French Polynesia Videos

Here is a bonus sea scooter video with footage taken by our guide with a much better camera (and much better skills!)

Tahiti Encore

Well it's back to Tahiti for a few nights before we head home. All US-bound flights leave from the Faa'a Airport here, usually late at night. We had already stayed on the west coast near Puna'auia, so this time we decided to stay on the north coast near Arue. We are at a condo that is part of the Le Tahiti by Pearl resort. The property is on Lafayette beach, which has a wide stretch of black sand. It's really soft to walk on, but can get pretty hot in full sun. Shoes are a must!

Our rental condo had a very interesting layout. We could tell that in a past life it had been a hotel room and had later been converted to a condo. There were lots of clues indicating this but the main one was that the kitchen was literally installed on the balcony. As it turned out, we didn't really use the kitchen to cook anything. Instead we got takeout from a famous Chinese-Tahitian fusion restaurant called Le Dahlia so we could try the ma'a tinito -- an interesting mix of red beans, macaroni pasta, vegetables, and twice-cooked pork. It sounds weird but it was delicious, as was the pork with coconut sauce we ordered to go with it. So we mainly ended up using the balcony kitchen for breakfasts (and drinks at sunset) overlooking the resort pool.

From Lafayette beach just behind the resort, we could see Mo'orea on the horizon, and the sunsets were magnificent!

Since the Airbnb checkout was at 10am and our flight wasn't until 9pm we got day passes to the Intercontinental hotel for our final day on the island. We were able to score awesome loungers by the lagoon. We struck up a conversation with a lady at the next lounger. She asked if we were on the 9pm flight and we said yes. "Well that means I'm your pilot," she announced. She mentioned that she had big plans for the afternoon -- a jetski tour, snorkeling, and the flight crew went kayaking. Considering that our plans for our last day just included lounging and reading by the lagoon, that sounded exhausting! We wondered if she would be able to stay awake for the entire 8 hour overnight flight after that itinerary. We did run into her again that night at the airport buying an enormous coffee, and we got home safely, so I guess it worked out just fine!

We had just enough time to catch the beginning of the sunset before heading off to the airport to catch our flight home. Māuruuru (thank you) Tahiti, for a truly memorable vacation!

Beautiful Bora Bora

Due to all the confusion of the strike, our flight to Bora Bora was practically empty -- only six passengers on a plane built to carry 74. Everyone who wanted one got a window seat! And what a view -- from the air you can really see the ring of reefs and turquoise colors of the lagoon that surrounds the island.

Our Airbnb on this island was called "Sunrise Villa". The Tahitian-Hawaiian owner had included decorative touches from both of those Polynesian cultures throughout the home.

True to its name we had a great view of the sunrise over the water every morning. 

Our first excursion here was an all-day snorkel tour that took us to some of the best spots in the lagoon and gave us great views of the main island. 

We have seen maxima clams on almost all the coral reefs here - the brightly colored squiggly lines of their mantles are really eye-catching! They come in several shades - brownish gold, aquamarine green, cobalt blue, and a really striking indigo purple. The spots on their mantle are sensitive to light so when predators cast a shadow it causes the clam to close up for protection. The blue one in the upper left of this picture is a pretty good size -- they can grow to about 8 inches across.

On this tour we also made a stop in deeper water to snorkel with a school of blacktip reef sharks. They don't get very big, only about 5 feet long, so they generally avoid interaction with humans. But the tour guides here will drop some food in the water when the boats arrive and then drop another batch of food when the boats leave, so the sharks have been conditioned to stick around and wait for the second feeding. This gives the tour groups enough time to drop their guests in the water to snap some photos.

Luckily for us the sharks don't try to snack on the snorkelers.

After snorkeling all morning, we motored to Taurere Point on one of the motus east of the main island. The place was set up with picnic tables in the water and we had a buffet lunch consisting of typical Polynesian foods.

Lunch was served on a braided palm leaf tray with another leaf serving as a plate. On the plate you can see a local rice dish; poisson cru (raw fish in coconut milk); grilled fish, chicken, and beef; grilled plantain; coconut bread; sweet potato; some kind of root vegetable -- taro, I think; and banana pudding and fresh pineapple for dessert. All of the food was excellent.

