Tahiti & Bora Bora January 26-28

Our visits to these two islands were vey interesting.  Both are part of French Polynesia but are as different as night and day.  Tahiti appears to us to be over developed and entirely tourist orientated.  Bora Bora still has all the charm and atmosphere you expect from a “tropical south Sea paradise.”  In talking with our ship mates the consensus is a preference for Bora Bora over Tahiti.  So if you are planning a vacation in this area, head for Bora Bora.

In Tahiti we docked in an industrial area and visited the town of Papeete.  As we pulled in we passed what I can only call one of the island tramp steamers that we read so much about and saw in all those old Clark Gable and John Wayne movies.

And that is all the pictures we have of Tahiti.  Really.  The town was very similar to the port towns we see in the Caribbean except for some additional local businesses and every one spoke French.  It was hard to find what we considered a natural Tahitian experience.

I guess the cruise line agreed with us because we spent 10 hours in Tahiti and 2 days in Bora Bora.

This is our view of Bora Bora from our anchorage in the lagoon.  Note that cloud covered escarpment raising into the sky.  That is the  home of King Kong and the land of dinosaurs.  We plan an expedition on day two.

We have to tender to shore.  I’ve said that before but haven’t explained what it means for those don’t cruise often.   We have two options in port.  To dock and walk off or to tender from an anchorage.  When we tender we either use the ships lifeboats or local commercial boats.  Below is a picture of one of our boats tendering us to shore.

A local sport we hadn’t seen before was, for lack of a better term, tender surfing.  The locals paddle their canoes or outriggers behind our tenders until they can ride the stern wave and then surf along.  This is a picture of one surfing behind out tender.  Note he is not paddling but still moving at a speed equal to our tender.

This picture is of a tender going back to the ship.  Note all the “tender surfers” trying to catch the stern wave.  We thought this was a tourist ploy and they would ask us for money for the show.  But no, they dropped off when we slowed down and waited for the next tender to come by at speed.  It really is just a fun sport they do to pass the time.  The ship you see is not ours so don’t get confused by the different color hull.

On day one I spent the morning SCUBA diving.  The water is crystal clear and 82⁰.  The first dive was outside the reef and the second was inside the lagoon in the basin that was formed by the volcano.  This is the second site.  You can see how clear the water is.  Our ship is in the background.  They were great dives with Lemon and Black Tip sharks, huge schools of fish, and multi-colored clams embedded in the coral.  I have an  underwater camera but it shoots prints and I won’t have any developed until our return.  You’ll just have to take my word for it. 

In the afternoon we went to a Pearl Factory.  This was amazing and nothing like we had understood how pearls were made.  Briefly the oyster goes through three pearl making cycles over eight years each time producing a bigger pearl as it matures.  The picture below is Noreen watching as oysters are cleaned of growth which has to be done every few days.

Here we are holding a string of oysters as they are placed when they mature.

Here a worker is opening an oyster to take a pearl out, placing it in Noreen’s hand and the result..  The oyster is given a day to rest and then a new starter is placed inside.

Talk about localize weather, here it is raining at the bow of the ship and not at the stern.  These pictures were taken within a few seconds of each other.

   

On day 2 we went ashore to Vaitape to tour Bora Bora.

There is a very famous restaurant named Bloody Mary’s that has sand floors.  You can see what you check at the door.

A carving outside Bloody Mary’s.

The island hotels have rooms that go out over the water.  The further out you are, the higher the rate.  End rooms can cost up to $10K per night.

 

Or private island for a few days rest.

A couple different views of Bora Bora.

As we left Bora Bora this picture shows the surf line at the reef which protects the lagoon.

We hope you enjoyed our quick visits.    We look forward to your comments.  Onward to Rarotonga, Cook Islands