French Polynesia - Bora Bora & Ra'iatea May 28th-June 3rd

Welcome to Bora Bora, ‘The Pearl of the South Pacific’ as Captain Cook described it when he sailed past in 1769. We caught a tiny little prop plane from Mo’orea back to Tahiti which took all of 6 minutes, worth it just for the views of the lagoon, was really funny!! We then caught a bigger prop plane to Bora and arrived just after sunset, so we were able to see the beautiful island from the air, it really does exude beauty.
We had to get a ferry from the airport because we landed on one of the islands surrounding motu’s and then the le truck took us to our little pension Chez Nono (house) on Matira Point. The only camping site in Bora Bora closed down last year so we had to fork out a hefty sum for a little room in one of the islands cheapest but best location pensions.
Bora Bora has so much expectation to live up to as you see so many unbelievable images of this island, it portrays a robin crusoe tropical paradise island image. To some people we have met and who have been here, they have been disappointed but to others it is an island you don’t want to leave.
We arrived at night time so we couldn’t pass our own judgement till daylight so we enjoyed a good nights sleep on a mattress!!!!
Well apart from the weather being a little disappointing on our first day, our location on the island couldn’t be more perfect. The Lonely Planet states the best beach in Bora Bora is opposite the Intercontinental Hotel (and that is exactly where we are!) Chez Nono is right on the beach, the garden is the beach and we enjoyed having breakfast right by the lagoon every morning.
Bora Bora is praised for its pure turquoise never ending lagoon and we sure have to agree with that, it was so unreal. Our first day we didn’t get too much sun so we took a walk along the beach and road passing some big hotels, one which was all closed up and looked like it had been for a while. We only realised when we were escorted out of the grounds by a security guard that it was Hotel Bora Bora, one of the most expensive a luxurious hotels on the main island (Pierce Brosnan’s a regualr), well not at the moment. Its apparently under reconstruction but it looked like it had been in its sorry state for a while and it didn’t look like there was any works being carried out, which is a dam shame.
It looks like the world wide economic situation is effecting everywhere. There were plenty of hotels and restaurants in Mo’orea that had closed down and created a little bit of a run down look around the island.
We continued our walk and passed Bloody Mary’s, a famous fish restaurant which had a famous people board outside. Many a famous person has dined there, some including Denzil Washington, Cameron Diaz, Goldie Hawn, Patrick Swayzee and Pamela Anderson! The list goes on!!!!
We passed a pamplemousse tree on our way back and managed to encourage a few to fall off by giving words of encouragement!!!!!!!!! That gave us breakfast the next day!
Our second day was much better, the sun was shining and we started talking to Celine and Niels from Holland who were our age. We all decided to go out on the very overpriced lagoon tour of the island and see Bora from a different angle. Two French-Canadian girls were also on the boat, Dorothy and Emile (whom Celine and Niels had bumped into on a different island. So we all got on and enjoy the day cruising around the island.
Most probably one of the biggest highlights of our entire trip happened on this boat ride. We got to snorkel with about 20 stingrays and 6-8 black tip reef sharks!!! It was absolutely amazing and our guide was feeding the rays, so they were swimming up to us trying to flap their big wings up onto us, it was hilarious! They feel so soft and as long as you stay away from their tail where the barb part is, all is ok! Well that theory is better said than done when there are 20 stingrays surrounding you and their tails are circling around you!!! But everyone lived to tell the tail!
Darren and Niels touched the sharks a few times, they were circling us all, more inquisitive than anything else. Everytime I put my mask under the water I could see their face so clearly, they were metres away! They are not huge sharks but still, a shark is a shark and I’m chuffed I went in the water!!!!! It was an amazing experience and Darren was certainly in his element!
We had lunch on one of the motu’s looking over towards the island and the twin peaks in the centre of the island were always covered with a little bit of cloud, even though we had a lovely day of sunshine everywhere else! We got lots of cool photos. We enjoyed one of the kings of the sea, Marlin fish (which was really yummy) and had coconut cake for dessert.
Our guide didn’t speak much English so we didn’t really get much information about the island. We did pass some WWII bunkers and canyons where the Americans positioned themselves after Pearl Harbour to protect the South Pacific. This enabled many of the native Tahitians to witness and experience western world worked and at one point there were more American soldiers on the island than locals.
The trip was really good fun, we were able to snorkel again in the coral gardens in between two smaller motu’s closer to the main land and Darren and I have never snorkelled in such clear waters. We saw lots of little fish and plenty of coral, it was good fun.
We were glad we did the trip so we got to see the island from a different view, we’re only going to be here once, so we might as well do it hey!!!!!
We got on so well with the others we all met up in the evening and went to the Intercontinental Hotel opposite to watch a local Tahitian dance! We had to buy drinks (which were a tad expensive!) and then enjoyed the show! Well the boys enjoyed it a lot more, the way the girls moved the derriere was very impressive! Even Celine and I couldn’t stop starring! The way they shook their booties was pretty awesome!!!!!!!
We had a pleasant evening and then sat up late with Celine and Niels playing card and dice games.
Our next day was a lazy one at the beach, didn’t do anything exciting. Darren went snorkelling with Celine and Niels, I was quite happy lazing on the white sand and warm lagoon! Hard life these days!!!!!
We spent the rest of our time in Bora Bora relaxing and spending little money. Instead of eating out, we all bought pizza’s and had a fun night in for half the price!!
On the Monday we said bye to Celine and Niels who were off to Mo’orea and we headed to Ra’iatea, an island just across the lagoon. The flight took exactly 7 minutes and our campsite was close the the airport. Our final 48 hours in paradise was spending relaxing by the pier and pontoon and a little kayaking. A different island but just as beautiful.
We had an amazing time in French Polynesia and would recommend it to anyone, it is definitely a paradise, romantic location.
We caught a flight back to Tahiti on Wednesday and flew to LA overnight, where we were both excited to be reunited with my sister and Chris for a 3 half week road trip! Bring it on!!!