French Polynesia Trip Part 1

We recently returned from FRENCH POLYNESIA!!  What an amazing trip!  Not only was it wonderful to be just Rick and I in this romantic place, it was also one of the most beautiful places that we have ever been to.

For our 25th anniversary five years ago we took the French Polynesian Cruise with Princess and had such a wonderful time visiting the different islands of that area, but just a few days into the trip I got sick.  The two days that we were in Bora Bora I was terribly sick.  I was quarantined to our room for those two days and while we had a balcony off our room and I could SEE the island of Bora Bora,  unfortunately I could not EXPERIENCE the island of Bora Bora.

A couple of months ago we received an update from "Flights From Home" (a discount flight website) that had flights to Papeete for a great price.  Rick was heading off to a meeting so he said,  "if you want to go book us some tickets".  Well, I did!  I figured this was as good a chance of any to FINALLY get to experience the island of Bora Bora AND WHAT AN EXPERIENCE IT WAS!

We left SLC late in the afternoon and went through San Francisco to get to LA.  We flew the redeye from LA to Pappete arriving early in the morning.  We rented a small car and then headed right over to our hotel (Ahitea Lodge) to rest and freshen up a little bit.  

Before we left home Tracy Begay had asked us to take a package to her daughter, Ivy, who is serving a mission in French Polynesia.  We were able to find the mission office after arriving at the temple and a few of the gardeners (who spoke English) directed us down the street from the temple.  We were able to meet Elder and Sister Hardy from Washington who are serving as the mission office couple.  We spoke with them for about 15 minutes learning about their mission responsibilities and of course dropping off Ivy's package.  

Afterward we took a drive around the island.  The first order of business was to get some much needed lunch.  Luckily we found a McDonalds right on the main road out of Papeete.  

Tahiti is a beautiful island filled with black sand beaches.  It is quite the phenomenon to see and makes me wonder why all of the volcanic islands do not have black sand on their beaches.  Doesn't that make sense?  Anyway, it was cool to see and we loved watching the locals playing in the sand and water.  We decided that on our return we would come back to play at the beach.

Tahiti has a lot of rivers running through the large mountains.  We turned up a small road paralleling a large river and drove a couple of kilometers.  It was fun passing homes of the locals and trying to imagine myself living in one of them:)  It surely wold be a different life being an islander.

The foliage is so beautiful!

As we came around the Northern part of the island we stopped at the "Three Waterfalls".  While we could see three waterfalls from our drive into the mountainside we could only hike to one.  The trail to the others was closed down.  We were able to hike ( walk a few minutes on a paved trail) to Faarumai Falls.  It was very easy to get to.  We were amazed at the beauty of this huge waterfall.  It had been raining as we drove in so tiny waterfalls were flowing off of the mountain in different places.  So beautiful! 

Just next to the turnoff road to the Three Waterfalls is The Blowhole.  I had remembered this from our first trip to Tahiti.  It is a blowhole that is on a mountainside about 15 meters from the ocean.  It is really neat to see and hear.  As we were walking up to it we heard a loud roaring noise as water came spewing out of the hole, and it made me scream.  Just a really cool thing to see and hear!

That evening our hotel attendant, Romana, suggested eating at the food trucks down by the wharf.  Of course I went for pizza!  Rick had some chicken chow mien and then we shared a waffle with chocolate and ice-cream.  It was yummy:)

A random shot of one of the many kitties at our lodge:)

The next morning we got up early to catch a session at the Tahiti Temple.  It is a smaller temple but is very beautiful!  We were asked to take a special part in the session. It went pretty well (except for the part of repeating a few French words......THAT was a little difficult)..... but we were happy to do it!  Both Rick and I had headsets for the English translation but they weren't working all that well.  In fact the whole session stopped at one point because Rick's was not working at all.  The sweet ordinance workers had to switch it out for a different one.  Thank goodness for patient people;)  Much of the time I had to just remember from past temple experiences to understand what was being said.

It is always beautiful being in the temple!  This particular time I felt a wonderful gratitude to God for creating men and women to be together.  Eve was created and given to Adam so that she could help him.  Marriage is ordained of God and we are not meant to be alone on this earth.   I'm sure it brought such comfort for Adam to have a help meet and companion to help him through life and to HAVE JOY, and how comforting it is to ME that I have a wonderful, loving companion to traverse this life with....through the good AND the bad!

After the temple we made a quick stop to change our clothes and headed to the Papeete Market.  Rick bought a black pearl ring to match the necklace pendant, bracelet, and earrings from our last trip.  Now I have a complete set:).  We also picked up THE BEST muffins from a little shop.  His was coconut and mine was banana.  Then off to the airport to catch our flight to BORA BORA!

