14th August 2025

Oh my goodness!  Bora Bora is just stunning!  The quintessential, picture-perfect, tropical South Pacific holiday destination.  If anyone could dream up a perfect island, this would be it.  It’s a lovely, small, manageable island of green, topped in the middle by an absolutely stunning mountain ridge reaching vertiginously for the sky, surrounded by white powder sand beaches, a beautiful blue lagoon, and fringed by coral, palm tree islands all the way around.  It’s just unbelievable!  I was so happy to be there!  My “Around the World in 40 Days” adventure was perhaps taking me to two of the most exotic-sounding places in the world, places I never imagined I would ever visit, but I was doing so now: Tahiti and Bora Bora.

Last I wrote I was saying goodbye to Fiji, and boarding a once-weekly Air Calin flight directly to Papeete, the main city of Tahiti with a population of 125,000 people and the capital of French Polynesia.  I learned quite a bit about the Francophone world of the South Pacific, as my journey moved on from the Australia-New Zealand sphere of influence in this vast ocean visited by antipodean people on their holidays, to an area more connected to the USA and even far-flung Europe.  Holidaymakers changed from Aussies and Kiwis, to Americans, French and Italians.  The Air Calin airline and its staff are based out of the French territory of New Caledonia to the west, and as one of the flight attendants explained to me, New Caledonia is like the French version of what Australia is to the English.  I never knew that!  It seems that along with many French people travelling to Tahiti from Europe on their daily direct Air France flights laying over in Los Angeles on the way, French Caledonians also travel to these islands for their holidays.

French Polynesia is actually not an independent country, and is classed as a semi-autonomous piece of French territory, with a surprisingly fair few French people actually living there as well as visiting.  The territory is comprised of not just one archipelago of islands, but five in total, and affinity and identity there seemed more related to the archipelagoes rather than the whole: the Society Islands, the Tuamotus, the Marquesas, Gambiers and Australs.  The whole of the French Polynesian islands spread across 1200 miles of South Pacific Ocean, the equivalent distance between the UK and Ukraine, and is thus quite vast!  I only spent time this trip in the Society Islands, in my explorations of Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora.  Of course the main language is French, though English seems widely spoken too.  And the people there are so beautiful, both physically as well as in spirit.  I can understand why many of those early colonial-era sailors settled down there with the beautiful ladies wearing flowers in their hair, supposedly what influenced those to mutiny on the HMS Bounty and then settle down in Tahiti.  It is seriously a tropical paradise if ever there was one!

I just had time on my first evening after landing to be picked up by my accommodation host of where I was staying just for one, my first, night in the country.  It was a beautiful, eclectic home which was almost like staying in a museum filled with exhibitions of fascinating ornaments and decorations from all around the world, overlooking a small swimming pool, high on a hill overlooking the city below and with far-reaching views over the Pacific Ocean and the stunning island of Moorea with its lush jagged peaks reaching for the sky in the far distance.  I found it hard to believe I could be in such an exotic location, but I was, and I was happy!

After just a short sleep in my first Tahitian accommodation, I was up fairly early again the next day for my incredible host to drop me back again at the airport nearby.  Again I had rationalised my travel things into my small backpack for my trip to Bora Bora, and left my large backpack behind with my host – this was incredibly kind of her, considering I wasn’t staying there for my three later nights in Papeete.

I had been inspired by a former English language student back in my English language teaching days, who always seemed to mention her dream to visit this tropical island at least once during each lesson (Hi Florence, if you’re reading this!)  It was a short 50-minute flight with the wonderfully-named Air Moana, and yet they still managed to serve up hot drinks, juice and a pain-au-chocolat!  I had a window seat, and simply divine views flying over the islands of Moorea and then later Bora Bora itself.  I could clearly see from up there what a perfect island paradise it was, with the main island cloaked in a lush tropical green blanket with jagged peaks rising up out of the middle, surrounded by the deliciously blue lagoon which is almost completely circumnavigated by the coral reef and islands all around.  No wonder the place has become known as “Honeymoon Island”, there were certainly plenty of lovey-dovey couples on the plane with me!

The airport runway was interestingly built by US soldiers stationed there during World War II, more on that below, and was created on one of the existing fringe lagoon islands with additional landfill.  From there, there’s a boat that takes the average visitor like myself to the public pier in the main town of Vaitape, population 5,000, while most other passengers were picked up by private boats taking them directly to their luxury over-water thatched hut hotel rooms.  After stocking up on my self-catering supplies at a very well-stocked little supermarket in town, which even had microwave ready meals (yay!), I walked the mile or so south of town along the round-island coastal road to my delightful little accommodation there.  I had booked myself into a very reasonably-priced (considering the price of lodgings on this luxury paradise island) and gorgeous bungalow with living room, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, terrace, and a garden with views towards the central island’s 727m high jagged peak of Mt Otemanu.  The host was very friendly and welcoming, and I felt absolutely delighted in where my travels had taken me.

After a short rest, I decided to rent a scooter for the afternoon, to circumnavigate and explore the island.  I hadn’t ridden a scooter for at least 10 years, so I was a little shaky to start with, but it soon all came back to me.  I still can’t manage to do a big corner turn slowly without putting a foot down though, which was my one sticking point when I was taking a scooter riding course all those years ago.

