The big surprise in Tahaa and Bora Bora

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The big surprise in Tahaa and Bora Bora

Want to know what Anna was so surprised about? Just scroll down 😎

12/08/2019 We arrive at Tahaa from the east. It's amazing how different the water looks like outside and inside the reef! Just as on the google image 😎

The girls are ecstatic as we turn the corner because they see a big yellow monohull. Unmistakable the one of their new friends from Papeete. An amazing half English/half French family form Tasmania 😍

And just to enjoy the amazing blue colour we decide to chill out for once 😏

13/08/2019 Tahaa is surrounded by sooooo many motu's. You can hang around for weeks here. I guess that's why many friends suddenly decide to stay another season in French Polynesia... We appear to be the last ones to leave for Australia!

But even on a schedule, we enjoy our time very much! Today I really didn't want to leave French Polynesia without visiting a Pearl Farm. So the last opportunity is in Tahaa.

While sailing there we already see the mountain of Bora Bora. That's the sailing I like, when you SEE where you are going 😇😜

While Geoffrey wasn't keen on visiting this place, that obviously seemed to be a tourist trap (free mooring ball in front of the farm...), it really wasn't a trap at all. It's a beautiful farm where we were lucky to see the whole process from A to Z. We received an in-depth explanation and were not guided to the shop afterwards. Amazing right? Off course we did go to the shop as we were curious as if we could get loose pearls.

They actually insert a small shell from another mollusc, use antibiotics, do surgical incisions and then the new molluscs work it for more than 8 months to obtain a black pearl... (not sure the professionals and biologists will like my explanation, but in short it's something like that 😋).

So quite impressed with all the work that goes into it, we asked for loose pearls and could select our own from these bins for 4 to 8€ per pearl!

As it's still early in the day, we decide to top it off with a visit to a medaille d'or rhum distillery in the bay just next to the farm.

It's tiny, cute, you get a very nice explanation and the rhum is pretty good. The one that matured in the barrels with fresh vanilla wasn't our 'cup of rhum', but I can imagine many people like it.

14/08/2019 We leave Tapuamu bay to just go across to the motu Tautau.

There's an impressive coral garden just in between these smaller motu's.

We first tried to enter the coral garden from the wrong direction and had to swim against the current. So we got back out of the water and walked along the motu towards the ocean.

To get back in the water and from there we drifted (almost flew!) back into the lagoon. The current was amazingly strong and we tried to shelter here and there in between the corals as to be actually able to see the fish!!!

At one point we had to step over the corals. So as I'm lifting Anna on the other side I feel something slippery and very long slide between my legs! Behind me another group of tourists started screaming and jumped up on a coral head. So I put my head in the water to see the biggest Murène I've ever seen!!! Geoffrey off course loves them and went into a pursuit...

And we found Nemo!!! Soft corals. Not something you see every day! These tiny black fish with a military hair cut were so territorial! They were biting in our ankles because we stayed around too long!

And as daddy goes off for another glide through the garden, the girls are enjoying the amazingly soft sand 😎 I had another murène encounter and thought it was just fine for one day. The view was just sufficient 😳

We're anchored in 10m depth but so close to the shelve that Geoffrey could stand on his hands and throw the girls up in the water right next to the boat :-)

Sunset over the coral garden.

15/08/2019 It's time to check out Bora Bora. We thought we had kept the best for last, but were quite disappointed with this island... I guess that when you enjoy the luxury of your amazing resort water-cabin, you have a different feel of Bora Bora. However for sailor's it's a very unfriendly place to be...

The view from the sea is very beautiful off course. The mountain has a dramatic effect to it, so you expect a combination of the Marquises and Tuamoutu's...

First off all, you're not allowed to anchor and need to take a mooring ball. But there are almost no moorings available and they are just too expensive, so many anchor on (and kill) the corals anyway...

Secondly, they are so rude! It's a real shock after 4 months of extreme kindness to arrive in a place where they are too arrogant to look up from their cell phone when you want to buy something in their shop... We found actually just three people were friendly: the volvo dealer, the owner of restaurant St James (and it was delicious!!!) and the guy that collects money for the mooring balls :-).

16/08/2019 From the centre of Vaitape, we decide to climb up the Mount Pahia. Our Australian friends said it was hard, but really worth it. So around 9:30 we are going up. The first part is not pretty at all. Lot's of garbage. The contrast of locals and resorts is just way too big. It doesn't feel right to publish pictures of these people's misery...
And the trail is very hard to find. First indication that maybe it's a bit too hard and not so many pass through here 😲

But then as you arrive on this first lookout, it already is quite stunning!

So still motivated we keep going up. Now there are more and more ropes to help you over some slippery rocks...

And then we arrive at a second lookout and while I am trying to smile my acrophobia, the girls are very impressed with what they already accomplished to do!

We are so high! It's the most incredible view and it's ever so steeeeeeep 😱

But we're not there yet ... and have to walk all around the rock to the east side of the island where we found another long climb up... I guess it's easily 50 to 60 m straight up... Maybe more!

But it must be the most amazing place to have lunch hé?!

Geoffrey quickly went up even higher, but it was quite enough for me and the girls 😳

Looks like a reef in the shape of a hearth 😎

But as we started the hike a bit late and need to get down before dark, we only had a 30 minute lunchbreak... So no the rush down starts. With heavy, trembling legs. We have to wait each time for Anna and Geoffrey to be completely at the bottom of the rope as rocks keep getting loose and tumble down...

But our two extraordinary princesses made it!!!

Exept we went down the other side of the mountain as we thought it would be easier (it was not ...) and still had to walk along the road back to the anchorage.

So here comes fact number four from Bora Bora: you do not hitchhike. Nobody stops!!! Not even for two little girls that desperately put up there thumb...

Except for our mooring guy that was driving in the opposite direction and turned around to give us a ride for the last 2 kilometers. Oef!

Yep we were all the way up there!!!

17/08/2019 Enough with land life already, we want to enjoy the blue water a bit longer and get a mooring ball west of Toopua.

19/08/2019 And as we really do feel like we are the last ones leaving French Polynesia, we decide it's time to stock up and leave Bora Bora. Just in time as there are two cruiseships in the Vaitape bay. Or just too late since all the passengers from these cruiseships are now in the small Vaitape supermarket, blocking the isles for candy and biscuits and enjoying some airconditioning 😨

20/08/2019 It's weird to leave French Polynesia. I guess we are ready and happy to have had such an amazing experience and taste of the life in the Great Pacific Ocean. e have only one boatfriend in front of us. And we leave many friends behind that are staying another season or that sell they're boat and return home. But I guess it's a good opportunity to discover new families going all the way up to Australia or New Zealand.