Day 26 - Leaving Tahiti

Today was our last day of vacation.  We took a 9PM flight out of Papeete, Tahiti to LA and then another flight back to Charlotte, NC.  Before we left we spent the morning and afternoon at Le Meridien Tahiti.  Here is a pic of the view from our room.

A view of the hotel from the beach.

Some overwater bungalows.

Our last sunset!  At 530PM as usual.

25 - Bora Bora to Tahiti

Today we woke up depressed because we officially started our trek back home.  Leaving Bora Bora is mostly a sad event.  The only happy thing about leaving there is that we won't be bleeding money anymore!  Here are a few last pics of Bora Bora.

When we got to Tahiti, we checked out downtown Papeete for a few hours and then headed to Le Meridien Tahiti for the night.

Day 24 - Bora Bora

Today was our last day in Bora Bora.  We did more of the same, hung out around Le Meridien.  Will keep it short and simple.  Here are pics from our day.

Day 23 - Bora Bora

Today we spent the day relaxing at the hotel.  Sat around at the beach, snorkeled a bit and otherwise did nothing.  It was excellent.  Here are some pics from the day.

Mindy having morning coffee.

Our bungalow is the second from the left.

The bungalows with the main island in the background.

Mindy swimming under our bungalow!

Here are a few sunset pics.

We went to the main island for dinner.  Doing anything outside of the resort in Bora Bora is a bit of a chore.  We took the ferry to the main island and then caught a taxi to the restaurant.  Forgot the name of it, the restaurant was amazing.  The restaurant had seating for 10 couples and looks like it did only one seating a night.  They handed us two different menus, one for me had prices and one for Mindy had no prices.  That was the first clue it was going to be an expensive meal!  But it was well worth it.  Best meal of the trip.  Here are some pics from dinner.

Day 22 - Bora Bora

Today was our first full day in Bora Bora.  What a beautiful place!  This day marked a stark change for the trip.  From this point on it was relaxing and enjoying!  As such, we went on a couple hour bike ride in the morning and then hung around our overwater bungalow in the afternoon.

First a shout out to our friends Steve and Emily Smith!  They celebrated part of their honeymoon a few years back and gave us a good recommendation to stay at Le Meridien.  It was awesome to spend a few days where they celebrated such an important time in their life!  Here are some pics from the hotel.

The overwater bungalow had a clear floor in the middle right under the coffee table so that you could see the water.  How cool!

A picture of Craig swimming UNDER the bungalow!  

As we wrote earlier, we went on a bike around around the entire island - something like 35 kms.  We had to catch a ferry to the main island and then a taxi to Avis where we rented bikes.  While there, we saw these awesome buggies that would have been awesome to ride around in!  However we wanted the exercise, so stuck with the bikes. 

As we were riding, we enjoyed the blue water of the lagoon.

Bloody Marys is a uber-popular restaurant on the island.  We caught lunch there.

After lunch, we biked through the main town on the island and then past the Pearl Resort.  A big shout-out to our friends Andrew and Blanca Solis for they celebrated part of their honeymoon at this hotel!  I guess we were on a tour of past friends' honeymoon spots!

We biked a little further and came by this basketball court.  Apparently they have kids with hopes of making the NBA!

Nice boat lift!  But how do you get to it?

Palm trees where everywhere.

Who's this dunce?!  Oh, that is me.

After our bike, we returned to the hotel and chilled the rest of the day.  We had dinner at the hotel restaurant and had this view when we were dining.

Day 21 - Moorea to Bora Bora

Today was broken into two parts - first a snorkel trip with Marc and Carly and then a flight to Bora Bora!

Marc and Carly came over to our guesthouse around 815AM just after we finished breakfast.  Phillipe, or guesthouse owner, doubles as a scuba-dive instructor.  The day before we agreed to join him on a snorkel trip to some spots around Moorea.  So off we went on this snorkel trip with Marc and Carly and the Italian couple also staying at Fare Vaihere.  Here is a picture of Mindy getting "delivered" to the boat.

Here is a picture of everyone excited for an awesome day of snorkeling...

As we departed, Phillipe snagged a few photos of the landscape.  Here is one he got.  Moorea is beautiful.  

And here is a shot we got of the newlyweds!

The snorkel trip had three "dives".  First we toured around an area where an artist had sunk 9 tikis carved out of stone.  Pretty cool!

The highlight of the day was the second stop on the snorkel tour.  We got to swim with stingray and sharks!   The women were a bad scared at first!

But they started to warm up after Philippe and the Italian Guy showed how harmless the stingray are!

The Italian Guy loved the stingray!

Marc and Cary checking out the stingray and sharks.  

The stingray and sharks!

The tour ended after another snorkel stop between to motu islands not far from the InterContinental.  Around lunchtime, we bid farewell to Marc and Carly and headed back to our guesthouse.  We packed up our stuff, headed to the airport and caught a 4PM flight from Moorea to Bora Bora (with a stop at Raiatea).  Here are photos from the flight. 

This is a pic of Moorea - just like a post card!

Bora Bora! That is the St. Regis in the foreground with the Le Meridien and InterContintel beyond.  We stayed at Le Meridien.

A shot of the main island at Bora Bora.

We had to take a boat directly from the airport to Le Meridien.  Because the airport is on a motu, that is the only mode of transportation in and out of the airport.  Here is the sunset on our boat ride to Le Meridien!