My plan was to ride the beautiful 19-mile perimeter road of the island, and while concentrating on the road and numerous overtaking vehicles (I was going very slowly), I had to hold my jaw up constantly at the absolutely beautiful vistas around each and every corner.  I drank in the simply stunning white-sand beaches, beautiful blue lagoon, coral reefs and breaking waves in the far distance, and those huge looming omnipresent green peaks towering overhead.  It was simply amazing.  I circumnavigated the island in around three-hours in total, stopping off in various places along the way, and felt a relief to relieve myself of its responsibility when I returned it, particularly as it only came with third-party insurance, and my backside was starting to complain!

I had a nice evening chilling in my lovely accommodation, beers chilling in the fridge, microwave meal in the freezer, and a Netflix film awaiting – yay!  I chose to watch the Peter Jackson version of the film “King Kong” over two evenings, combining my recent experiences in New Zealand with my current experiences in the South Pacific.  I was really looking forward to my full day of island explorations and snorkeling the next day, making sure this time to bring my sunscreen which I planned to slather all over my back – six days later it was only just starting to peel after my worst ever case of sunburn from snorkeling back in Fiji.  I was very much aiming to avoid a repeat of that one, particularly as I like to lie on my back once in a while, as one does!

Wow, amazing, just incredible.  My full day on this magical island was wonderful.  I did an all-day tour, starting with a lagoon tour in the morning, followed by lunch, then a 4×4 land tour in the afternoon.  All was just incredible.

A cruise ship had arrived in the lagoon overnight, but not a very big one thankfully and they were mostly elderly people apparently who didn’t do much snorkeling on their stops according to two British guys from the ship who were on my snorkeling tour.  We swam at three spots, and we started off by seeing a huge and absolutely beautiful manta ray.  Its slow graceful beauty as it glided through the waters below were something to behold.  There was a bit of a melee of other snorkelers unfortunately, poor ray, and a few legs in my photos, but nothing a bit of careful cropping couldn’t sort out!  At the second spot there were loads of blacktip reef sharks and stingrays!  Amazing!  I thought I’d be a bit nervous with both of these, but as soon as we arrived and saw the groups of sharks from the boat, I just couldn’t wait to get in, lol!  The third and final spot was a coral reef just bursting with beautifully coloured tropical fish.  All were adorable, including one that just stayed in one position watching me while it rapidly flapped its fins, seemingly wondering what an earth I was – I could have picked it up and cuddled it!  Also spotted a large brown eel raiding holes, which was sad to see considering all the lovely friendly fish living in them.  There was also the apparently famous “I love Bora Bora” letters created on the sandy bottom using stones, dead coral and shells.  All was just incredible!

Our boat then headed for lunch on one of the encircling reef islands, cooked up by a very friendly local family.  I’d made sure to slather the sunscreen on that morning, especially on my back which was only just recovering from Fiji.  It seemed to have done the trick, it felt fine over lunch.

I then picked up my second tour for the day, the 4×4 land tour, with a guide who spoke English, French and a bit of Spanish, and a group of four very friendly Italians who only spoke Italian.  Apparently before picking me up, the guide had been trying his smattering of Spanish on them thinking they were Spanish, and they were understanding very little.  They all seemed to breathe a sigh of relief when they learned that I speak Italian, and I became the de facto tour translator for the afternoon, lol!

We first visited an old World War Two gun site, with two huge guns still in place on their rotating machinery.  There are in fact eight gun sites built by the Americans on the island, as it became an important defense site on the supply route between Australia and the USA during the Pacific War of WWII once the Japanese had taken control of Pearl Harbour and Hawaii.  Apparently many Bora Bora island residents today have American roots as a result of 200 war babies being born there between 1942 and 1945.  Come to think of it, the people did in fact seem more western in appearance, with one or two blue eyes knocking around.

We then visited an ancient marae site called Marae Fare-Opu, with turtle petroglyphs.  Marae were once the original sacred places of worship in these parts, found throughout the many Polynesian archipelagoes of the South Pacific.  There are not too many remaining fully intact, as many were dismantled by the European missionaries and Christians arriving from the late 18^th century onwards, with the stones often used to build subsequent churches.  This one was barely noticeable, and I easily rode past it the day before on my scooter without even realising it was there.  Whilst there though, the guide gave us a fascinating explanation of Pacific Island voyaging by the ancient Polynesians, relating very interestingly to some of the themes from the brilliant Disney film “Moana”.  Apparently, having a pig on board the voyaging vessels helped the ancient explorers find islands, as pigs would become excited when they were near land.  The chicken on board symbolised hope that the sun would dawn again after a dark night.  The voyagers also used their hands to align their direction with the Southern Cross star constellation and navigate their way across the ocean at night, just as Moana did in the film – “Away Away!”  Putting one’s hand in the water while sailing allows one to feel the warm and cold currents, which also helped to guide them on their way.  While not in the film, a baby turtle was taken with the voyagers as they explored newly-found islands, to show them the way back to the coast again, while an adult female turtle on board would guide them home again after voyaging, as they always return to their beach of birth to give birth themselves.  I found this all truly fascinating!

Finally, after a customary stop in a local souvenir stall, we visited a great spot high up the side of the central mountain near a telegraph station, with island, lagoon and coral reef all laid out perfectly below us.  It was a picture-perfect scene, and a delightful place to watch the beauty of the setting sun over the gorgeous island at the end of this wonderful day.

Back in my accommodation that evening I was a seriously happy traveller!  It’s days like these, pretty much most on my travels to be honest, which make me realise why I love to voyage and explore myself.  Perhaps I also have a bit of Pacific Islander in me deep down, lol!

The next morning I was flying back to Tahiti, to explore both that island and nearby Moorea.  But of course, more on that in my next one!