Our Airbnb is on the wrong side of the island for sunsets, but we were able to catch a few good ones whenever we went out to dinner. This is the view from the terrace at the Bora Bora Beach Club, right by Matira Beach on the southern end of the island.

On Tuesday and Thursday we had originally booked to rent a small power boat to go out snorkeling on our own. Unfortunately our plans hit a snag when the weather forecast said strong winds would kick up for that part of the week. The boat rental company canceled, since they didn't want to send tourists out in their boats in rough weather. We were disappointed, but instead of letting it get us down we just changed the plan! I called around to all of the luxury resorts and was able to book us a day pass at the St. Regis. On Wednesday we were picked up by their fancy motor shuttle and ferried over to the resort, which is on its own private motu.

We arrived about 11am and were able to score prime spots by the pool. Most of the land-based rooms have their own pools and the overwater bungalow rooms have the water right beneath them so I guess most guests just swim near their bungalows. The pool wasn't very crowded at all.

The St. Regis looks like a very relaxing place to stay. But if you are staying here you are kind of stuck at the resort. They only have one free shuttle back and forth to the main island per day, otherwise it'll cost you. So they have a captive audience for their restaurants, bars, and activities. But I guess there are worse places to be stuck...

Our day pass included an excellent and generous lunch at the restaurant. Cocktails were on our own dime but they made them strong enough to be worth it. We really enjoyed the entire day, and were able to watch the sunset before boarding the shuttle boat back to the main island.

We spent six nights on Bora Bora and it was definitely the most laid-back and relaxing of the three islands we visited. But by the end of the week we were ready to move on again. We had a farewell dinner and some very tasty cocktails at the St. James restaurant before heading back to Tahiti the next morning. Manuia! (Cheers!)

Mo' Mo'orea

On Wednesday we booked a half-day snorkel tour with Moorea Water Games to take us around the island to the best spots. Even though we have our own snorkels and masks, they recommended we use their full-face snorkel masks. Instead of having a facemask that covers your eyes and nose with a separate snorkel tube, these masks cover the entire face and have a snorkel tube sticking out of the top. The nice thing about them is that you have a wider field of vision. The drawback is you look a little dorky. If you were a child in the 1980's you will know what I mean when I say we looked a lot like Snork cartoon characters.

They also gave us each an electric sea scooter. It kind of looks like a combo dustbuster vacuum cleaner attached to a fan. It had three speeds and let you zoom through the water effortlessly.

The tour stopped at several locations and the first one was at the reef just off the Sofitel resort, with some truly spectacular coral. The Sofitel resort has put a lot of effort into restoring and reviving the reef around the resort and over toward Temae public beach.

We were overwhelmed by the sheer number and variety of fish we saw. And because the guides bring a tour group here twice a day every day, none of the fish were timid at all. They just went on about their normal fishy lives while we peacefully zoomed along with them using our scooters. This school of convict fish hung out with us for quite a while, very cool!

After seeing the best part of the Sofitel reef area, we climbed back into the boat and headed towards the south end of the island. In fact, we were very close to our Airbnb and could see the backyard from offshore. Here we snorkeled in deeper water so there wasn't much coral to see, but we saw a squadron of eagle rays and several green sea turtles. Again, they weren't too bothered by us, so it was thrilling to see them up close.

After a busy day out and about we came back to our Airbnb, cooked a simple dinner, and watched a gorgeous sunset and sipped some local Hinano beers. An excellent and relaxing end to a great day...

Over the course of the week we found lots of time to explore the public beaches around the island. One of our favorites was Ta'ahiamanu beach near 'Ōpūnohu Bay. Great views of the mountains and super soft powdery sand.

Moorea is surrounded by a ring of reefs, and over time some parts of the reef build up broken bits of coral and sand until they become a very small island, or "motu". The Coco Beach restaurant is on Motu Tiahura just off the northwest coast of Mo'orea. So we made a reservation for lunch and spent the morning and early afternoon exploring the island and snorkeling between Tiahura and Motu Fareone. Lunch was very good and we had a great view of the boats going by in the main lagoon channel.

