When I was 12, I read the book Hawaii (by James Michener). In the very beginning it talks about polynesian people migrating from the Tahitian islands to Hawaii. I was so fascinated by his description of Bora Bora that I went to the library (yes, blog readers, this was before the days of the internet and I was forced to look up pictures in books) and spent hours perusing through Bora Bora history and tour guides. I was hooked – Bora Bora was my dream vacation spot. When Brandon and I got married, I desperately wanted to go to Bora Bora, but (being in law school), there was really no way we could afford it. When I graduated from law school, everyone went on “bar trips,” which essentially celebrated finishing taking the bar exam. This time we planned on taking my dream vacation, but after living the whole summer on next to nothing (and paying thousands for bar prep classes and the bar exam)… we still couldn’t afford it.
When we found out I was pregnant, we really wanted to take a nice vacation, the last while we were childless. Unfortunately, we were booked with various obligations EVERY single weekend from mid-March through September (booked weddings, family weddings, friends weddings, bachelor parties, birthdays – the list goes on) – and September was really the last feasible time to fly, so we put aside any thoughts of a romantic getaway. In late June, we had a cancellation of sort (a long story) for a weekend in July… so we started throwing around ideas. Brandon wanted to go to the Bahamas, I had been and it wasn’t that special. ‘I want to go to Bora Bora.’ ‘What about Jamaica?’ he suggested. ‘Nope, it’s practically the same as the Bahamas’ was my response (I have no idea if that is true, but I had a goal!). ‘Let’s go to Bora Bora,’ I insisted. ‘But you can’t fly that long – isn’t it like halfway around the world.’ I shot that down – ‘It’s only 2 hours further than Hawaii, i’ll be fine.’
After two or three days or emailing vacation packages, flights, ways to work around our scheduling constraints, contingencies, etc etc, I FINALLY convinced Brandon we should go to Bora Bora! We booked that day and left two weeks later, with a week planned in paradise at the Bora Bora Nui Hotel & Resort. And we went all out. A resort. The overwater bungalow, the most amazing indescribable place to sleep ever. We spent a week laying on our little private porch, diving into the water when we got warm, snorkeling , kayaking, taking the little private island’s boat to the mainland, driving around the island, checking out the locals and the local way of life, dinners under the stars, laying in the warm sun, watching the sunset, soaking in the blue skies and fluffy white clouds, relaxing. Oh, relaxing. One night, one of those nights that I will never forget, we had a boat from the Yacht Club pick us up and take us to dinner, then take us back again. We flew across the pitch black lagoon, the unbelievably bright stars overhead, the warm salty air blowing in our face, Brandon and I snuggled on the seat together, our stomachs full from the most amazing dinner ever. I wanted someone to pinch me to see if it was real. We sat silent, soaking it all in. Ten minutes of pure bliss. Six days of pure bliss.
I never got sick of the blue sky, the aquamarine lagoon with seafoam and cerulean streaks running through it, the boats speckling the horizon, or the surf breaking over the lagoon’s edge a mile out. I think the pictures reflect this. Enjoy, and may you feel at peace (and one day obtain your dream vacation).
These musicians greeted us when we got off the plane in Tahiti… at 3:30 in the morning.
Coming into Bora Bora:
The Bora Bora airport:
The Bora Bora Nui
See what I mean about the amazing ‘streaks’ in the ocean? (look at the horizon)
The hotel actually gives you snorkeling equipment you can hold onto for your whole stay
Our room:
More horizon
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The sky was a deeper blue than I have ever seen anywhere
A boy playing soccer on the beach (his friends were all lagging)… doesn’t that sound like an amazing way to grow up?
Mount Otemanu was almost always shrouded in a cloudy mist:
We rented this little buggy/car thing and drove around the island one day
Sunset
I have a weird thing for foreign money… I take pictures of it so I can remember what it looks like, but still get to spend it
A canopy bed: my other childhood dream
Our porch was massive
The fishes underneath our bungalow
Moorea, from the balcony of our room in Tahiti (which, in case anyone is curious, is like sleeping at a Motel 6 after staying at the Ritz – it might have been nice if you started there, but not so much once your standards were taken to a whole new level)
ps – Brandon said on our third or fourth day there that he was ‘never going anywhere else on vacation again except Bora Bora.’ I think I converted himAnd, contrary to my insistence, I was NOT fine flying that far – on the way to Tahiti, my ankles were so swollen on the plane that I could barely walk. Luckily a few days of swimming helped the swelling recede entirely, and I made it home just fine!
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