February 18, 2019 – Bora Bora, French Polynesia
One of the tours HAL offered on Tahiti was an over night stay at the Hilton on Moorea. Passengers who opted for this excursion would tour Tahiti and then taken to Moorea on a small craft to spend the night in the Garden Bungalow. The cost was outrageous but we did talk about doing it on our own. If we had done this, we would have had to Fly to Bora Bora on our own. The ship did not stop on Moorea because of weather. HAL did fly passengers who booked the tour through them to Bora Bora and a tender was send out to get them. This is the kind of chance you take when doing things on your own. We were lucky we had nothing booked.
Many of the islands in French Polynesia have a reef around it. There is a place in the reef where ships can get through. A pilot came aboard in Tahiti to navigate through this reef. The Captain had to retract the stabilizers to get through the reef because it was narrow. He warned us of the ship rolling but we did not notice any difference. Inside the reef the water was relatively shallow, very clear, and very calm. Today we planned to pick up our rental car, do some snorkeling, see the sites and do some hiking.
Tenders started operating at 6am and it was open tendering until 7:30am. This meant we did not have to stand in line and pick up a tender ticket. We had breakfast, grabbed our gear and headed down to deck A. Loading was fast and efficient and we were off. Avis opened at 8am and we would be early but didn’t mind. It was already very hot and humid when we pulled up to the port. Avis was very close to the port as expected.
I began planning these excursions in June of 2018 and I often forget details. We rented a Renault Twizzy. A tiny electric car. It held two. The passenger sat behind the driver. Since I did the booking, I was the driver. There was not a lot of room in the rear seat but Terri took it in stride. The detail I forgot? No trunk, no roof rack, no place to store things. I would been happy with a milk crate bolted to the back. Luckily, Terri was able to put some of our gear between her legs and the remainder was piled to my left and right. No AC but there were no windows on the sides so there was plenty of airflow. After figuring out how everything worked we were off.
Our first stop was Matira Beach. Almost a mile in length of white sand. The water was 86 F. Getting in was effortless. The reef was at least a mile or more out. We knew that the best viewing was there and the water was only waist deep all of the way out. After 30 minutes of snorkeling about 1000 yds from shore, we decided not to go to the reef. Lots of jet skis, and tour craft out; and it would be difficult to see us with our heads in the water. There was some coral near us which brought in plenty of fish to view and this was not our only snorkeling stop on the World Voyage.
We spent a few hours in the water, packed up and headed out to see more of the island. We had a local map but the instructions were written with locals in mind. “Make a left at the farm and take the asphalt road up”. I don’t remember how many times we went back and forth to find something. A hiking trail is what we wanted. After at least an hour we managed to located it. Closed, said the sign. Getting around the fence would be difficult so we moved on.
We saw the famous “Bloody Mary’s” restaurant and decided a Bloody Mary is what we needed. We shared a burger some fries and each enjoyed one of the famous Bloody Mary’s. Very unique flavor. Just enough kick! I will be searching for this recipe.
Back in the Twizzy we were off to another hike. More back and forth but managed to find it. No signs to guide us. Just a gut instinct and my map app to guide us. The road kept going up and up. About three quarters of the way up the Twizzy said “no more” and would not move an inch further up. Not enough torque in this little thing. We parked and got out to begin the hike. We saw a sign that said “private”. That sign usually means we are close to a trail. We did meet up with another hiker who said he was lost. Not lost in the sense of not being able to get back to town. It’s up or down, one road around the island. He said he had lost the trail. He was looking at his phone and I pulled out mine. He had the official French map of the island. I pulled out maps.me and was able to see the trail with an icon that used GPS. The trail was heavily overgrown. We got him to the trail, took a few photos and went back to the car. I didn’t have my Popeil Pocket Machete with me and we decided to turn back.
We were able to drive around the entire island. Much smaller than I imagined. Maybe 25 mins around. The Twizzy would not go past 47kph.
We finished the afternoon shopping for pearls. Jewelry store first. Terri found a bracelet she liked but it really didn’t do much for her when she put it on. There was a necklace that she liked. $747.00 was a bit more than she wanted to spend. I didn’t like it so my wallet never opened. We browsed for a bit then left. Fine jewelry store to homemade table on the street side selling pearls. The pearls looked identical. The price $10; but did not include a “Letter of Authenticity”. We hit the jackpot …