The Society Islands - Bora Bora

Bora Bora

From Taha'a you can easily see Bora Bora due to its twin peaks. We had a lovely downwind sail in the company of Making Memories. We headed for the Teavanui Pass on the west coast which was roughly 25nm away. Once through the pass, we headed to Povai Bay, home of the infamous Bloody Marys bar and restaurant. The bay is extremely deep and we found ourselves anchoring in 22 metres of water. The wind was quite strong as we were anchoring, and it took us a couple of tries to get the anchor to set. We did notice 3 or 4 mooring buoys at the head of the bay but they were privately owned. Usually, we wouldn't leave the boat at night when it is so windy, but we wanted to visit Bloody Marys. We remained onboard for around 3 hours and once we were happy we weren't dragging, we headed ashore for an early dinner. 

View of the anchorage from the Bloody Marys dock 

Outside the restaurant there are two ‘Wall of Fame’ boards with the names of all the celebrities who have visited in the past.

A trip to both the ladies and gents toilets is a must here. The sink in the ladies resembles a small waterfall, and the toilet chain pull in the gents is rather rude. It's rumoured the same chain pulls were put in the ladies toilets but they kept going missing!

On the wall next to the bar is a board with signed dollar bills, pinned there by visitors. 

There was a huge choice of fish and meat available for dinner and we opted to have the rack of ribs. There was also a local band to entertain us whilst we ate. 

The following morning we decided to head around the top of the island and around to the south east corner. The water on that side of the island is much shallower and the brilliant colour that you see in all the tour brochures for the island. With a draft of nearly 2 metres we were a little worried we wouldn't be able to navigate safely through all the many coral bommies dotted around.  We timed our trip at high tide and Jeff and Debby very kindly went ahead of us on their catamaran to call the depths for us.  We followed them, marking our track on the chartplotter so we could follow it in reverse when we left. On our way there, we passed many 5 star bungalow style resort hotels, where the rooms jut out over the water. 

After a couple of nail biting hours of motoring, we finally arrived in a beautiful spot off Motu Piti Aau. Both boats tied up to mooring buoys and we did some snorkelling on the surrounding bommies. We saw some turtles, lots of rays and some colourful fish. Later that night we joined Jeff and Debby onboard Making Memories for sundowners and saw a lovely sunset.

You can see the coral bommies in the shallow water. These were home to lots of colourful fish. 

One morning we went ashore to the town of Matira on the south east corner of the mainland. We crossed the lagoon together with Jeff and Debby in their rib. We had to keep a good look out as it was extremely shallow in places. On the return journey we were motoring into wind. There was quite a bit of chop and we took a couple of waves over the bow. Suffice it to say that we were more than a little damp when we returned to our respective boats!

After a few days relaxing at Motu Piti Aau, we headed back to the west coast but this time took a mooring buoy in the deep bay at Vaitape, the main town on the island. There are only around a dozen mooring balls in this bay so we were incredibly lucky to find one free. We spent our time here getting some laundry done, and we topped up our jerry cans with duty free diesel. This would be the last place we could get duty free fuel before arriving in Tonga.

Bora Bora is pronounced Pora Pora by the locals and its name is apt. Bora Bora will indeed leave you 'poorer poorer'. It is incredibly expensive to eat, shop, and as we discovered, get laundry done. We took two bags of washing to be washed, dried and folded and let's just say it cost around 3 times more than anywhere else we have been on our travels!! For the visiting yachtsman, we felt Bora Bora was a challenging place to visit. Many of the anchorages are very deep. This is being addressed by the island and they are in the process of adding mooring buoys to the anchorages. However, these are hard to come by and expensive to rent. You have to pay by the week and if you move from one anchorage to another, you are not guaranteed to find a free buoy in the next anchorage you visit, even though you have already paid for one. The island is a destination on many people's bucket list but we were not overly impressed. I guess if you are holidaying in one of the 5 star all-inclusive resorts with all amenities laid on, it may appear differently. We just feel there are much nicer islands to visit in French Polynesia. 

