May 12 and 13, Bora Bora

We spent 36 hours in Bora Bora, from the morning of May 12 to the late evening of May 13. It was a busy two days.

We began by taking the first tender into shore for a tour of the island by 4×4. This took us off-road—through the jungle sometimes—to a number of spots, each more spectacular than the last.

I think Bora Bora was the most spectacular of the islands we visited, though I still like Moorea best.

We finished the day with a swim off the water sports platform with Bora Bora’s “stingray” mountain as a backdrop. Spectacular, and like the other island swims, lovely and refreshing.

The next day we were treated to day on Motu Tapu, an island owned by the Conrad Hilton chain, and featured in just about every promotional brochure. Unlike the motu by Taha’a, a family lives on Motu Tapu, probably some sort of caretakers, I suppose. Some of the passengers, including the two of us, went over in the morning, to enjoy a swim. 

Then at 5pm all the boat’s passengers were taken over on Zodiacs for a big dinner, including all manner of lobster and other seafood, and what I call the “floor show.” Dinner was followed by an iconic Polynesian dance show: a band of drums guitar and ukulele like the ones we’ve seen at pretty much every port, pretty girls wearing flower wreaths and garlands, ropes and ropes of pearls, and of course grass skirts; male dancers as well; and of course the fire dance (native to a different part of Polynesia, but this was not ethnography, we’re talking Ziegfield here). The star of the show was an eight-year-old boy who could twirl the flaming double-ended torches with the best of them. Yes, this was cheesy pandering to Western tourists, but great fun.

For our return after the show, the ship had its sails unfurled and all its lights blazing, to top off the evening.