Well, after seven nights on this beautiful island it was time to head to our next destination. We had booked an afternoon flight direct from Mo'orea to Bora Bora -- there is only one flight a day between these two islands. We had planned on a leisurely day at the beach before our flight. But...man plans, God laughs. I got a text at 6:30am saying that our flight had been unexpectedly rescheduled to October 22nd. What??!! We wouldn't even be in the country on that date! So we quickly scrambled to get packed and check out. It took us less than an hour to get out the door -- we definitely "panic-packed" but luckily only forgot a few granola bars that were...in the fridge, of course. While driving we realized that the Mo'orea Air Tahiti desk wouldn't be open -- the airport was roped off, completely closed. Our only option was to start heading toward the ferry dock to get back to Tahiti. In the meantime, I called customer service right when it opened at 8am and was told, "I'm sorry your flight was moved. There are no flights in or out of Mo'orea right now. You heard about the strike, didn't you?"

No I hadn't heard about it but...of course! I should have known. Going on strike is the national pastime for the French and I guess French Polynesia is no exception. "Il y a un grève" ("there is a strike") is a saying we know very well from our travels in France. It seems that the firefighters for certain airports were on strike, effectively shutting down air travel. Luckily, the airports in Tahiti and Bora Bora were unaffected. We were able to get our flight changed over the phone, hopped on the ferry back to Tahiti, jumped into a cab to the airport, and actually got to Faa'a airport in time to catch an even earlier flight so that we arrived in Bora Bora six hours ahead of schedule! We were very lucky. Although I loved Mo'orea and could have stayed there another week, accomodations were surely all booked up so we would've had no place to stay. Plus we had pre-paid our Bora Bora Airbnb, so...Au revoir, Mo'orea!

Exploring Mo'orea

Moorea is Tahiti's next door neighbor -- it's so close that you can easily see it from the west coast of Tahiti. We took a short ferry ride from Pape'ete and arrived in Mo'orea less than an hour later. The island is smaller than Tahiti, but it has a very distinctive profile from the water -- the mountains are steep and jagged. On our first day it was raining but later in the week we took a drive up to the Belvedere lookout for great views of the landscape.

It was great to have a car and explore around the island. You can drive the whole perimeter in about an hour and a half without stops. But we made sure to make plenty of stops along the way. Here's what the mountains look like from the Pao Pao Panorama viewpoint on Cook's Bay.

On Monday afternoon, we went on a half-day whale watching excursion that also gave us some excellent views of the island's rugged mountain interior.

Our guide for our whale tour was Dr. Michael Poole, a marine biologist who has spent his life studying whales and dolphins. We learned so much about whales in just one afternoon, especially about how they communicate and behave in the breeding waters of French Polynesia. We were lucky to spot a group of three whales -- a mother, her calf, and a male adult trying to court the female. Dr. Poole was very respectful and kept the boat a safe distance away from the whales but our group was able to get in the water with snorkel gear to hopefully be able to see the whales in the water. Unfortunately the whales were on the move and we humans are nowhere near fast enough to keep up with a swimming whale. So technically we did not get to swim "with" them. But we were definitely close enough to hear the male singing underwater, which was ethereal and beautiful. During our boating years we saw whales many times but it is still always absolutely amazing to see them up close.

Our Airbnb on this island has been great -- it has a huge garden and is right on the water. We've been able to snorkel right from the backyard.

If there's a tropical fruit or flower, the owners have managed to plant it here. They've got pineapples, bananas, citrus, coconut palms, passion fruit, hibiscus, plumeria, and on and on -- we've been able to have fresh bananas with our cereal every morning.

The place is set up perfectly for indoor-outdoor living. In contrast to the furnace of Arizona where we couldn't survive the summer without full A/C throughout the house, here they typically only air condition the bedrooms at night. But with the windows and doors open, you get a wonderful ocean breeze through the rest of the house. Of course with all that open-ness, come the bugs. And behind the bugs come the geckos. Yes, we have several gecko roommates who have set up house behind the picture frames on the walls. They do a decent job of keeping the big bugs out. But we learned a hard lesson about ants when we left our breakfast cereal and a box of raisins out on a shelf overnight. There was a trail coming in from the bathroom window, up above and around two doorframes, across a wall and down to the isolated shelf that we thought was safe because it was nowhere near a window. Ooops! From now on we will definitely be putting any and all food into the refrigerator. You'd think with all the sweet fruit in the yard the ants would have plenty of easily accessible food already.

