Bora Bora is stunning! That’s the only description that comes to mind. I’ve read that James Michener thought that Bora Bora was the most beautiful island in the world, even though he modeled the mythical Bali Hai after Moorea (or so the story goes). Sailing into the harbor, the island certainly makes a dramatic first impression. We arrived early and I was on deck before sunrise. I had been told by several people not to miss the sail-in and I decided to heed their advice. This would be my only chance to see what they were so excited about and I didn’t plan to miss it.I was impressed with Bora Bora long before we actually approached the harbor. It has a very distinctive profile,
dominated by Mount Otemanu and Mount Pahia, two volcanic peaks that rise from the center of the island. The top of Mount Pahia is actually twin-peaked and shaped somewhat like a saddle, very unusual and striking. We sailed through the protective coral reef and into the most incredible blue lagoon you can possibly imagine. The backdrop of the mountains behind the multi-colored blues gave it an almost surreal quality. Later in the day, I would discover just how many shades of blue there were surrounding Bora Bora. We eased our way across the lagoon and anchored just offshore from Vaitape, the island’s main village. We would be here for two days and I had three excursions scheduled, one this morning and two tomorrow.
Today’s excursion is another off-road four-wheel drive safari. I have no idea why I keep doing these except that the scenery is usually fantastic. Today would turn out to be no different. I took the tender to Vaitape and was met by our driver, who said to call him “George”. Unlike with “Joe”, we asked “George” to give us his real name, which turned out to be “Rapa”. We called him by his given name for the rest of the trip. We started out on paved road around the shoreline of the lagoon but that didn’t last for long. After just a mile
or two, we turned onto a dirt road and headed straight up a mountain. There were two vehicles traveling together, by the way. That has no significance to the story but it just occurred to me for some reason. Climbing this mountain wasn’t scary at all compared with the ones in New Zealand. It was steep and rough but there were no drop-offs on the sides of the road. We were heading 
for the gun emplacements overlooking the harbor entrance. During World War II, the United States had a supply base on Bora Bora and installed guns to protect the harbor from a possible Japanese invasion. I believe there were a total of fourteen but I’m not certain. Obviously, they had to be positioned high above the harbor so getting there was not easy. But what a view! We were looking straight down on the harbor with the Paul Gauguin and the Tahitian Princess anchored side by side. It was a gorgeous, postcard-type picture.We stayed there for a little bit and started back down the mountain. Going down may be scarier than going up,
since you can actually see just how steep it is, if that makes any sense. Anyway, we got back to the paved road and continued around the island. Our next off-road portion took us to another one of those souvenir stops, this one perched on the side of a mountain. The main products here were hand-painted pareos, beautiful but totally worthless to me. But again, we were served fresh fruit! My personal favorite was the pineapple. It’s amazing how sweet fresh-cut pineapple tastes. They also served mango, guava and several other fruits that I just can’t remember. I must be getting senile! No comments, please. My favorite moment came when we ran out of one of the fruits and the guy walked out into his backyard and simply picked some more. Maybe folks in California or Florida can do that but somehow it seems cooler when it happens in Bora Bora. We looked around for a bit, some people actually purchased some things and we headed back down the mountain again. These roads up the mountains are always one-way, in case you haven’t guessed.
Back on the paved road, we headed for what Rapa said was the most beautiful spot on the island. It was not fun getting there but it was sure worth the ride. We were at an overlook above the most incredible multi-hued blue lagoon I can imagine. There were so many shades of blue that it was impossible to count them all. And there were dozens of little motus jutting from the water. It was one of the prettiest views of the entire two-month trip. Like I
said a couple of times, I had seen enough coastlines to last a lifetime but this was special! We all took turns having our pictures taken with this view as a backdrop then just stood for a while admiring the view. We made one more stop at another overlook later in the day. Ordinarily, it would have been impressive but it just couldn’t quite measure up to this one.That was the last off-road trip. The rest of the excursion was spent driving on
paved road. By the time we returned to the dock, we had driven completely around the island. Rapa pointed out the sights as we went along but we didn’t make any more stops. We did pull off the road for just a minute at Bloody Mary’s, world-famous restaurant and bar. They have a reputation for being “touristy”, with a wall of all the celebrities who have eaten there etc, but the food is supposed to be excellent. Maybe I should have come back for dinner but I didn’t do it. Instead, we arrived at the dock and I looked around town for a while, browsed through the local craft market and caught the tender back to the ship for a nice, relaxing nap. Getting up before the sun is tiring….
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