May 6, 2014
Today was day 1 in Bora Bora. It was not a long trip from Taha’a to Bora
Bora so we actually docked last night before we finished dinner. This was great news for me since I have had a
history of getting seasick at times! This was our first day in Bora Bora. Like all of the other days, we were up bright
and early at 6 AM. We looked out the
window and saw that it was quite windy and stormy looking so we laid around a
bit and then headed upstairs to La Veranda at
7:30 to grab some breakfast. Once we got back from breakfast, it was time
for Joe’s morning nap while I enjoyed reading for a bit. Before we knew it, it was time for our first
excursion at 10! We were a bit worried
how scuba diving would go since a lot of the other excursions had been canceled
early in the morning, but we headed to the back of the ship for our first dive
which was to the coral gardens. The
clouds broke up quite a bit right before we departed so Joe and I and two other
people hopped on the dive boat with our equipment and wet suits and headed on a
short boat ride to the dive spot. The ship provided short wet suits for us to wear, and I knew I would get cold so I put it on even though it was optional. We had picked up our scuba gear the first day so we brought that with us and everything else (tanks, BCs, weights, etc.) were all set up for us and on the boat when we arrived. It was
so great that there was a small group because Joe and I ended up having our own
private guide for the duration of the dive.
We got all set up with our 12 lbs weights and entered the water for a 51
minute dive. The visibility was about 30
feet which they said was bad for Bora Bora but great for many other parts of
the world, so we said we would take it for our first salt water dive! The water was a perfect temperature and felt
amazing as we jumped in. We then started
our dive, which was a very up and down dive, where the deepest was about 65
feet, and the shallowest part was 20 feet. The deepest parts were not as
interesting although the visibility was still high, there wasn’t too much to
see. There, we did get to see a diamond
ray from a distance, but the coral gardens where were the action was at! We navigated the coral as the dive instructor
pointed out different coral, sea animals, and lured out the fish with food! There were times we were surrounded by
hundreds of fish just floating around us in the beautiful water and coral. It was one of the coolest experiences for us
so far, and we were so glad we got to enjoy the trip even if we had bad
weather. After the dive we headed back
and it was about time for lunch!
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| Vida Snorkeling |
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| Joe Snorkeling |
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| Surrounded by fish! |
After a quick shower, we headed up to enjoy lunch at Le
Veranda and it was AMAZING.
We had only
grabbed a snack there during lunch time previously, so we didn’t know what the food would be like.
They had a stir fry machine fired up, egg
rolls, beef and shrimp entree options, and so much more!
The food was so amazing and before we knew
it, we had eaten way too much.
After
lunch, we quickly changed and headed to the tender to do some shopping, since
the weather had cleared up!
I think the weather was the craziest thing about the trip! It could be so stormy at one time and then 30 minutes later it would be sunny! We walked
around the main shopping area of Bora Bora and ended up buying some paintings
for our bathroom which are beautiful.
This area is much more populated than any of the other islands and you
can see there is a lot more action going on.
After we wrapped up shopping, we met up with a couple we had met that were
very nice. We had met Brett and Stephanie the day before, and instantly bonded over sports since Brett was the physical therapist for the Cardinals. They were one of our favorite couples that we had met, so we took a cab with them to Bloody
Mary’s, which is the best known restaurant in Bora Bora.
The outside has a wall with all of the famous
people’s names that had been there.
There were quite a few cruise people there, so we sat down, enjoyed some
drinks (even tried a bloody mary thanks to Stephanie!), and enjoyed the company.
The floors are all covered with sand which is
neat and the bathrooms are fully open for the public to see in (a must see if you make it to Bloody Marys)!
After drinks we headed back to the boat since
it was already 4:30.
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| Inside Bloody Mary's |
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| Beautiful Bora Bora |
We got to the boat and got ready really quickly because we
had a honeymooners reception to attend at 5!