Most of the big resorts have some kind of Polynesian Dance show for their guests. But because we have only been staying in Airbnb's, we haven't had a chance to catch any shows. Luckily here on Mo'orea there is the Tiki Village Polynesian Cultural Center. They put on a buffet and show twice a week. We gave the buffet a skip since we have already eaten several Polynesian meals at this point, but we were able to get show-only tickets and enjoyed watching the different Polynesian cultural dances (the hula, the haka, etc). It was very similar to what we've seen at luaus in Hawaii, but it was nice because there was a much smaller audience so you could really see what was going on.

What I was less happy about was being pulled up onstage to perform a hula dance. I generally avoid that kind of thing, but the persistent coconut-bra-wearing lady just would not take no for an answer. You can tell from my expression that I won't be changing my life's motto to "Dance Like No One Is Watching" anytime soon.

Ia Orana, Tahiti!

"Ia Orana" means "Hello" in Tahitian. It all runs together when you say it out loud: "Yo-ranna". If you say it in a sing-songy voice you will sound just like the locals do!

All US flights in and out of French Polynesia land in the capitol of Pape'ete, Tahiti, so we booked a few nights at an Airbnb and rented a car so we could see the main island. Our first day with the car we drove the north coast, stopping at several viewpoints including Faarumai Waterfalls.

The water on the north stretch of the coast is deeper and lacks the shallow reefs and calm lagoon waters that give pictures that famous turquoise blue hue. So the coastline here looked a little more rugged than we expected. We could also see the remains of lava flows in the black volcanic rocks along the shoreline.

The main road in Tahiti snakes around the coast of the island. There is only one road that crosses the interior of the island - through the Papeno'o Valley. The road isn't maintained, so you can't drive it in a rental car. Instead you have to book a Jeep or 4x4 tour.

The interior of the island gets tons of rain (Tahiti gets 75 inches annually). It's lush and green and there are waterfalls everywhere you look. We enjoyed seeing the Papeno'o Valley, but it was a long day -- about 8 hours for the whole tour. By the time we got back we were hungry and exhausted.

Luckily the safari tour dropped us off at the town hall in the village of Puna'auia. Just across the street is a public beach where several food trucks serve tasty dinners in the evenings. The food trucks are called "roulottes" and you can find them throughout the islands. They are a little different from our American concept of food trucks that move around -- typically the roulottes have permanent locations and many of them have substantial menus and designated seating areas. Compared to sit-down restaurants, the food at a roulotte is generally less expensive, and we found ourselves eating at them several times during our stay in French Polynesia.

French Polynesia is spread out over a large area in the Pacific and is broken up into five island groups. The island group we are visiting on this trip is called the "Society Islands" and includes Tahiti, Mo'orea, Raiatea, and Bora Bora as well as many smaller islands and atolls. Tahiti is the largest island in the Society Island chain. From the air, it looks like two round blobs of land attached to each other by a narrow neck. The bigger one is to the northwest and is called "Tahiti Nui" (big Tahiti); the smaller one to the southeast is called "Tahiti Iti" (little Tahiti). On the west coast, you can drive down as far as Teahupo'o, where the road ends. This little town is known for the world-class surf break just offshore. This will be the site for the surfing competition of the 2024 Summer Olympics -- almost halfway around the world from the main event in the city of Paris.

We turned around at Teahupo'o and drove back up the Tahiti Iti coast to a seaside restaurant called La Plage de Maui. We had an excellent meal there. Kevin was adventurous and ordered the gourmet plate which consisted of both raw and cooked fish. While Hawaii is known for poke (raw fish marinated in a salty, non-citrus-based sauce), the signature dish in these islands is called "poisson cru". The French name literally translates to "raw fish", and it is made with raw fish tossed in citrus juice and then marinated in coconut milk. In the photo below it's in the round dish next to the rice. And yes - that is a raw shrimp in the lower left corner of the plate. I consider myself a reasonably adventurous eater but I draw the line at raw shellfish. Kevin ate it and lived to tell the tale!

