Honeymoon at Bora Bora and Moorea in the French Polynesian Islands

Here's how it started.......

Liem and I were picking up our Detroit airplane tickets (going to the Dodge Viper plant, CAAP, to check out our 2000 Dodge Viper RT/10 we ordered.  Click here to see pictures of it.) at our local travel agency and I told her to go pick out some brochures and we'll check them out on the plane.   She picked out some nice Mexico places and then we got to the French Polynesian Islands one.  It was absolutely beautiful.   The definition of paradise in every sense of the word.  We decided that would be the place we would go on our honeymoon.

After the Detroit trip, we started planning the honeymoon trip.   We wanted to visit two islands and decided on Bora Bora and Moorea.  Next was to pick the resort....and we decided on The Bora Bora Lagoon Resort in Bora Bora and The Sofitel Ia Ora Resort in Moorea.   Both of them were over-the-water bungalows and had a private sunning deck and dock.  They were very pricey....but we figured....what the heck....you only live once.

So, here we go..... 1 week in Bora Bora and 1 week in Moorea.

We landed in Tahiti around 6:00am and got on a smaller plane and headed for Bora Bora.  The French Polynesian Islands are located between Hawaii and Australia in the South Pacific.  It was a little cloudy in Bora Bora, but when the sun broke free from the clouds.... the water was crystal clear.

The Bora Bora Lagoon Resort is on motu Toopua (ie.. atoll off the main Island).

 

BORA BORA (All of the pictures below are thumbnails... click on them for the bigger picture)

Flying over Moorea going towards Bora Bora at sunrise.  We didn't know that was the next Island we were going to stay at.

Flying into Bora Bora for the first time.  Excitement is building.

Liem on the dock at the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort.  The restaurant and main building is behind her.

Bora Bora Lagoon Resort

Bora Bora Lagoon Resort's over-the-water bungalows overlooking Mt. Pahia

Mt. Pahia.  Elevation 2,030 feet

 

Here are some pictures I got from the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort website.   Liem and I took every picture on this webpage except for these four.

The Island of Bora Bora

Bora Bora Lagoon Resort

I believe these are Double-saddle Butterflyfish.  They followed us everywhere when we snorkeled.

Inside the over-the-water bungalows.  No, that's not us.  But, that's what our Bungalow looked like.

 

The next set of pictures is when we climbed Mt. Pahia (elev. 2030 feet).   And I mean "climbed".... roots, branches, rocks and in some places we had to use ropes.  We had two guides take us up on this "Picnic on Mt. Pahia" tour.   The first picture is the route we climbed.   The two guides brought all the water, steaks and food that we cooked on top of the mountain (they already had a rock grill on top).   It took us 2.5 hours to climb to the top.    There are two peaks on Mt. Pahia and we went to both (the picture above with the palm tree shows the two peaks).  We picnicked on the right peak.

This is the climbing route we took on Mt. Pahia

Made it to the top.  Looking down on the city of Vaitape.  Clouds are passing by...hence the hazy picture.   This also shows you how steep Mt. Pahia is to climb.

Hubert and Christof getting ready to cook some steaks for us.

Here's Hubert, me and Christof

After we ate lunch, we descended back to the lower peak (out of the clouds) and I was able to take some nice pictures.  I zoomed in on the Bora Bora Lagoon Resort here.

Here's the peak that we had lunch on.  You can see the trail we took to get there.  We had to use ropes on the big boulder in the trail.

Here we are.  Paradise Found.

 

MOOREA (All of the pictures below are thumbnails... click on them for the bigger picture)

After a few days of checking out the town of Vaitape in Bora Bora and snorkeling around our bungalow... we packed up and flew to the island of Moorea.  Moorea is where Captain Cook and "Mutiny on the Bounty" took place.

Sofitel Ia Ora Resort Bungalow - Liem on deck.

Our view on the sundeck looking at the island of Tahiti

View out of the Sofitel restaurant.  Picture perfect.

Sea Urchins and cucumber.  Looking off of our sun deck.  Snorkeling over this in 4 feet of water felt weird to say the least.

Overlooking the Sofitel.  The clouds were almost gone now, the sun was shining and the water was crystal clear.

Moorea beach.  The Sofitel is on the left.

Cook's Bay

Took a string ray and shark feeding tour.  Here's Liem with a very friendly sting ray.

Here's our tour guide baiting the black tip reef shark.  We were in 10 feet of water here.

Snorkeling off our bungalow

Snorkeling...found this octopus.

Sea Urchins everywhere

Tahitian dancers entertaining with fire

 Opunohu Bay and Cook's Bay at the Overlook.  I cut and pasted this panoramic.

Here's a sunrise to a beautiful day in Moorea.

This was a beautiful start for our marriage and we hope to go back again with our son some day.

Layne & Liem