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Published: June 26th 2017
Bora Bora was the last of the French Polynesian Islands that Chris and Roisin visited. It is renowned for being one of the most beautiful places on earth and is said to be the nearest thing to a perfect paradise.
Bora Bora is only 15 square miles and has about 7,300 inhabitants mainly living in one of the 3 villages Vaitape, Anau and Faanui.
As Chris and Roisin watched from their private vantage point directly below the bridge at 6am watching the sunrise over this island, nature painted a masterpiece of deep green volcanic peaks edged by a ribbon of reef and finished of by white sandy beaches. Despite only being early morning, the colours in the surrounding lagoon were already showing off its jewel-like hue from amethyst to light turquoise.
English is more widely spoken on Bora Bora than the other 2 islands, Moorea and Tahiti (surprisingly!!) and on arriving via tender, the last one of the voyage, one found ones self slap bang in the middle of the village.
Chris and Roisin, up to this point, had not experienced any sort of water or beach life so this was the day. The previous night, they
had done a little bit of research and decided to take
"Le Truck" to one of the beaches at the Southern tip of the Island called Matira. The journey was about 5 miles and cost a modest $US5 per person.
“Le truck” had bench seats along the side of the passenger compartment with another continuous bench running down the middle.
Roisin asked
“how long before you leave?” The driver replied,
“In 5 minutes” As Chris and Roisin made up half the passengers onboard what appeared to be at least 50 passenger capacity, they thought they'd have to wait until Le truck was full but no, after 5 minutes, as promised, the engine fired up and off they trundled. Bumpity, bump went the (what felt like a) suspensionless truck. Off to the beach!! Hooray as they went through another pothole!!
Le Truck chugged through clusters of houses, most seemed to have thatching over very coarse and dried out palm leaves. In the front garden of many houses there appeared to be head stones of some description. Apparently when a family member dies, it is customary in French Polynesia to bury your loved ones in the front
garden. No one has yet successfully explained what happens if you decide to move house?!!
Matira Beach did not disappoint. The lagoon stretched for a mile to the reef and was about 6ft at its deepest. Boatloads of tourists were far out toward the reef standing in the shallow lagoon. The attraction is the feeding of the stingrays. They will come right up to you and let you stroke them while you give them food.
Chris and Roisin basked in the balmy sun and splashed around a bit. As the morning progressed, more and more people, tourists and locals alike were entering the beach.
There were no wavelets lapping on to the beach as you would expect. It was, by definition, a lagoon. During one of Chris and Roisin's '
splashing about a bit' sessions, the water seemed to get a little choppy. This was similar to the ripples the wake of a vessel would make. However, none had recently passed by and those that did were too far out and small to make a wake that would reach the shore before petering out. How odd!! After about 5 minutes, the lagoon was calm again. It was bizarre!
After about 2 ½ hours, they decided to head back via Bloody Mary's
Bloody Mary's is a restaurant and bar where the rich and famous are supposed to frequent. There is a board outside listing over 300 celebrities from Paris Hilton and Steve Martin to Ringo Starr and Keanu Reeves. Michael Hessletine's name is also on the board. This sort of lowers the status somewhat!!!
The bathrooms are almost as famous as the Philharmonic Pub in Liverpool although not for the tiled loo effect. These boast a mini waterfall to wash your hands. The ‘
happy snappers' flock to the toilets in curiosity of what they have heard before them. It makes life very difficult for those of us who actually want to use the bathroom!!!
A jetty across the road from Bloody Mary's provided some excellent photo opportunities. A small boat was tied up with 20 or so passengers waiting to depart. The guide seemed to be chatting to a few German tourists. Chris heard the word
‘Hajen' – the German for ‘Sharks' as the guide was showing scars on his arm, torso and leg. From this day forward, Chris and Roisin nicknamed this man ‘Sharkman'.
However, as he will never be mentioned further in this blog and Chris and Roisin are unlikely to ever see him again, the reader doesn't need to remember this!!!
Bora Bora is how one imagines a South Pacific Island. White sands, palm trees, glorious sunshine, vendors selling coconuts where they hack the end off and put a straw in it. Before heading for the tender back to the ship, Roisin wandered in to a craft market. There one could find a multi coloured array of hand painted silk wraps known as pareus, highly polished shell carving, pearl encrusted jewellery and other local handicrafts. All the sellers were in national dress and very hospitable without being pushy. Unlike other countries, haggling is considered rude in French Polynesia. The price the goods are marked up for is the price you pay. If you think it is too expensive, you move on!
Back on board Chris is still getting at least 6 ‘
Go Giants go!' shouts a day. This is in reference to his baseball cap and the San Francisco Giants that never leaves his head during the day! He has become somewhat of a minor celebrity and a font of
all knowledge and has a regular following of about 10 sports fans that ask him on a daily basis. ‘Hey, d'ya know how the Giants got on?' All because he's the one with the bright orange cap!! What makes it more astounding to the Americans is when they realise Chris is from the UK. He has learned some of the lingo so is able to converse on their level.
‘The Giants were 2 down going in to the 8th. The bases were loaded and Posey hit a triple RBI for the Giants to take the lead 3 to 2.' This makes perfect sense to Chris and at least 10 Americans on board!!
At approximately 17:30, the ship's anchors were raised and the
Sapphire Princess navigated its way through Bora Bora's surrounding reefs to the next port of call Pago Pago, American Samoa in 2 days time.
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![The infamous "Le truck"](http://photos.travelblog.net/372274/983227/t/9422156-the-infamous-quot-le-truck-quot-0.jpg "The infamous "Le truck"")
![Pooh's somewhat 'mad cousin"](http://photos.travelblog.net/372274/983227/t/9422158-pooh-39-s-somewhat--39-mad-cousin-quot-0.jpg "Pooh's somewhat 'mad cousin"")
elaine
non-member comment
Did they name the famous scottish soup after the room you have photographed?Poohs mad cousin looks like most of us at the end of the day!