A weekend in Bora Bora
Seaduced
John & Jane Craven
Sat 10 May 2014 04:56
We received confirmation last Wednesday (7/5), that the parts would not arrive in Tahiti until Wednesday (14/5), this week. When Pat and Stuart heard this, they invited us to stay with them for the weekend in Bora Bora. It was Pat's birthday on Friday, I can't tell you how old, and we would have missed the party had we stayed in Tahiti, also we would have probably driven ourselves mad with frustration and used all the wifi allowance trying to track the flipping parcel! Watched parcels are like kettles, they don't travel any faster just because you check their progress hourly!
So on Thursday we packed our bags and headed off to the airport. Thursday was a Bank Holiday, VE Day so everything was closed, even in the airport, so the hour waiting for the flight was even more boring than usual. After about a thirty minute flight we started the descent onto Bora Bora. The runway was disturbingly short and the landing rather abrupt, but then we were off to catch the ferry to 'town'. On the ferry it seemed we were the only people not totally in awe of the place, everyone was oohing and aahing at the colour of the sea, the sunset and the place in general while John was texting Pat to say we had arrived and I was reading a book - spoilt? Us? No - it was just that we had seen so much better in previous places and at first glance Bora Bora seemed a bit of a let down. We felt better when talking to Pat and Stuart later as Pat had been called a 'spoilt brat' for complaining about Bora Bora not being all it was cracked up to be, so it's not just us!
A first view of Bora Bora as we left the airport dock
Pat and Stuart met us at the ferry dock and we went to the local yacht club for dinner. This is where the ARC has based themselves for the stay in Bora Bora. The food was lovely but here everything is even more expensive than the rest of Polynesia!
On Friday we joined Stuart and Paul and Suzie off Firefly for some diving. The first dive was a training dive for some people doing their advance deep dive and wasn't massively exciting but on the second dive we were treated to the sight of about 15 giant manta rays - they were absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, due to and extremely light luggage allowance, we hadn't taken the go-pro, but I am not sure they would have shown up very well anyway as the water was quite stirred up from heavy rain earlier in the week.
In the afternoon we went to Vaitape, the main town, to do some shopping. The town is a bit scruffy, a bit like the Caribbean really and consists mainly of pearl shops, as you might expect. There were one or two galleries with beautiful pieces in, but again priced at Bora Bora rates.
That night it was party time and we had a fabulous time celebrating Pat's birthday with a meal in a great restaurant, and catching up with our other friends from Hebe, Ghost and Firefly.
Dressed to kill - Pat showing off her new dive knife!
Having a ball on Brizo
Saturday morning we attended the briefing for the next stage of the rally as our flight left early Monday morning, when the group two briefing was to be held. Having talked to the organisers, we have now decided that due to the delay, we will leave out Suvarrow, an uninhabited island, and head straight across to Niue. This will save us about a day up to Suvarrow, 3 days there, and a day back down to Nuie, so at least 5 days. We can then hopefully catch up with the rally again. We might also still get to Huahine, before leaving the Society Islands and French Polynesia as well.
In the afternoon we circumnavigated Bora Bora in Brizo's dinghy, looking for the blue lagoons and white sandy beaches we have all read about and seen in the pictures. We did eventually find them, but they do come at a high price. All the big hotel chains have staked their claim to the best beaches, and we did hear that room rates, with breakfast are not often less than £800 per night - ouch! Having seen this, I think the only way to do Bora Bora is like a lottery winner, stay in a top class hotel, in a fabulous over-water bungalow and you will get the whole experience you expect.
That's more like it!
Enjoying the sun
This guy was using the wake from the dinghy to help himself along
Sunday was for relaxing and chilling out, before dinner in the other yacht club, the original Bora Bora Yacht Club, with fabulous views over the lagoon and a great sunset - until it rained and we all had to move inside for desert!!!
The walk to town
The local car park!
Anyone know these two?
Early Monday and we were off again as Pat and Stuart had a lot to do to get ready to leave the next day for the next stop in their adventure - hopefully we will catch up soon!!
Sent from my iPad