A first occurred during this flight! The first time we have crossed the international dateline. Fortunately we realised before the trip or we would have been on the streets of Tahiti for our first night. Flight left Fiji on Tuesday lunchtime, a four hour flight and we landed in Tahiti at 19.00 on MONDAY! Airport was pretty easy to get to and we found a taxi, however he was the French Polynesian Del Boy! Eventually we got to our accommodation, we met the owner Michel and put our bags in the room. Due to timings we went straight out for food. We remember all too fondly the many bank holidays in Europe. The Tuesday was a bank holiday, Armistice Day.
Beautiful weather, but first we went to the supermarket to pick up some supplies for the next few days, got organised then walked down to the beach. Michel kindly made some phone calls for us to arrange a hire car, we’d been so disorganised and not sorting it out. We spent the rest of the afternoon by the pool. An early start the next morning, we needed to be at the car rental office by 7.30am and again our host showed kindness by dropping us there. Soon we were off in our small Renault Kwid with it’s 999cc engine! Budget over style. The island isn’t too hard to drive on, one road circumnavigates the whole island. As per usual, it rained but we set off undeterred. We headed towards the south of the island towards Teeapoo. This is where the Paris Olympics in 2024 held the surfing event. The waves are spectacular and we were hoping to take a boat trip out to see them. Unfortunately due to the weather the boats weren’t running. We then drove down the other side of the peninsula to Tautira and finally the Belvedere view point. Pretty narrow and steep roads, the car struggled but got us there.
The next day we were going to drive the east and north of the island. We drove down the west coast to avoid the traffic in the main town of Papeete. On the way we picked up the water gardens we had missed the previous day. By this stage the rain was worse than ever, so set off again with the intention of going to a double waterfall, however the weather had other ideas. Next up was the blowhole, again no luck as the path was closed (and has been for a while) So we parked up by the side of the beach, got out the umbrella and watched the waves crashing in. Stopped at a few beaches on the way up to watch the surfers and eventually we arrived at Venus Point and the lighthouse. There wasn’t as much on this coast as the other, so soon we arrived in Papeete, had a quick wander around the town before dropping off the hire car.
On our last morning, we had decided to visit the museum of Tahiti which was a short walk away from our accommodation. We got to the museum and it was closed!
Fifty minutes after leaving Tahiti, we were landing in Bora Bora. This was a splurge destination and we had three nights in a hotel, no Air BNB this time. We landed at the tiny airport that is on it’s own island. When we booked the agent told us that we had a boat transfer. What we hadn’t realised was that we had our own private boat and captain. “Lady Pearl’ We felt like celebrities leaving the airport. The captain allowed G to take the wheel of the boat and encouraged him to do a “donut” Arrived at the hotel and a porter and receptionist was waiting for us at the dock and took us to check in. The manager of the hotel wanted to speak to us and secretly we hoped our room had been upgraded. Unfortunately no upgrade, but we had a chat with her, she likes to welcome every guest personally. We had a beachfront bungalow, with a nice view over the lagoon. Was the cost worth it? Probably – breakfast , return flights and the private boat transfer were included in the cost.
Next morning M was up and ready to try paddle boarding, it was on the “to do” list for ages. Spent the next two hours in the lagoon on and off the board – more off but both of us were able to stand up. A great experience in a beautiful location.
We’d found a local beach club on the popular Matira beach, so had dinner there a couple of nights. The food at the hotel was eclectic and eye wateringly expensive. Rain stopped play the next day, snorkelling and more paddle boarding had been the plan, however it was a washout. We went for beer and pizza whilst planning bits of the Australian trip. Next morning we had to be at the boat dock by 7.45am for an early start. All too soon our Bora Bora adventure was over.
Our final destination was Moorea. We’d been pretty organised for this part of the trip and booked a hire car in advance. Soon we were set loose on the island. We’d arrived early and were unable to check in, so we stocked up at the local supermarket and checked out the local beach. Once we were able to we headed to the accommodation. Took a few attempts to find it, it was off the main road, down a small bumpy side road and tucked away in a secluded sub tropical garden. Lovely location and so peaceful. We hadn’t planned anything further than driving around the island. By the time we’d left, we driven around the island twice. We went to the juice factory for a tour and rum tasting, lunch and snorkelling at Coco Beach, a motu out in the bay. Managed to spend a couple of afternoons on the beach as well. Our favourite being “pig beach” We were both dozing when we heard a snuffle and grunt, opened our eyes to see a massive pig lumbering towards us. It wandered down the beach, then back again, had a paddle, walked back to the road and we assume it went back home. We are still laughing about it now. On leaving Moorea we headed back to Papeete for one night before an early morning flight out to Auckland, New Zealand.