On our way back up the coast we found a nice spot at Vaiava Beach and went snorkeling. Visibility wasn't great, but it was nice to get in the water. We are hoping to see some better snorkeling spots on the island of Mo'orea -- our next stop!

Southwest Road Trip Video

Southwest Road Trip: Calistoga Wine Weekend

Side trip! While we were staying in Lake Tahoe, we realized it was just a short three-hour drive to the Napa wine region in California. This would normally be a 12-hour drive from our house in Arizona, so we thought it would be worth it to take a short weekend side trip from Tahoe.

We arrived in the Napa region just in time for lunch. It was a Saturday, so there was some traffic as we wound our way north on the St Helena Highway through the vineyards. The familiar names on the winery signs were tempting, but our first destination was a spot more known for its burgers than its grapes -- Gott's Roadside. They had a really nice outdoor picnic area and the burgers were absolutely delicious.

Since I prefer my wines with bubbles, we had booked an afternoon tasting at Mumm Napa. It did not disappoint! We had excellent service and loved the generous pours of various sparkling wine varieties. Definitely a good tasting room to visit if you have something to celebrate, like a birthday or anniversary. Or if you want to just celebrate life in general by drinking some sparkly wine with a fabulous vineyard view!

Another winery we really liked was Vincent Arroyo. The tasting room had a very casual vibe, but they had so many varietals available to taste or to purchase -- Chardonnay, Sirah, Cabs, Merlot, Sangiovese, Zinfandel and even a Port. So of course we definitely had to try the port, having just been to Porto and the Douro valley last November -- it was actually pretty good, so we picked up a bottle to bring home with us.

Just like everywhere else in the Southwest this summer, the Calistoga area was experiencing an unusual heat wave. Definitely a concern for the grapes currently on the vines, although the ones near the Vincent Arroyo tasting room looked okay to us. Kevin tried one but it wasn't very sweet -- there's a reason they differentiate between wine grapes and table grapes. Too many seeds for me!

This trip was mostly about the wine tasting, but we did get tickets to a wonderful evening of jazz at the Charles Krug winery. Bebel Gilberto is bossanova royalty -- she's the daughter of Brazilian guitarist João Gilberto and a world-famous musician in her own right, with four Grammy nominations. She put on a charismatic and delightful performance, and it was wonderful to sip some wine and enjoy the music in such a beautiful outdoor setting.

One of the highlights of our trip was visiting the world-famous Chateau Montelena. The winery is one of the oldest in the Napa Valley, having been established in the 1880s by a man named Alfred Tubbs. 

After prohibition, the winery fell into decline and was purchased in the 1950s by Yort Wing Frank who used the chateau as a vacation home. He improved the landscape around the chateau by excavating Jade Lake and building a beautiful Chinese garden. It is a very peaceful spot -- we sat and watched the swans for a bit after we finished our tasting.

But the primary reason that Chateau Montelena is world-famous is because of the "Judgement of Paris". In the 1970s, the Barrett family replanted the vines and began producing wine again. There was a wine competition in 1976 that pitted the upstart American wineries against the old guard French wineries from Bordeaux and Burgundy. In a blind tasting, the 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay was ranked above all the other white wines. (Stag's Leap Cabernet Sauvignon, another American wine, won the honors in the red wine judgement). This competition put the Napa region on the wine map, so to speak. There is an excellent movie about this competition that we saw a few years ago called "Bottle Shock". Having tasted the wines from Montelena, I can agree that they live up to their reputation!

With our wine weekend trip coming to an end, we visited one last winery - Bennett Lane. It was probably the friendliest and most down-to-earth tasting experience we had on this trip. Our host Bill was incredibly knowledgeable about the history of Calistoga and the local wineries, and he made sure we had a wonderful experience tasting the wines. By the end of our visit it was like we'd been sitting talking with an old friend.

Calistoga is a town full of charm and we had such a nice getaway here in California wine country! I think this photo sums up our time here very nicely: