Bora Bora: THE jewel of the South Pacific...and a slight add-on

Bora Bora is very difficult to describe without using the usual panoply of “pretty” words: beautiful; lush; sun-kissed; white sand; Polynesian paradise; etc., etc., etc. It is all of these and more.

Bora Bora means “first born” in Polynesian and it refers to the fact that the island is the remnant of an ancient volcano. It is believed by the locals that Bora Bora was the first of the many volcanic islands of the South Pacific. Westerners believe it was the setting for James Michener’s Bali Hai in his novel “South Pacific” – later turned into a blockbuster movie.

Bora Bora is just a short hop from Tahiti.

Here is a blow up of Bora Bora showing both the main town on Viatape (vi-ah-tap-ay) and the star where the ship is anchored. Beautiful smooth lagoon – umm,umm.

This road map gives you an idea of how people get around the island – literally around the island. There are no roads crossing the island and every road off of the main road is a dirt path.

Even though we live on the water in Naples, we can see why people would pay around $1000 a day just to be here. That was not a typo. A grand is about the median going rate for a hotel room and most hotels are very, very luxe. OK, enough about wretched excess – let’s get on the road and let me tell you about our day.

You are looking at some of those $1000 rooms. These are at, I believe, the Intercontinental. I had to shoot with a long lens over the water from the island side of the lagoon. We proles are not allowed on the property unless we are guests at the hotel. Even though these are thatch-roofed “huts”, wee are told they are very modern inside and that all are very private.

Last year we spent the day swimming with the manta rays and looking through a glass-bottom boat. This year we went in the opposite direction. We took a 4 X 4 tour overland to several of the highest points on the island and got to see a lot of the interior.

After tendering in at the “capital” of Viatape we boarded 4 X 4 vehicles holding six people on bench seats fitted into the truck bed. We then proceeded up the only road on the island, the no-named “island road.” After only what seemed like a few feet, the driver put the gear case into low-low and we immediately began a grind up the side of a mountain – I kid you not.

Our off-road chariot! Fortunately, the seats are padded as are the backrests. That is critical when running off-road: just look below.

The above four views of sections of the off-road “roads” were among the better portions. At least they allowed me to focus and trip the shutter…

Our first stop was to be at one of the gun emplacements that the US Navy built as part of the Polynesian defense system in the Second World War. They built eight of these large (7”) gun emplacements at strategic locations around the island to protect it from all directions. Those 7” guns can throw a shell for about 10 miles.

The good news is that for other than sighting-in the guns and target practice, they never had to fire them at the enemy. Bora Bora was used as a supply base rather than in any tactical sense. At any one time during the war there would be up to about 5000 US personnel stationed here on rotation. The actual garrison was considerably smaller.

Your intrepid explorers standing by one of the guns that guarded the Bora Bora lagoon.

When I said we began to grind up the mountainside, I was not kidding. We were in low-low all the way and the road – and I dignify it by calling it a road – was really a path cut through the jungle and brush. At one point on one of our forays, we had to back down a ways to let another vehicle coming in the opposite direction pass. Talk about a leap of faith…

Once we arrived at the top and saw the gun emplacements and the ammunition bunkers, we had to marvel at how they managed to get them up there in the first place. It is no wonder that after the war, the decision was made to deactivate the firing mechanisms and leave them in place.

After our visit to the guns, we back-tracked down the mountain and moved on to a short visit to Faanui (fa-ah-new-ee), the second largest town on the island. Since it is Sunday, there was not a lot going on. We continued on to the lookout atop Mt. Pahia (pa-hee-ah). At 661 M (about 2100’) above sea level, Mt. Pahia is the second highest point on Bora Bora. Again, another spine-buckling trip up the side of a mountain, although this path/road was in just a little better shape than the first one. The views were spectacular.

Another short trip on the main road brought us around to the east side of the island. We stopped at a local shop for a demonstration of how a parao (par-ay-o) or traditional “sarong” was made and worn.

This cloth was dyed as we watched. The lady on the left explained that they would leave it in the sun for a couple of hours to dry and – voila! – a pareo.

Of course we had then to stop at the local pearl farm – actually called The Farm. We re-learned how cultured pearls are made and re-saw how they harvest them. Although we had these lessons last year several times over, we found that it was still interesting.

Back in the 4 X 4, and immediately up another mountain for one last photo op. This time we wound up on a smaller mountain housing the local internet and wi-fi antenna for the island. Bora Bora also relies on satellite, but they have a way of buffering so that they don’t seem to get the lag that we get on the ship.

Finally, back down the mountain and just a short ride to return to Viatape and the tender dock. A rousing and exhilarating way to see one of the South Pacific’s true gems.

Tomorrow is a day at sea followed by a day in Rarotanga, Cook Islands. Stay tuned…

It is now the day we are to land in Rarotonga, Cook Islands. I am including this short piece on Rarotonga because we didn’t land. The sea was again too rough and we could not take a chance.

As you can see, the Cook Islands, wherein Rarotonga is the largest and most populated, is located in another remote part of the Pacific Ocean.

Here is a slightly better idea of what we find in the Cook Islands.

Finally, we get to Rarotonga, and find that, unlike many of the French Polynesian islands, the protective atoll ringing the island is so close to the shore that no ships can enter the few breaks in the ring. The only boats that can get through are the locals. Thus, tendering is not only the only option, but most ships cannot even anchor! Because of the volcanic nature of the island, the sea floor drops off dramatically very close to shore. It varies from a few hundred feet to over 2,500 feet.

We were told that another cruise line had tried to land passengers here last week and one of their tenders ran aground on the very little fringes of rock near shore. The story is that over 100 passengers were stranded on the tender for several hours until they could be transferred to a local boats and ferried back to the ship.

We are now heading for New Zealand and several stops where we know we can safely disembark. Stay tuned…