Analysis of five-year records of temperatures and currents collected at Moorea reveal strong internal wave activity at predominantly semi-diurnal frequencies impacting reef slopes at depths ≥30 m around the entire island. Temperature changes of 1.5 oC to 3 oC are accompanied by surges of upward and onshore flow and vertical shear in onshore currents. Superimposed on annual temperature changes of approximately 3 oC, internal wave activity is high from Oct–May and markedly lower from Jun–Sep. The offshore pycnocline is broadly distributed with continuous stratification to at least 500 m depth, and a subsurface fluorescence maximum above the strong nutricline at approximately 200 m. Minimum buoyancy periods range from 4.8 to 6 min, with the maximum density gradient occurring at 50 to 60 m depth in summer and deepening to approximately 150 to 200 m in winter. The bottom slope angle around all of Moorea is super-critical relative to the vertical stratification angle suggesting that energy propagating into shallow water is only a portion of total incident internal wave energy. Vertical gradient Richardson numbers indicate dominance by density stability relative to current shear with relatively limited diapycnal mixing. Coherence and lagged cross-correlation of semi-diurnal temperature variation indicate complex patterns of inter-site arrival of internal waves and no clear coherence or lagged correlation relationships among island sides. Semi-diurnal and high frequency internal wave packets likely arrive on Moorea from a combination of local and distant sources and may have important impacts for nutrient and particle fluxes in deep reef environments.