Travel Blog: Bora Bora – They Named It Twice Because….

….you had to be there for two days to get to see it!

After a lovely day in Nuku Hiva, we were expecting the same idyllic weather that one always sees in the photos of these exotic places. We had a private tour arranged with our Australian friends Terry and Kerry and friends of theirs and were looking forward to a sail and snorkel in some of the best tropical waters in the world.

We had dinner at Prego the evening before we arrived.

Larry's calamari appetizer

The perennial favourite, beef carpaccio

Monica had the lasagna

Larry went for ravioli

And dessert was a lemon ricotta tart

Unfortunately, it was almost hard to even find Bora Bora for the rain. We had a few breaks to take some rather ‘washed-out’ photos, but it came back with a vengeance as we sailed into the lagoon and to our anchorage point. It was also extremely windy, so we knew right off that we weren’t going on tour in the morning. The forecast was so bad for the whole day that we couldn’t even reschedule for a half day in the afternoon. It is the rainy season here, and heavy showers are to be expected.

The few of us who were up on the Sun Deck were driven
to shelter by the rain

We did manage to take the tender in to the town of Vaitape in the afternoon, but didn’t find very much there. It started to rain heavily again once we were back on the ship. We could only hope for a better day on Sunday for our 4x4 Safari tour.

The ever-present outrigger. They sometimes annoyed the
tender driver by getting too close while riding our wake.

This is all you need to know about Vaitape - produce and pearls.
Most of the shops were selling Tahitian black pearls, but based on the
prices, they were probably not of the best quality.

The local church. Most French Polynesians are
protestant and not catholic, as the protestant
missionaries were the first to visit the islands

As if to thank us for our patience the day before, Sunday, although it started out overcast with yet another shower, turned into an absolutely gorgeous day, showing us Bora Bora in all her splendour. Our tour took us all the way around the island, with a few rides up into the hills to some amazing vantage points.

Early morning didn't look too great....

...but it did start to improve

The views overlooking Povai Bay. The colours in the lagoon were starting to brighten with the sun.

Bloody Mary's Bar is one of the popular tourist spots on the island. We would guess that it was named after the character in Rodgers and Hammerstein's 'South Pacific'; lots of our fellow guests stopped there judging by the number of tee-shirts we saw on them the next day.

Matira Beach is the largest public beach on the island, with clear water and beautiful white sand

Aponapu Bay, and the over-water bungalows that have made Bora Bora famous for vacations:

There are four coastal defense gun placements on the island. Not long after Pearl Harbour, the US set up a base on Bora Bora and brought these World War I vintage cannon in as part of the island defenses against potential Japanese invasion. They were never used as the Japanese were stopped at Midway Island, but they were left here along with a good number of military Jeeps. The cannon are rusted out, but some of the Jeeps are still running!

The view from the cannon site over the reef and the motus
that line it

One of our 4x4s backing partway down the hill...

...and this is how it looked from the other side. Quite the steep
little road!

Our final stop was, of course, meant for shopping. We went to a spot where they specialize in making pareos, or sarongs. We were shown the natural sources for some of the dye colours, and then how the batik style of dyeing is done. These cutouts are put on the wet pareos, and when they dry the shapes show up as lighter areas on the cloth.