Bora Bora - South Pacific Island 14

...what could easily have been a 45-minute flight, turned out, thanks to our cargo ship, an 18-hour journey through some of the roughest South Pacific Ocean known to man. Ok, so that might be a slight excagerration, but believe me, what looked like a huge ship that wouldn't even float, let alone even sway, it certainly rocked from side to side, to the point that bags fell over, and things on tables at the start of the journey, were on the floor on the other side of the ship, by the end!

No passenger ferries here...just our fantastic French cargo ship...outside and in our cabin (complete with our baguettes and bottle of wine!)!

After finally arriving on Bora Bora, once again our problems began! Our pre-booked taxi, funnily enough never turned up, and there were no formal buses operating on the island. This would have left us with no other option than to walk the 6miles with 6 bags, if it wasn't for the only friendly person on the island that called us a taxi. Prior to this, we even asked a local policeman of how to get to our accommodation, who told us it was best to hitch a ride!

Once we finally arrived at where we were staying, things weren't looking too bad. We were finally on what was supposed to be one of the nicest islands in the Pacific. We would certainly have to disagree with that, considering how run-down and dirty the island was, but once we found the nicest beach around where we were staying, we were happy.

Despite the extortionate cost of everything, Bora Bora still can't afford a proper bus!

After a few days of relaxing, we booked on a lagoon cruise, where we were to snorkel with sting-rays and sharks! For the shark-scared amongst you, they were only black-tipped reef sharks that under most circumstances, don't attack humans! After safely jumping off cliffs and out of aeroplanes in New Zealand, the sight of a shark certainly wasn't going to scare us! Having said that, the thought of what happened to Steve Irwin when he swam with sting rays was another matter, especially when we were stood there in the water with them!

The lagoon itself was absolutely stunning, but instead of posting some video here of just how nice it was, you'll have to wait until we get home to have a butch! Instead, we've put a clip of just how friendly both the sting rays and sharks actually were!

Bora Boras lagoon

Louise successfully training a sting ray to smile! Me just posing!

Our local beach!

Tahiti - South Pacific Island 13

Well after suriving the likes of India, and other dubious asian destinations, we really thought that we'd faced the hardest backpacking destinations. That is, until we reached French Polynesia!

We thought that this time we'd been clever, having booked both our accommodation and airport transfers prior to our arrival here. However, this country is run by the French and it appears true that, even though we're in the middle of the South Pacific, these people hate the English just as much, if not more, than the French people in France!

Firstly, there was no airport transfer and, even in Tahiti, 18pounds for a 5-minute taxi ride, seemed a little steep. Second, after our short, wallet-draining taxi ride, we arrived to our supposedly pre-booked accommodation...only to find that the booking had never actually been made, despite our email confirmation! In fact the only accommodation they had for that night was two beds...in a lovely bedroom...outside! Yep, our deluxe room had no walls, nor even a roof! We were in the flamin' garden! Even that came at a cost of 4000 Pacific Francs - a whopping 24-pounds. It might not sound like too much, but 24 pounds for a back full of mosquito bites, is expensive, even by French standards!

This was not our only inconvenience in this place, since everything we did proved either impossible, or at least, extremely difficult. One example was asking a Tahitian directions to somewhere, to which she replied in perfect English, "You don't speak French, so I don't speak English". Damn French!

Indeed it was true that a very small percentage of people didn't speak English, but it was obvious that many did, but just refused to!

Tahiti itself would otherwise have been quite a nice town. In fact the abundance and inexpense of French baguettes and cheese certainly didn't leave us hungary. Even the French beer wasn't expensive...provided you bought it at a supermarket! The same beer that was a pound in the supermarket, was about 5 pounds in the cheapest of bars!

Needless to say, we looked pretty quickly into where in French Polynesia we were heading. Despite the expensiveness of this place, we had both previously decided we wanted to see Bora Bora, home to the rich and famous...and us, for a few days!

Unfortunately our wallets had been too stretched by the taxi's and "garden accommodation" for us to consider a flight. The only other mode of transport was, believe it or not, a cargo ship...

Tahiti Market

The streets of Tahiti

Les Roulottes (food stalls) and our delicious steak baguettes!

29th May 2007 to 8th June 2007