We celebrated our tenth anniversary a few months early with a trip to Bora Bora! We have been waiting a year for this trip, and it absolutely did NOT disappoint! Can we go back, yet? Please?
We arrived in Tahiti at 6:30 am. Our red-eye flight out of Los Angeles was extremely bumpy, and neither one of us got any real sleep, but who cared? We were in TAHITI!!
We were in Tahiti long enough to catch a taxi to take us to the ferry dock. We took a ferry to the island of Moorea, where we stayed for four nights.
The Moorea ferry dock.
On Moorea, we took one of the prettiest taxi rides ever to our hotel.
Did I say hotel? I meant resort.
Welcomed with leis and champagne cocktails at 9:30am... I love Moorea!!
We're not tired. We're not tired. We're not tired!
Our bungalow wasn't ready yet, so we got to check out the pool.
Ahhhh.
We made some new friends out by the water.
Bungalow 48 was finally ready for us!
The water was so clear.
Shark!
Ahhhhhhhh.
Mike was an avid paddle boarder.
Our resort was so pretty!
We did a lot of snorkeling in this water.
As it turned out, we visited during the hot, rainy season. It was definitely hot, but the rain was holding off, so far....
Kayaking!
Moorea, you are good to us!
Thank goodness for Happy Hour! This piña colada was regularly $20!
Can you say, "Paradise?"
PARADISE!
Moorea is an extremely botanical island, covered with beautiful plants flowers. It's gorgeous!
And then came the rain....
We hung out under our umbrella on the beach for the rain to pass.
It didn't take too long!
On a paddle boat!
We went out to dinner one night to a restaurant our taxi driver recommend called the MBC (Moorea Beach Café). The restaurant sent a van to our resort to pick us up and then drop us off after our meal. We sat right by the water in this restaurant without walls.
The local beer. It wasn't our favorite, but when in Rome (or Moorea)... Manuia! Cheers!
It was amazing, and the food was great, too!
Moorea was good to us, but it was time to move on. The Moorea airport seemed a bit different from the airports I was used to. There just wasn't much to it. And there were holes in the roof!
Next stop: Bora Bora!
We wished the plane's windows had been a little cleaner.
We are almost there!!
I see it! I see Bora Bora!!
Wow. Just wow.
The Bora Bora Airport. There wasn't much to it, either.
Standing at the Bora Bora airport... um... is this place REAL?!?
Are you sure this isn't a HUGE swimming pool we are standing in front of?
A-ma-zing.
This is the boat that MOST guests took to our resort. Not us.
We took this free airport ferry to the main island of Bora Bora, instead. Yep, free. I don't think the airport has much of a choice, though, since it's on a little island by itself.
All aboard!
Good bye, airport. See you in four days!
And we're off!
This ferry ride completely won me over. Moorea was beautiful, but this was breathtaking.
The main island of Bora Bora.
We made it!
Coming to the ferry dock in Vaitape, the main town.
I just can't get enough of this water!
Bora Bora is an island surrounded by even smaller islands called motus. You can see the airport landing strip on the northernmost motu. We took the ferry from the airport to the town of Vaitape on the east side of the main island. Then we needed to take the Hilton shuttle boat to our resort on the southwest motu. Our resort was on the south side.
Coming around the corner... I see our resort! I wonder if one of these bungalows is ours?
Welcome to the Hilton Bora Bora Nui Resort! Yep, reception is OVER the water!
Looking at the resort from the reception lobby.
On our way to our bungalow! Turn left, then turn right, then head straight to the end...
... and here we are! Home, Sweet Home! (Well, for four nights, anyway.)
Bungalow 108.
Alli calls this a "princess bed." :)
Enough of the interior. How about the deck?
Can we move here?
Our view.
Yep. It was amazing.
Are we really here?!?
The water was like glass.
Looking through our deck floor.
Time to dive in!
Snorkeling under our bungalow.
I see you!
It took awhile for me to get the courage to actually step on this!
The water under our bungalow was about 25 feet deep, and yet, you could see down to the bottom. Small fish loved the coral on the pilings.
It doesn't get any better than this.
The Hilton shuttle to Vaitape on the main island. It's time to check out the town!
Hey, I see our bungalow! We DID pass it on the way in! Ours has the two towels hanging on the deck railing.
Vaitape. It was busy and tiny. We didn't do too much shopping, since I'm not really into pearls (which French Polynesia is known for), but we stocked up on snacks and water. (We didn't really enjoy paying $10 for a liter of bottled water at the resort.)
Back "home!" Is this water for real?
Taking a break from snorkeling.
Our first sight of rain here... and a water spout.!
Dinner! :)
Okay... THIS is dinner!
The resort pool.
The resort was just beautiful.
These little guys occupied all the pretty shells on the beach! Don't worry, I still found a bunch to bring home for the girls.
Our first stingray sighting... and it was at our resort!
The one activity we didn't want to miss was shark and stingray feeding. We took a boat with a guide to do just that! It ended up being even better than we expected. They took us to five different spots to snorkel!
Off to find us some sharks!
We found them!
There must have been about 40 reef sharks!
The stingrays LOVED our guide.
Smooch!
Those were some big stingrays!
The stingrays were very excited to see our boat and guide!
Once our guide tethered a rope from the boat to some coral, we all jumped in. He fed the sharks on one side of the rope, and we stayed on the other.
These sharks were incredible.
After we checked them out, the sharks decided it was their turn to check us out. The rope no longer mattered to them; they swam around us like we were in a fishbowl! It was amazing! One shark even came within a foot of me! EVERYONE should experience this some day!!
The stingrays were so friendly and would come right up to you.
Smile!
They were so smooth and didn't mind us touching them.
Our second stop had more treasures to find....
...beautiful coral...
..so many fish...
...and eels! (Look low and you'll see his head.)
What did our guide find in the coral?
One mad octopus!
Our guide made a new friend! Well, once the octopus realized he wasn't going to be left alone and was all inked out, THEN they became friends.
These fish were my favorite! Even back at our resort, they would swarm us!
Our final three snorkel stops were in deep water. Mike jumped in to see the massive lemon shark, while I opted to stay on the boat; the reef sharks don't bother me, but I'm staying away from any shark over 10 feet long! I wish we had a good photo of that guy!
Hi, Mike!
Our guide's boat. Our final stop was a private little island.
What a nice way to end an amazing tour!
Back at the resort.
Climbing up to the top of the resort.
Up at the top!
The stairs up to the manager's reception (and the gift shop and dinner restaurant we never visited).
Bora Bora, we will miss you terribly.
Good bye, beautiful resort!
Good bye, Bora Bora!
We had an early morning flight back to Los Angeles, so we headed back to Tahiti for one final night.
Can we turn this plane around? I miss Bora Bora already!
We expected our hotel in Tahiti to be nothing fancy, as we were only going to be here one night and considered it a quick pit-stop. Well, this hotel turned out to be a resort, too!
Cheers!
It's a shame we arrived too late to enjoy the swim-up bar off of this pool. Next time! ;)
Watching the sun setting next to Moorea.
Hey, good lookin'!
What an amazing vacation! Hands down, Bora Bora has made it to the top of our list!
Riding home in Business Class was a nice way to end the trip. :)
We were sad to leave, but so happy to go back home to our girls! Thank you, Grandma Annie and Grandpa, for taking such good care of our babies!
