Lived up to the hype – starts with landing (and knowing which side of the plane to sit on) and ferry into the port town of Vaitape. It is like walking into a 4K HDTV. Bora Bora was created by a collapsed volcano which receded into the ocean but left a ring of very small islands around it – coral reefs were formed on the remaining ring of island which creates the white sand and lagoons.
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Full disclosure we did not stay in an over water bungalow which seemed to be much of the resort accommodation available. We stayed in an AirBnb guest house with several apartments which was on the lagoon near Vaitape and had a nice pool and deck and only one other family to share with. In the end – worth the 70% plus savings versus the overwater bungalow options. We were lucky from the start with good weather, made a last minute call to rent a car (which came with snorkel gear and wifi) found the best public beach at Matira Beach within 20 minutes of getting in the car, and then found a beach front restaurant we visited a couple of times which was part of a local resort. Found a short hike for a good lookout spot before getting to the AirBnB for check in.
For my birthday/Christmas present, the girls booked us on a snorkel trip and island picnic. The boat ride going around to pick up people from the various resorts was spectacular as a start and we went to several dive spots and up with a picnic on an outer ring island. The drone video is from a guy on our trip who sent it to me later.
Since we had a 4 wheel drive car, I was trying to find a way to drive towards the highest lookouts (where US Army cannons were built in WW2 – “Operation Bobcat”) – first place I had no luck but in coming back down the hill at a steep grade I started sliding – so I had to test the physics law of static versus dynamic coefficient of friction theory and take my foot of the brake to start rolling then pump the brakes – it worked. Got some good pictures – and ran into a lot of stray dogs – not all nice.
Last day was hanging out at the AirBNB on the lagoon and snorkeling from the shore on Matira Beach , where we found a guy feeding stringrays.
The departure was as bit stressful – the girls had a 2 hour layover in Papeete before their flight to the US and the flight was initially posted in being an hour late and when I asked the agent he said probably 1.5 hours late and they probably wouldn’t make it. The next United plane was in 3 days – so we didn’t want a repeat of the trip in for them. But he said he would seat them by the door and we re-organized the luggage so that their luggage was last on/first off. I also called United to advise that they were on the way (because of multiple carriers – they couldn’t check-in to their United flight). About 10 minutes later, they announced all the passengers connecting to SFO come to the counter – about 1/3 of the plane went up and Air Tahiti told everyone the plan for a quick connection. So Air Tahiti really leaned in to get the incoming plane turned around in about 20 minutes, everybody quickly loaded, cut 10 minutes on flying time, and had a dedicated person waiting to escort everyone to the United counter and the girls made the flight with time to spare.
French Polynesia, and Bora Bora and Moorea in particular, will definitely be a place we hope to return to someday.
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