The commercial dock at Vaitape

Out and about in Vaitape. Notice once again there are no footpaths so you take your life in your own hands walking around. 

Whilst at anchor at Vaitape we saw the local supply ship arrive. We were also treated to a lovely sunset on our last night. 

Our final stop in the Society Islands, and indeed our last stop in French Polynesia, was the small and lesser known island of Maupiti.

The Society Islands - Taha'a

Taha'a

The Islands of Taha'a and Ra'iatea are around 25nm from Huahine. Due to unfavourable reports of unfriendly local fishermen cutting the anchor chains of visiting cruisers at anchor in Ra'iatea, we decided to bypass that island and just visit Taha'a. 

Taha’a in the foreground with Bora Bora in the distance

We made our way to Hurepiti Bay on the west coast as we had booked a tour with a Noah Plantier from Vanilla Tours, who are based in the bay. Noah has 3 mooring buoys for yachties who wish to take one of his tours. The entrance into the bay was challenging due to reefs and shallow water on either side. However, once at the mooring buoys there was plenty of depth and room for boats to anchor.

Taha'a is nicknamed the 'Vanilla Island' as three-quarters of French Polynesian vanilla is produced here. We had read great reviews of Noah's tour so we were excited as we went ashore the following morning to meet him. Noah's parents were French yachties who arrived in Taha'a around 25 years earlier. They loved the island so much they never left, and have a beautiful house set in lush gardens on the bank of the bay. They offer ethnobotanic-orientated tours of the island. Noah is passionate about the island and its flora and fauna.

We started the tour in his garden where he pointed out various species of plants and trees. Many of these were planted specifically for medicinal use. He showed us some Noni fruit which he had fermenting in a glass jar. The noni fruit has a vomit-like odour but is said to have healing properties and in recent years has become a popular export to the USA in juice form. The Polynesians drink the juice to fight off infections. 

One of the trees was the Calophyllum tree, which bears a nut, which when pressed makes tamanu oil. The oil is good for insect bites, cuts and abrasions. In India the oil is used for skin diseases and is topically applied in cases of rheumatism.

Once we left the garden we made our way to a local vanilla farm. On the roadside next to the farm we saw what looked like a long postbox. It was, Noah informed us, a baguette box. There is no postal delivery service on the island but you can get baguettes delivered fresh to your door each day!

On the vanilla farm we learned that the vanilla plants are fertilised by hand because the insects that do the job in other regions are not found in French Polynesia. In order for a pod to develop, the male and female plants need to be 'married'. This involves carefully collecting the pollen from the male plant using a small twig and inserting it manually into the bud of the female plant. This is achieved by gently squeezing the bud until it opens wide enough to insert the pollen. As you can imagine, it is a fairly lengthy process to 'marry' all the plants on each farm! Nine months later, the pods are harvested and put out to dry. They turn brown over 4-5 months. Due to the length of time it takes to reach the finished product, you begin to understand why vanilla is so expensive to buy. The best way to preserve your vanilla pod is to keep it in an airtight place. Some locals like to place a whole pod into a bottle of rum to give it extra flavour.

After the farm we visited a pearl farm and then the Pari Pari rum distillery. We watched as the sugar cane was pressed to extract the juice for the rum. A guide from the distillery then went on to explain what happens to the pressed sugar cane juice and how the rum is made. We were offered free samples of rum. They also produced 100% natural Tamanu oil, so we bought a bottle to use on insect bites.

Before driving back to Noah's house at the end of the tour, he laid out a platter of fresh fruit for us all to enjoy. All of them came from his garden. The pamplemousse (grapefruit) was particularly good. The purple coloured fruit was a star apple and was the first time we had tried one. They were a firm favourite too. 

We stayed a couple of nights in Taha'a before setting sail for Bora Bora with its iconic rainforest-covered basaltic peaks, surrounded by a turquoise lagoon and a ring of sand-edged motu (islets).