SOUTH PACIFIC

Exploring Bora Bora

On our third day in paradise, we wanted to explore beyond our gorgeous overwater bungalow and see how the locals live, so we scheduled a private all-day tour with Moana Adventure Tours.
At 8:30 in the morning a boat picked us up at our hotel to begin our tour. We were transferred over to the mainland, where we met up with our guide at Moana’s office.
When we arrived, there was a minor misunderstanding. They thought that we would be riding jet ski’s first, but we thought that we would be doing the land tour first. We hadn’t planned accordingly and we didn’t have clean clothes to change into, so we preferred to leave the water activities for last. The owner was extremely understanding and quickly made the changes necessary for us. While we waited for our guide to arrive for the land tour, we spoke to the team at Moana and really learned about the island. Bora Bora is so small that there isn’t even a hospital on the island. How crazy is that? They say that expecting women have to go to Papeete about a month prior to their due date so that they’re near a hospital when they go into labor.
Once our guide arrived, the 4 of us got in a jeep to begin our land tour. The first stop was half way up the mountain to enjoy the incredible views from up there. The color of the water there is unreal… photos don’t do it justice.
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Next we continued up to the WII cannons. The Americans used Bora Bora as a lookout point during WWII and they set up 8 cannons around the island, although not a single one was ever fired. Some are much more difficult to reach than others, so we only visited 2 of them during our tour.
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We girls obviously couldn’t resist a good photoshoot on the cannons… How often to you get to climb on WWII cannons with this insane background?!
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We even let the boys join us for 1 group shot on the other cannon.

 

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Right down the road we also found a bunker from WWII.

 

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Next stop was a field where our guide attempted to teach us the Polynesian sport of javelin throwing. The sport is widely popular on the island, and they even host a yearly competition for all of the locals to participate. Unlike the normal javelin throw we know, this game consists of hitting a coconut atop of a 7.5m high mast. The person who gets the most spears (aka javelins) stuck in the coconut in the allotted amount of time wins.

Our guide set it up for us and showed us how to play. Within a few tries he got a javelin stuck in the coconut, giving us false hope that we might be able to do the same. Let’s just say, we all failed miserably, but we had a great time.

 

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From there our guide took us to his home. He showed us how the Polynesian people open coconuts with their teeth. Yes, their teeth! These people must have the strongest teeth ever. They tear away the skin with their teeth and break it open. Fresh coconut water for everyone! It was the perfect refreshment on that extremely hot day.

 

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Our final stop on the land tour was at a little store that handmade sarongs. We got to pick out our colors and design. Here’s one of our creations. The blue stencils were removed once the sarong was dry and the imprint stayed on the material.

 

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Once we finished our land tour, they took us to Matira Beach for lunch. The food was pretty good and the restaurant had a beautiful view, but true to Bora Bora (from what we experienced) it was super expensive. We paid about US$250 for 4 burgers and 4 drinks. Expensive meals are the norm in Bora Bora.

 

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After lunch our next guide picked us up and transferred us back to Moana’s office for the jet ski portion of our tour. We got on our jet skis and spent about 2.5 hours riding around the island. The water is beautiful and refreshing. But our guide was fearless! He took us through rough waters and was going super fast. We had a great time, but I had a rash for the next 2 days as a reminder of our jet ski tour.

 

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Overall we had a great time with Moana Adventure Tours and I definitely recommend taking a day to explore the island and enjoy a different side of Bora Bora. The overwater bungalows are incredible, but the adventure part is not to be missed either.

Happy Travels!

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