Goin' Feral One Day At A Time: Bora Bora, Tahiti

This post is a bit of a milestone for me, its my hundredth post, shit hey who would of thought that I'd last this long. It probably helps that my photo's are as they come off the memory card with no photo shopping and my writing isn't exactly Pulitzer material so I don't spend an inordinate amount of time fretting over each sentence. Being a bit slap dash probably has helped me from getting bloggers burn out, it also allows me more time to actually get out there and have fun which after all is the whole idea. If I had to do post production work on all my photo's with my computer skills which are straight from from Mt Eliza High, year 10 1985 it would take me considerably longer to get a post up, probably months longer. Likewise with my superior one finger touch typing technique, again straight from touch typing lessons at Mt Eliza High circa 1985, we'd be waiting awhile for a post if I did numerous drafts trying to craft the perfect paragraph. So I'm just going to keep posting this stuff because it makes me happy and hopefully it brings a bit of a smile to a few other faces as well. Having said that I've become a bit of a blog connoisseur, I mainly look at stuff that interests me, ie bushwalking and travel in Australia, the original and best blog that I regularly read is Hiking Fiasco, this bloke is the inspiration behind my tepid efforts. Mr Fiasco's photo's are stunning and he knows how to craft a sentence. Easily the best new blog that I've discovered is Mildly Extreme, this blog is written up by a lady from Queensland and like Mr Fiasco her photo's are stunning and like Mr Fiasco her writing is several notches above the stuff that you usually get in a blog.

Our ship at Bora Bora.

So I'd better write about something interesting seeing that its number 100, Patagonia was number 50 so I figured that I'd go to the other extreme on this one, Bora Bora in Tahiti. Now I'd like to say that everything you've read and seen relating to Bora Bora was exaggerated, the travel writers were all on hallucinogenic drugs and the photos were photo shopped until they went nuclear, yeah I'd like to say that but I can't. With apologies to Spiderbait, the place is fucken awesome! Its almost impossible to take a bad photo in Bora Bora, with soaring mountains, a beautiful turquoise sea, a stunning climate and friendly locals there really isn't much to dislike. Unfortunately I'd have to sell my house if I wanted to stay there for any length of time so we visited the only way we could afford, on a cruise.

A rare thing for me, a photo with an even horizon.

There are plenty of Stingrays in the clear water.

The ship anchored near the small village of Vaitape where we were ferried ashore on the ships tenders. Once on shore Sam and I headed off on another snorkelling adventure, very similar to the one we did on Moorea the day before. Once again we went snorkelling with the Reef Sharks and Stingrays. with the water being crystal clean the visibility was amazing. Most of the punters on the trip stayed near the guide who was feeding the rays but I headed away a little bit which seemed to make the sharks a little more relaxed, and I was able to get a few good photos, well at least until my waterproof camera died! We spent an hour playing with the fish before climbing back onto the little boat and heading back to Vaitape. Normally this would be about the time I'd catch up on a bit of reading but on Bora Bora even the most mundane trip is stunning, as the small boat skimmed across the water the colour of the water changed constantly, going through the whole colour chart of blues and even throwing in a few different shades of green as well.

Black Tipped Reef Shark.

The water was exceptionally clear.

No photo shop here!

Back on dry land we wondered up to the main road and headed to the car rental shop, luckily there was one car left, unluckily for me it was a Fiat Panda so I had to contort my 6'3" 125kg frame into the drivers seat. I also had the joy of driving a left hand drive manual, yeah the degree of difficulty wasn't high enough just driving on the 'wrong' side I also had to master changing gears with the wrong hand, what could possibly go wrong? More through good luck than talent both us and the other road users escaped the day unscathed. After getting the car we headed around the island in a counter clockwise direction, stopping on the way at a rustic cafe on the beach, complete with cobalt blue water lapping on the white sand a couple of metres from our table and yachts bobbing in the lagoon. Life was indeed hard!

Presenting the Fiat Panda.

The view from our table at lunch, I've had worse.

With lunch finished we headed off again on our circumnavigation, which even allowing for numerous photo stops took less than two hours. Heading back into Vaitape we decide that as we had another couple of hours spare that we would turn around and check out the view again, this time in a clockwise direction. I could of probably driven around the island half a dozen times and not got sick of the scenery, around every corner (and there were many) was something else to stop at and admire. Eventually it was time to re fuel the Panda and hand it back, before making our way back to the ship on a tender.

There were plenty of photo ops on the drive around the island.

It doesn't get much better then this I don't think.

Interestingly James Packer's boat was anchored about a kilometre away from us. I can only imagine the conversation on that boat as 2000 Aussie's turned up at James's party! Needless to say we didn't bump into young James as we toured about. Actually I don't even know if James was on-board. Once we were back on board we chucked our snorkelling gear back on our balcony and headed back up on deck to enjoy the last of our time in Bora Bora, the ship sailing away as the sun was setting on another idyllic day in paradise.

Mr Packers runabout.

Sailing out through the lagoon.

A stunning sun set topping off a stunning day.

Our last look at Bora Bora as dusk descends.

The Dirt.
We sailed with Princess Cruises who, as I've mentioned before, always seem to provide a good value for money experience for us. We booked the diving tour from the boat but you can book it on shore, most of the shark and ray diving tours last for between two and four hours. We got a car from Avis and paid per hour, this worked out quite reasonable. I've forgotten the name of the cafe that we ate at but half the fun is making your own discoveries. Finally, Bora Bora is a bloody expensive place to stay at but its also retina burning pretty, one day I hope to have enough cash to go back and enjoy one of those over water bungalows that we've all seen on lifestyles of the rich and shameless. You never know, hey.