For our 35th anniversary Rick planned a trip back to one of our favorite places. BORA BORA! We love this place so much so early in 2023 Rick found a deal with Costco Travel. He found out that they partner with the Mai Tai Hotel, which we love, so after talking it over we decided to do it!
We flew into LA on the evening of January 16th and took the red eye on Tahiti Nui Airlines. It's an eight hour flight into Tahiti and we were able to get some sleep on the plane. We arrived early in Papeete and had a couple hour layover. We then took a short forty minute flight with Air Tahiti into Bora Bora. We arrived on a beautiful day sunny day.
Just look at those waters.....I mean 😍
We took the Ferry into Vaitape, the main city in Bora Bora.
We were then picked up via shuttle to our Hotel about fifteen minutes from the harbor.
We were thinking possibly to upgrade our bungalow to a newly remodeled one with a larger deck but decided that $1200 could be used better elsewhere. Besides, I loved the 'not' remodeled ones because of the palm matting on the walls and view. We loved the coral underneath our room!
Waking up to this every morning was an absolute dream!
It took a while for us to get into our room because they were still being prepared but after we got in and unpacked we just enjoyed being there. Rick got right into the water and I got in just after him.
It was fun snorkeling together and seeing all of the fish and coral. Of course, Mr. Fish stayed in much longer than I did. He spotted an octopus and hung around it for a while while I got out and read on the deck.
I bought a new swim suit for the occasion.
Leopard bottoms...va va voom!😉
Unfortunately, I stayed out a bit too long and got sunburned.... in the first couple of hours of our trip!😐
I've had worse burns but this one was a little uncomfortable for a few days.
That evening we had a nice dinner at the Bora Bora Yacht Club.
It gave a nice view of the sunset and all of the beautiful yachts in the harbor.
The next morning Rick hopped right into one of the kayaks provided by the hotel and went for a drive!
He's so cute! I love that guy!
That afternoon we booked an excursion through the hotel to go on a quad drive around the island. Our guide was ?? . After we got a lesson on how the ATV's worked we headed off around the island. We stopped at a couple of high points to get good views from different high points of the island. The views were Ah-mazing!
That evening we stopped at a food truck and had some grub. Mine was just ok....lots of noodles but Rick really enjoyed his curry and rice dish.
Another beautiful morning...
We were pleasantly surprised at our weather. Before we left home the weather showed rain EVERY DAY but while we did get a bit of rain we had plenty of sunshine, as well.
The rest of the pictures are in random order because I can't remember which day was which...except for Sunday, haha!
One night we ordered pizza and ate it on the beach while watching the sunset. There were some beautiful views but disappointingly the clouds are in and blocked the view of the sun sinking into the ocean.
We got a couple of random dogs who gobbled up the last of our uneaten pizza.
The number of stray dogs on this island is crazy. They were everywhere!
Another picture of the view outside of our room. I just couldn't stop myself from taking more pictures of this same spot pretty much every day. This particular morning the water was sooo clear and beautiful.
One afternoon we took a wave running excursion and had SO MUCH FUN! The weather was rainy during the first half of our ride but that's ok. We still had a great time! We got to see two rays on our ride!
At one point our guide brought us into a bay and gave us free reign to go a little crazy on our machines. He didn't have to tell me twice on that! I took off screaming with glee going full throttle!
After awhile we pulled over to one of the motu's surrounding the island and had some local treats.
We had coconut bread with some really delicious grapefruit. I don't like grapefruit at all but this one was nice and sweet:) This was our funnest excursion of the whole week! I just love being free to roam on the water in my own personal watercraft!
We celebrated our anniversary on Saturday night. Right there at Matira Beach we watched a beautiful sunset and then had a nice dinner at Bora Bora Beach Club. What a beautiful place to celebrate our
35th anniversary!
Oh yes we did!!
I had chocolate lava cake and rick had an apple dumpling dessert!
On Sunday we went to church. Part of it was in French and part of it was in Tahitian. We didn't understand either so after Sacrament Meeting we took a little drive and then headed back to our room.
This is our room. Number six Apiti.
We enjoyed a Sunday afternoon nap and then had an early dinner at the hotel's restaurant.
The next day (Monday) was our day to kayak over to The Garden, an amazing coral spot filled with life! It was amazingly clear and we had a great time just swimming around. After a bit, a couple of snorkel boats came in but there was plenty of room for all!!
The kayak trip was fifteen minutes one way and was just very pleasant and relaxing!
Our bungalow (below) was not far from the beach and that was something that we actually loved about it, as well.
That afternoon we were able to have some super delish wood fired pizza at the Lucky House just a few steps from our hotel!
The next morning was our checkout day. Our flight didn't leave from Bora until around 5:00 so luckily we got a late checkout and were able to enjoy the last day right around our hotel. Rick took another kayak ride out to the garden reef and we had another lunch at the Lucky House Restaurant and then packed up and headed out. It was a rainy day so the pictures on our flight out of Bora weren't as nice as the could have otherwise been. Until next time you wonderful island!
We landed in Papeete and had a five hour layover. We wished we could have had the opportunity to do some ordinance work at the temple but the temple closed too early. We did, however, get to drive over to the temple and get some pictures. It was really beautiful in the lamplight.
Afterwards we found a place to get some dinner and then took the red eye back to LA.
We arrived home late afternoon safe and sound.
This was a wonderful anniversary trip.
We are so thankful that we could take this amazing vacation!
