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!