Last picture

If this is all I did the whole vacation, it would have still been worth it..................

Also, if you didn't know already, all these pictures are clickable into high resolution.

Last bunch of French Polynesia pics

Bora Bora

The last few days we spent around Bora Bora. The island itself was heavily touristed and the prices for anything were laughable, but it is so beautiful and Peter took us to the most amazing snorkeling spot I've ever seen snorkaling or diving. The fish and the coral were a riot of fluoresent purples, reds and yellows. My limited vocabulary can't even begin to describe this spot. We went diving two more times in Bora Bora. Both fantastic. Bob even talked me into a night dive outside the reef. It was my first time "so to speak" and I enjoyed it. I found a moray eel as thick as my leg totally exposed. They're usually backed into a hole in the coral. Before we knew it, it was time to go home. We got off the boat in Bora Bora, flew back to Tahiti, back to LAX, said our goodbyes to Becky and Bob, then hopped another flight to Honolulu which is were we are now. Here's the last bunch of pics from Tahiti I just can't leave out.

Sailing to Bora Bora

After sailing around Raiatea and Tahaa for a few days we did our only open ocean sailing across the channel to Bora Bora. I was feeling a little queasy but Bob was fine and tried his hand at steering a straight course.

Sailing

The next morning I woke up with a dive into the bay. Next we unstrapped the kayaks and paddled around exploring.
To make a long story short, the next few days we motored with dolphins, sat right next to a pod of humpback whales on the way to dive the outside reef were we were surounded by black tip reef and big lemonsharks. Basicly an experience of a life time. Our Captain , Peter was a cool guy and knew all the best snorkeling and motu's to visit. Whenever I felt the boat turn sharply, I knew he was taking us into a pod of bottlenose dolphins who would play with the boat for a few minutes. Knowing what I know now I would never sail myself on a vacation like this. There's just no way to know so many great places unless your from here.

Tahaa

After a few hours of sailing we dropped anchor and took the rubber dingy out to the reef surrounding Tahaa. The coral and sea life were amazing. I'll just say now that we have no pictures of snorkeling or scuba diving. If your ever tempted to buy a disposable underwater camera while on vacation, resist the urge! They are crap. In a swimming pool on a sunny day they work fine, other then that, if you want pictures worth taking underwater, shell out for the expensive equipment. We continued on and pulled into a bay for the night. Some steaks on the grill and much wine was a perfect end to the day.
The mountain in the background is Bora Bora looking 25 miles across the channel.

Tahiti Yacht Charter

After flying back to Tahiti and meeting my sister Becky and her Husband Bob, we reboarded an interisland to Raiatea. We we're taken to the marina by the charter company and spent the first night on the boat at the dock. Next morning we did some paperwork, met our French Captain, Peter, and set off for the sister island of Tahaa.

After 3 days or swimming, snorkeling and getting browner then we've ever been, it was time to head back to the main hotel. We spent two more nights there. We rented some rusty beachcruisers and rode into what passed for a town on the Motu. Another day we did a drift dive in the pass. The lagoon only has two main channels to the open ocean. During the change in tides the water rushes through these passes and with scuba on you just descend and let the current carry you through. It's supposed to be a great shark dive but we only saw one baby hammerhead. While in town,we met a guy who had just got off his sailboat from Sanfrancisco. He had been out for 3 months! It's wild the people you meet out there. Mostly Europeans. France and Italy. We talked with two couples that lived very close to us Italy. One from Montova and one from Verona. Talk about a small world. The above are some other pics from Rangiroa that I wanted to include. Tomorrow I'll get to posting from the other half of our vacation.

Playing Robinson Crusoe

We met the islands dog Pana the first day while he was chasing sharks. Seeing as there's no rabbits or critters on the island (except hermit crabs) for him to chase, he waits on the beach until some of the reef sharks swim close to shore then goes bolting out into the water to chase them. Watching him tense up before he sprang was hilarious. The sharks have no problem evading him but it doesn't dampen his enthusiasim.
On either side of our Motu are deserted islands with a few hundred yards of ocean between them and us. Marianne and I mastered a technique to cross to these other Motu's we called "Swalking" which is a cross between swimming and walking. Pana would swim with us ( to short to touch bottom) for a really long time although she would scout out the taller coral heads and climb up on them for a rest along the way. She also took to sleeping in our hut. One night I heard some noise by thew front window, I looked over there and saw a black shape sleeping in the spare bed. That dog's no fool.
I also posted a picture of the huts lighting system.

Kia Ora Sauvage

After two days at the main hotel, we boarded a little speedboat for a 1 hour trip across the lagoon to the Kia Ora Sauvage . This was about as far away from it all as I could find. It's 5 grass huts on a Motu that takes less then 5 minutes to walk around. There's a caretaker named Bernard and his family there that cook meals for you. No electricity, and no planned activities. Totally relaxing. Trying to pick which pictures to post is very difficult. Usually if I get one good one out of ten I'm happy. But looking through them they all look good. I'll do my best.

Kia Ora Hotel