Chasing Summer –

December 22-24th

Our vessel is spending the next 24 days exploring nine of 121 islands throughout French Polynesia. The dates also cover Christmas and New Year, so many things will be closed for the holidays, and it will be an altogether different experience. I actually find it difficult to remember that Christmas is almost here. The heat, the beaches, and no crazy kids in the classroom make it easy to forget.

First up is Bora Bora. These are the postcard islands of the South Pacific region. Crystal clear, blue waters and vibrant white sand beaches. Coral gardens and snorkelling right from the beach. It is small; one of the residents walked around the entire island in 6 hours.

Bora Bora is a magical place, but prices here are high. A cheap-quality souvenir t-shirt runs $30-50 USD. Sarongs start at $25. I did take out some local currency, and for $1 CAD, I received 74 XPF. The grocery stores would take American, but for 20% less than its value, so cash or a credit card is the way to go.

The town itself is small, and the Odyssey needed to tender us to shore as there is no area with deep enough water to dock the ship. The entire island is one half of an ancient volcano, and we parked in what was the crater. The islands sink a few mm each year, but the waters remain fairly shallow close to shore.

On the first afternoon, I took a 4×4 tour around the island. It was a 3-hour trip that went up to 2 viewpoints and stopped at the public beach for pictures. We also stopped at an artist shop where sarongs are hand-painted, and local fruits were available to try.

The first viewpoint allowed us to see the Odyssey parked in the crater.

The second was on the other side of the island and up a hill, where old guns were stationed in WWII, protecting the airport. It was a bumpy ride up for about 20 minutes. I actually think it would be a nice hike on a less hot day.

The art workshop had some beautiful sarongs, and on the land were some traditional cultural areas nicely labelled. The owner of our tour has several trucks and quads for tours. They also own the land that we went up for viewing, and this area where the artist shop was located. Good business man.

We had definitely left Samoa and the abundance of graves there. One greeting from locals in French reminded me that not everyone I met would understand me.

The next morning, I decided to take the $5 shuttle to the public beach. From others who had already been, I knew to go to the far right for snorkelling. As I was walking up the beach, a pair of rays kept pace with me until we ran into a couple of swimmers, which caused them to pause and reassess their route.

I walked until I ran into another couple from the boat who were seated in chairs and were willing to watch my stuff while I went into the water. If I hadn’t run into them, I would have had my stuff in a dry bag that could come into the water with me.

While the water wasn’t crystal clear, it was good enough for me to spend an hour swimming around and finding fish and patches of coral. Most of my purple dye was leached from my hair, though.

On the last day here, I took a boat tour out to see what I couldn’t see from the shore. A manta ray cleaning station, where manta rays come and allow other fish to eat the parasites off their bodies. They were bigger than I imagined, and I was lucky that the rains that morning had let off enough and hadn’t left the water too dirty to see through. You can see in the video that there was a bit of churned-up stuff, but not enough to make it unclear.

Our second stop was to swim with sting rays and sharks. Just some black tip sharks. There was also a group of yellow butterflyfish. Our pilots were feeding the fish so they stayed in swarms around them.

I saw one stingray, but unfortunately, I didn’t have my camera with me to take its picture. I quickly climbed back into the boat to get it, but the ray had taken off. It was fun swimming with the sharks, though I almost ran into them a couple of times.

We then headed towards one of several coral gardens. Here, we spent 30 minutes swimming through fairly shallow coral beds with dozens of clams, fish, and colorful coral. I could have spent a day here exploring.

As if that wasn’t amazing enough, we went by and checked out a few of the pricy resorts on our way to the other side of the island and the eagle rays. I was so excited, I jumped into the ocean with one hearing aid still in. I realised right away and pulled it out, so it still works- thank goodness. But shout out to Phillips’ hearing aids, even a dunk in the ocean won’t get them down.

The Eagle rays were amazing, and I’m so sad that the camera I brought into the water wasn’t mine, and the footage is so zoomed out. They have spotted bodies, and their head shape is the reason for their name.

They were so fun to watch.

I swam to shore for lunch and to weave a handbag out of grasses. It was one of the best tours I have ever been on.