.
Was Bali Hai purely a fictional, unattainable paradise? It was surreal in Michener's 'Tales of the South Pacific' but (per the man himself) it was inspired by the real volcanic island of Ambae in present-day Vanuatu, which young Michener could see from his office in Luganville.
Hollywood stardom claims aside, Mou'aroa is a stunning beauty. Jack London described the sail-in to Opunohu Bay as "a dream of green and blue, with jagged peaks stabbing the sky.” His wife Charmian wrote of "pinnacled Moorea, with a virgin and breathtaking beauty." Both spot on.
More on the provenance and beauty of Moorea's dramatic spires here:
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