Bora Bora was amazing

[Scubagal]

We arrived home last night from our first trip to French Polynesia. One night in Tahiti, and five glorious nights in Bora Bora. Hoping to get through some of the many pictures we took this weekend, and will eventually write a trip report.

Two days of diving with Bora Diving Center/Nemo World. Sightings included many black tip reef sharks, very large lemon sharks, a squadron of eagle rays, a huge napoleon wrass, lionfish, several crown of thorns, and of course tons and tons of fish. The divemasters were great.

We did the Tupuna Safari 4 X 4 trip and had an absolute blast! This tour is a must.

Can't speak highly enough about the entire staff at the Bora Bora Nui. We were in horizon over water villa 124. Had a wonderful view of the ocean, the island of Tahaa, Mount Pahia and Mount Otemanu. The villa itself was out of this world. One morning we saw a shark, a stingray, and an eagle ray cruise right underneath our villa. The snorkeling at the resort was great, there's a 4+ ft. barracuda that hangs out regularly underneath one of the villas.

Going through serious PBBD (post Bora Bora depression) today.

 

[mrtechbench]

Hi Scubagal,
Looked through your photos and saw the ones of Bora Bora, wow that is beautiful. Guess I should start saving up, wasn't expecting to see Villas going for as much as $4,000/night. Thanks for sharing the photos and giving me something to work towards!

Jim

 

[Travelnsj]

Scubagal did you ever write up a trip report?

 

[Diver Lori]

Hi Scubagal,
Looked through your photos and saw the ones of Bora Bora, wow that is beautiful. Guess I should start saving up, wasn't expecting to see Villas going for as much as $4,000/night. Thanks for sharing the photos and giving me something to work towards!

Jim

Jim,

You can do it alot cheaper if you aren't too picky. We just got back from 2 weeks in FP. We did Rangiroa, Bora Bora and Moorea. The whole trip, before diving & food, cost us $17,000 including airfare and halfboard at Rangiroa for 2 people. We stayed in the premium overwater bungalows (no obstructed view) in all three places. If you want garden view, or for that matter....stay at a "pension" (B&B) you'll get off much cheaper at least half as much or more.

Use a local travel agent who goes through a trip wholesaler and you will get a much better deal and a flawless itinerary. Our entire trip went off like clockwork....there was not a single glitch. Transfers were on time, rooms were exactly as booked....not a hitch anywhere. All we had to do was dive and relax. Perfect planning by the wholesaler....it doesn't matter if your local travel agent knows where a destination is or not, it's the wholesaler who does all the work with bookings. Your travel agent is the one who tweaks the different wholesalers to get you the best deal for your buck.

For meals, we did our own breakfasts and lunch, except in Rangiroa where we had halfboard. Rangiroa is remote and getting to/from snacks and restaurants isn't as easy or varied as Bora Bora & Moorea. So we went with breakfast & dinner there. In Bora Bora and Moorea we would bug out to the grocery on our first day and pick up baguettes, cheese, peanut butter, lunch meat, jam, snacks, juice, beer and soft drinks for our breakfasts and lunches....dinner we had at the resort or one of the restaurants that come pick you up by taxi....their treat. Nothing beats getting up in the morning, in your jammies, and sitting out on your private deck munching on your breakfast ON your timetable, same goes for lunch....we'd dive and the ops would drop us back off at our resort dock...walk back to your bungalow and break out the food...no rushing to get a shower before heading out to lunch. Your room at the resorts have a minibar, but if you ask them, they will come empty it and you can use it for your own purchases, as we did. The restaurants and the "snacks" in town shut down between 2 and 4-5 daily, so if you missed lunch, pickins are slim if you're hungry. We got around that by having our own lunch stash. Basically for the price of one dinner out, we bought breakfast & lunch stuff for 10 days.

Also, there's no tipping in FP. It is not expected or required. Which saves a big wad of bucks too.

I live in Cincy too...if you want the name of the travel agent we used, just drop me a PM.

Gee, at this point I've almost written a trip report. I should just expand on it and post my own!!

 

[mblake]

Thanks for the "report". I fly out Monday night!!! To FP...

 

[Travelnsj]

Diver Lori how was Bora Bora vs Rangiroa? I know the diving is different as I have been to Rangiora and Fakarava. But what about the Marine life?

 

[Diver Lori]

Diver Lori how was Bora Bora vs Rangiroa? I know the diving is different as I have been to Rangiora and Fakarava. But what about the Marine life?

I thought the Rangiroa reefy stuff was comparative to the Bora Bora and Moorea reefy stuff. Now the pass diving in Rangiroa is a whole 'nuther world!! yeeeHAWW, hang on for the ride! Lots of cuda and sharks.

I highly recommend anyone doing pass diving in Rangiroa or Fakarava invest in a Dive Alert. It saved my arse and the guy with me (not my buddy) at the end of the dive. We got separated from the group in the intense current. You simply cannot swim this stuff. When we finished our safety stop and surfaced to nothing but swells, the diver I was with said "oh chit, what do we do now?" I said this is what we do, and deployed my Dive Alert after we rode several swells of nothingness. :sos: Our group of 6 divers and one divemaster were splintered into 3 groups when we missed the termination point for the dive.....the current was ripping. The two other groups deployed sausages, I pinged my Dive Alert....3 blasts in succession, groupings about 10 to 15 seconds apart. I don't think we were in any real danger as we were inside the atoll lagoon (40 miles wide, but who's counting?), but it sure expedited the pickup process.

To say the least, we were the first divers picked up. I no more sounded that Dive Alert in two groupings and the Zodiac came over the next swell. We were in the trough and could look up to see him coming for us. I'm guessing we had swells of 10 feet at least. We could not see squat unless we were on the crest of the swells and what we could see was our termination point by the pass marker light freakin' lightyears away. The boat driver motored around us to get into good position to pick us up pointing at his ear yelling "I hear you good! I hear you good! I come find you!" with a big smile on his face. I had a safety sausage in my thigh pocket to be deployed, but the Dive Alert was alot handier on my inflator. Funny, the other diver I was with wanted to know where to get one of those blast horns. As soon as we were picked up, the driver headed off to find the rest of the divers in our group. My buddy was in one of the other splinter groups and was figuring he'd use his horn if we hadn't found him when we did. One of the other dive ops lost 7 of it's divers on the same afternoon. We passed them floating after we'd picked up all our group and told them we'd send their boat in their direction as it was searching no where near their divers.

Mike Lever of the Nautilus Explorer out of British Columbia turned us on to Dive Alerts for drift and current diving when we dived with him in 2001. He issues one to each of the divers on his liveaboard for that very reason.

 

[Travelnsj]

Yeah that Tiputa pass is something. I had one dive that we were dropped off at the start of the pass and must of gone 3 miles into the Lagoon...it was a wild ride.

MY question is regarding Bora Bora....I am thinking of going back to Fakarava and then do Bora Bora next year. So how do you like the diving in Bora Bora? is there Rays, Sharks, Dolphins etc?

 

[Diver Lori]

We saw manta, sharks and dolphin on the reefy stuff in Rangiroa. In Bora Bora, we saw rays and sharks, same for Moorea. No dolphin on Bora Bora or Moorea this go round for us.

 

[Travelnsj]

Lori would you go back to Bora Bora? and did you like it as well as Rangiroa?

Also did you get my PM?