Our flight was with Tahiti Air and lasted about thirty minutes.  I could not believe the views of the island as we came into range.  Just WOW!  

And that is pretty much how we felt  EVERY. SINGLE. DAY of our trip.

The beauty of this place JUST WOW!!

We stayed at the Hotel Maitai Polynesia on the southeastern part of the island.  When we originally booked our room it was for an ocean view on the mountainside.  After booking our room, we decided to check into the possibility of staying in an over-the-water bungalow for an upgrade but decided it was too expensive.  Plus they were full.

The week before the trip I asked Rick to call back to see if any had opened up and maybe we could pay the extra because....I REALLY WANTED TO!    It just so happened that they had a cancellation and Rick was able to talk them down a little in the price.  It still was a lot but I will tell you right here and now that 

IT WAS WORTH EVERY PENNY!  Having our little bungalow made this trip AH...MAZING!!

This is a shot of our over-the-water bungalow.  It was so cute and just right for us!  Our back deck dropped off into crystal clear water filled with coral and ocean life.  We saw so many amazing tropical fish as well as sting rays, anemones, colorful clams, urchins, TWO spotted eagle rays as well as an octopus.  Just WOW!!

Inside our bungalow we had thatched walls and just a very Polynesian vibe. 

 Like I said, "just perfect for us."

Rick snorkeling off of our balcony......he loves the water SO MUCH.  I just can't even tell you!

We would be in the water a lot of the day and then go out to have dinner and then come back to the bungalow and he would want to jump right back in!  Even in the dark!  I'm not ashamed to admit that having him snorkel in the dark made me super nervous.  I mean ANYTHING could be out there.  Luckily, he stayed pretty close to our room.  In fact, in the big coral right off of our room is where he saw the octopus!  The water was so clear that as Rick shined his flash light under the water I could look right down from our deck into the coral and see it too.  

View from our balcony....

On Saturday we scheduled a snorkel tour around the island.  We stopped at four different locations throughout the day with a Polynesian buffet on a private Motu in between.  

First, we stopped at three different locations to pick up other members of our tour who were staying in different hotels.  Then we cruised for about thirty minutes around the the North part of the island to get to our first stop.  Our captain, Vitti, stopped outside the reef entrance into the Lagoon just past the airport's Motu.   This was the place that we were going to swim with the Black Tip Reef Sharks and the Lemon Sharks.  

Immediately after stopping, the small sharks started coming up to the boat.  I think other tours must feed them because they started swimming around our boat like they were hungry.  I was a little nervous to get in the water but Rick was SUPER excited.  Between the sharks and the deep water (forty to fifty feet) it took some will power to jump off the boat!  I waited for a couple of people to get in and then decided it was my turn.  I put my face into the water and realized that it didn't seem so deep after all and it was fun watching the sharks swim around.  They didn't get too close which I was grateful for and the Lemon Sharks stayed down further into the deep, so that was good.  The Lemon sharks were about 9-11 feet long.  Pretty big.  I stayed in the water for about ten minutes and that was enough:)  Rick stayed in longer (of course).

{Getting ready to leave from the Maitai dock.}

{On the boat outside our hotel}

{Our room is the one on the right end}

{one of the beautiful Motus}

{the water is just incredible}

{Rick swimming with a small Black Tip Reef Shark}

After the shark experience we came back into the Lagoon and cruised for just a few minutes to get to the Sting Rays.  It was on a shallow sandbar close to the reef.  There were already a few boats there with people in the water and we could see the rays from the boat.  As we hopped in the water the rays came right up to us.  Another guide from our boat, a large woman with a big laugh, started handling,  playing with and feeding the rays.  I was happy to just touch the end of their wings and observe them in the water.  I don't like getting too close to them.  

Again, Rick was one with the water and animals:-)

Our next stop was on a Private Motu where we had a nice lunch.  They served us seasoned chicken, marinated fish, and cold salads with a roll.  They also served a delicious tropical juice.  We relaxed on the island for a couple of hours before heading on to the next stop.

Out next stop (no pictures) was at a huge sandbar in waist deep water.  The sand in Bora Bora is super fine so it feels a little like mud.  It is also very light in color which adds to the beautiful shades of blue.  The water was very warm and it was just like we had our own gigantic swimming pool.  

We enjoyed just hanging out in the water:)

Our last stop was at "The Garden" which actually is very close to our hotel.  The Garden is a huge reef area filled with fish.  We had such a good time swimming around the reef looking for creatures.  The area had some pretty strong currents so I was grateful to have fins.  We were only there for maybe twenty minutes which was a bummer because there was so much to see!  Since our time was so short we determined that we would come back on another day.  

That evening we had a romantic dinner at the Beach Restaurant.  It was just steps from our room (it is just behind us in the picture.)

It was a beautiful way to end our wonderful day.