Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands of French Polynesia

Papeete, Tahiti, Society Islands of French Polynesia                                      Friday, February 16, 2018

The captain announced the ship’s docking at 8:00am in Tahiti.

Larry and I left the ship enjoying the Polynesian sounds of numerous ukeleles and local voices.

                           We were given a little welcome blossom that smelled heavenly.

The dock was decorated handsomely with local foliage and flowers. This was quite a contrast from our last visit to Papeete which had been a rainy day making this kind of welcome impossible.

The Avis Rental Company had a car sent to pick us up at the dock. Larry enjoyed playing a few tunes with the locals.

                                                   My man driving his red hot rent a car. Tahiti is the largest island of the French Polynesia chain.  It was the most developed with lots of businesses and  much traffic in the city.

                     



We headed out of town going east first stopping at the old light house.

Larry enjoyed talking to a coupe of locals here.

                          

                                                            After enjoying the atoll scenery......

                                                        the drive along the coast was stunning!

We passed boats of all shapes and sizes...on an island they are important.

Black sandy beaches indicated past volcanic action.

We motored on to the Blow Hole where we enjoyed wading into the Pacific Ocean waters watching the locals surf the waves. What a gorgeous area!

The area was oh so beautiful!

                                         We had a wonderful walk to Vaimahuta Falls.

                 From there we drove to the Three Cascades…several fabulous waterfalls.

                                                         The tropical flowers were gorgeous.

We continued our drive to a smaller attached island called Tahiti Iti, going to Peue taking a side road up the mountainside. What a view!

We stopped at another waterfall at Papeari, hiking around the footpath chocked full of many local botanical plants.

We spotted lots of bananas and...

coconuts.

                                    

        Tatooing was invented on the Pacific Islands. We passed many tattoo parlors during the day.

We drove back into the bustling city of Papeete, returning the car around 4:30.  We spotted the Queen Elizabeth as we entered Papeete. We had made a pretty good day of touring Tahiti, driving about 84 miles around the entire island.  

On these Pacific Islands the internet is very, very weak and slow, so our blog update will have to wait till reaching mainland Australia .

                                           

Sail away was at 11:00pm….we were snoozing…getting ready for another day of exploration of the island of  Mo’orea, the second largest island of  French Polynesia.

Bora Bora, Society Islands of the French Polynesia

Bora Bora, Society Islands of French Polynesia         Thursday, February 15, 2018

Bora Bora, a mountainous volcanic island set in the South Pacific, is known as the Pearl of the South Sea. It is a territory of France and is surrounded by coral reefs with only one gap through it to reach the  mainland village of Vaitape.

Larry and I rode the tender boat into the small village of Vaitape and found the Avis Car Rental. We were thrilled to find that they had scooters for rent. Changing our previous arrangement for a car,

we jumped on the scooter and roared through town passing the two infamous mountains that jet straight up into the sky …Mt. Otemanu (2,385 ft)  and Mt Pahia (2,169 ft).

The jagged edges of these two mountain regions make the area very popular for scenic island photos.  

                                            Larry played some tropical tunes with the natives.

We passed by numerous scenic azule water views with tropical trees and foliage.

The colors of the sea were very brilliant blues and oh so clear. The area had a distinct show of the rich and poor folks.  

                          Thatched huts over the gorgeous scenic waters built for tourists were luxurious.

            We enjoyed stopping at a fruit stand and purchasing some bananas for lunch.

                                         Broken coral and shells were along many shorelines.

                                             A tropical paradise was in all directions.

After scooting around most of the island for an hour, we stopped for a picnic lunch and a dip in the awesome warm waters.

I enjoyed snorkeling and spotting numerous colorful fish. Larry enjoyed talking with the people who passed his shaded beach spot.

The day ended with some liquid refreshment at the island’s famous watering hole, Bloody Mary’s Restaurant and Bar, with its authentic thatched roof and sand floors.

The views across the bay were spectacular.  The Queen Elizabeth’s sail away through the atoll was unforgettable with the mountain peaks rising out of the lush forests. What a wonderful day!

                       So long to the gorgeous island of Bora Bora and the atoll that surrounds it.