Bora Bora - French Polynesia

23^rd August – Bora Bora (French Polynesia)

Overnight from Papeete we entered the picturesque harbour of Bora Bora, it was Sunday and threatening rain, we had plenty of rain squalls during the night but we are usually lucky when ashore.

Sea Princess dropped anchor and passengers were tendered ashore by ships lifeboat/tenders 150 at a time. Let’s hope if we ever have to abandon ship we are picked up really quickly.

Stepping ashore we were once again greeted by traditional dress, dancing and the ever present Polynesian music and plenty of big smiles.

You can’t move very far without having to pass through an area where local souvenirs are being sold (like sarongs with made in China labels).

We wandered around checking everything out dodging hawkers trying to sell island tours etc. Once again there was a focus on black pearls. A short distance from the main centre was a modern looking church and being Sunday a service was being held. I’m not known for my religious activities but I stood for ages at the entrance enthralled by the locals singing hymns it was absolutely beautiful.

Strolling back along the only road that was bitumen with more pot holes than bitumen, we chuckled as colourful trucks with safari style backs took passengers with pained looks on their faces, on tour around the island.

By this time we had seen everything locally and that amounted to a dozen small shops at most and mostly touristy stuff at that. We were ready to go back to the ship and it was only about 1100am. A lady standing next to a 25 seater genuine commuter bus was offering 2 hour island tours for US$35 per head, I thought what the hell and offered her US$30 and she accepted, so we climbed aboard with half a dozen others while the bus lady approached a likely looking group to try and fill the bus. Apparently she could only get them interested at $25 per head so when she came back to the bus she reduced our price accordingly – bargain.

So off we went dodging pot holes until we were out of town where the road became quite good and very few pot holes. One big lady drove the bus and her sister stood in the open doorway and gave us a running commentary in limited English. Several stops were made for photographs at various places and at one stop where locals were selling wares from their home we were offered selections of coconut, pawpaw, pumpkin pudding and bread-fruit dipped in coconut milk.

Along the way we were surprised to see how many tourist resorts that had closed down and were in quite a bad state of dis-repair.

We were told the prices had been exorbitant, tourists had stopped coming and tourists were coming by cruise ships now.

We circumnavigated the island on what seemed to be the only road, passing dwellings ranging from shacks to reasonable low sets, our stops included a beautiful pristine beach of white coral sand and crystal clear water and was obviously very popular, where I also noticed a chap sitting in the water feeding several large stingrays.  We also made a brief stop for a beer at a famous watering hole called Bloody Mary’s. All up it was well over the two hours so we certainly got our monies worth.  

Bora Bora is certainly a very picturesque Island and the people seemed to be very friendly.

A few facts from our brochure:

Indigenous Polynesian inhabitants settled the region throughout the fourth century.

Jacob Roggeveen was the first European to sight the island in 1772.

Captain Cook also visited in 1770.

Bora Bora is a volcanic island about six miles long by two and a half miles wide, situated in the Leeward Group of Society Islands of French Polynesia.

Population just under 9,000

French and Tahitian are the official languages.

Currency is French Pacific Francs (CFP) and of course they all accept the US dollar.