Saturday, April 25, 2009

Breathtaking Bora Bora

Here is the video of Jude swimming with the sharks as promised. You can see from the video that no pushing or shoving was involved and there were quite a few sharks around.




Whenever anyone talks about exotic tropical islands in the South pacific, most of us picture blue oceans, pure white sand beaches and grass huts perched on stilts over the water. Bora Bora turned out to be exactly like the brochures promised.

Can you imagine waking up in your little private hut and looking out the front window to see Dolphins jumping next to your porch.
We rented a cool little yellow dune buggy to set off and expolore the island on our own.

There is only really one road which goes around the island but there are great views no matter where you look.
Bora Bora is actually an older volcano that has had a coral reef build up around the outside and then the mountain slowly sank while the coral was built up higher and higher. What is left is series of coral reefs and atolls around the outside enclosing a huge shallow lagoon and a relatively small volcanic mountain in the middle. Here you can see the ship parked inside the only passage formed by a river outflow throught the coral reef.


Many of the hotels located here are on the outside perimeter islands with only a dock for the ferry service on the center island.


Along the southwestern shore of the island we found a beautiful beach where you could walk out in the lagoon for a mile without the water getting higher than your chin. The beach just seemed to be calling to us so we had no choice but to float the afternoon lazily away in the warm calm turquoise waters. It just seemed like the perfect place to relax and watch the world drift by.

Unfortunately we only had one day in Bora Bora but I have a feeling that we may be back someday.

1 comment:

Trish in Seattle said...

Seriously....how in the heck are you going to adjust to life back in Newmarket?? You guys have done and conquered what most do not ever do in a lifetime. Swimming with the sharks...Jude...seriously how much alcohol did you have?? Crazy!! It has been awesome drooling over your pictures! Enjoy the rest of your vacation it won't be long...you will be back in Oh Canada!! Cheers and enjoy!
Hugs from Trish in Seattle...Sunny Seattle!! PS I heard from Amanda on Facebook - it was nice to hear from her. :-)