At the reception they served us amazing champagne while we heard a
traditional Tahitian song of love, a beautiful dance, and listened to a Tahitian
poem. After that, we all got
wrapped in a blanket that in Tahitian tradition is always wrapped around
newlyweds during their ceremony and wore a flower head dress that symbolized
fidelity and fertility. The blanket is traditionally woven by the bridals "wedding party" and it is their gift to the bride on the wedding day. We wrapped up
the reception enjoying some cake before heading out to watch Joe participate in
the black jack tournament. We had a lot
of fun watching and playing, but unfortunately Joe did not win. It all came down to who won the last hand (if
the player still had chips) and Joe was unfortunate to be dealt a 14 to start and
then ended up losing. After the
tournament wrapped up, we headed to dinner at L’ Etoile which was amazing. Joe enjoyed one of his favorite chardonnays,
a Jacobs Creek option. For appetizers we
enjoyed some beef tartar, a fresh crab meat cake, and escargot, which were all
amazing. For salad we had an antipasti
and then the dinners were served. We (as you
can see we always end up splitting everything we ordered) ordered a
Wahoo over mixed vegetables and weinerschnitzle with cabbage and spitzle. Both were amazing and then we topped off our meal with a
chocolate cheese cake and a cream puff type desert but instead of cream they
were filled with vanilla ice cream! Once
dinner wrapped up, we headed to the back bar since the sky and wind had cleared
and enjoyed some drinks and talked to the bar tender a bit. We then sat down
with some friends to talk before heading to bed. It had been such a busy day that we were
excited to have a little more relaxing day the following day with only a morning
dive on the agenda.
May 7, 2014
Today was day two at Bora Bora, and we had heard it was
going to be bad weather. We woke up in
the morning to see the weather was fairly nice, so we headed upstairs to eat
breakfast before heading to our dive. Joe
got a quick nap in before our dive, and then at 8 we headed to the marina to do
our dive. We got strapped in on a
smaller dive boat and headed to the dive spot.
The ride was incredibly wavy and bumpy but so much fun! We finally got to the dive spot and rolled in
ready to go. We were pleasantly
surprised to see the visibility was ideal conditions even though there were
huge waves above us. We entered the
water where the ground was about 65 ft below us and it looked like it was about
3 feet away because the water was so clear.
The sight was one of the most beautiful things I have seen in my
life. It was breathtaking seeing
millions of fish all around for quite a long distance, and then right off the
bat we see a shark. We descended down
and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. There
were millions of fish everywhere and we had quite a few very close encounters
with sharks! They say the sharks are
uninterested in humans because there are so many fish around and do not go
hungry. We had to trust that while the sharks swam around us. There was also a little ledge that we could
swim under. The dive took Joe about 43
minutes while I ended in about 53 minutes and then we enjoyed a bumpy ride back
to shore.
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| 65 feet deep crystal clear water! |
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| SHARK!!! |
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| Boat Ride Back |
After warming up in a warm shower (the water is incredibly
warm at the beach but the rides back can get cold!) we took a two hour nap
before starting the rest of the day. It
was lunch time by the time we got up so we headed up to La Veranda where the
theme was Greek this time around and enjoyed a lot of lamb, gyros, feta,
veggies, etc! The food was amazing and
we were stuffed so we decided to head to the beach for a bit. They had a tender to a section of beach because
that was private beach owned by Paul Gauguin. After getting
to the beach, we enjoyed some sun, paddle boarding, badminton, and
relaxation. We headed back a couple
hours after getting there and Joe took another nap while I got ready for
dinner. This was a night at sea and it
was quite wavy so I took advantage of the free motion sickness pills to make
sure that I did not get sicker than I already felt! We watched the black jack tournament for a
while since Joe was not in it before heading to dinner at L’ Etoile. For dinner we enjoyed some veal slices, mango
soup, Caesar salad, and calamari for appetizers, and an almond crusted trout
that was local to Bora Bora with veggies and a sirloin with peppers, asparagus,
and mashed potatoes. For desert Joe had
a chocolate fancy cake while I enjoyed some amazing hot chocolate and ice
cream. Dinner was amazing, and then we
stopped by the black jack tables on the way back since Joe had 15$ left in his
pocket from chips after paying for the tournament. We thought it would be a quick game, but
instead he walked away up 60$ after an hour or so. We remained at the table and watched some of
our friends play before calling it a night.
It had been such a lovely day, and we heard we were getting beautiful
weather the next day so we were excited to spend some time on the beach since
we had no excursions planned!
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| Paddle Boarding :) |
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