Day 12 - Tuesday 16 January 2024

Today has been a bucket list day, and has been absolutely fantastic to boot.

Awake early to try for a sunrise timelapse, but the sky was full of clouds so that’s not really a starter. Into breakfast, and then back to the room to make final preparations for the trip I had today

Picked up for the Lagoon and Island 4WD tour at just after 8.30, I was driven to the dock at Vaitape (the same dock I arrived at on transfer from the airport) and boarded a boat. Apparently we have another couple to pick up, then we can start. Around Tolopua island near Vaitape to the Conrad resort, and we picked up an American couple from the jetty. Just a 5 minute run from there, and we were anchored at the site that the sharks and rays gather.

The water was only just over 3 feet deep, and black tipped reef sharks were cruising past along with their stingray cousins as soon as I was in the water. I don’t think the water at this spot was as clear as at Moorea, but there were far more sharks here, and we stayed for a good while as the heavens opened in a torrential downpour. I have more video of this site than I know what to do with!

We then moved on to try to find some eagle rays; there were none at the first spot, so we moved on to a spot just a couple of hundred meters from the Conrad resort, and there were 40 or 50 eagle rays flying 20 meters or so below us. I could have stayed and watched these for an age, and had to remember to actually look at them and occasionally check the screen of my gopro. With the naked eye, I could see the white patterning on their backs. Watching them go one way then as a unit reverse course and pass back under us was remarkable.

Back onto the boat, and this time we were heading for the Coral Gardens. Past Matira beach, we discussed the sunsets at this time of year and now is apparently not the time for good sunsets; oh well, hopefully I’ll find some later in the trip. Past where I'm staying at the Maitai Polynesian, and onto the Coral Gardens. The Coral Gardens is that place you may have seen with ‘I love Bora Bora’ spelled out in rocks on the sandy sea floor.

The water here was crystal clear, and the fish life was abundant and varied. I spent a while just swimming around and capturing the sights on my Gopro. It didn’t seem to matter where I pointed the camera; life just teemed everywhere. I even had fish passing between the Gopro and me.

Time to move on again, and the American couple had a wish to see Manta rays; there was a chance that they may be about, so we travelled northwards past all of the high value resorts to a particular spot. We looked into the deep blue depths; me sat looking out beside one of our guides. We looked at blueness for 5 minutes or so, and the guide turned and started suggesting that we move on when I saw a lighter blue shape far below. ‘What’s that’ I asked, and the guide was straight over the side ….. we were beckoned into the water, and proceeded to watch a single Manta ray swimming far below us. I’ve wanted to see a Manta ray in real life ever since I learned about them, so this (despite the fact that there was only one of them) is an item ticked off of my bucket list; we climbed back on the boat, all really excited by what we’d just seen.

Back to a lunch stop on the outer reef, then I said my farewells to the American couple and departed in the boat to pick up my 4WD island part of the day. We pulled into the jetty at the Maitai Polynesian, so I had the opportunity to jettison some of the gear that would no longer be needed before setting off in a clockwise direction to circumnavigate the island.

First stop was at an outlook which was reached by a potholed track; I started to feel a case of déjà vu! The view from the top of the hill was fantastic; the caldera of the extinct volcano was clear to see and included Tolopua island that we’d boated around earlier. It was explained that the island was caused by a magma hotspot in the earths crust, and that Bora Bora has passed over this long ago. The island is now sinking by 2mm per year with the original coastline being marked by the barrier reef. Onwards once more, and the next stop was at the American Guns at the north of the island.

We turned onto a road that was steep and deeply rutted; we had three attempts to get up this road, but the rain this morning meant that the wheels just kept slipping. In the end we walked up the really steep hill; had I know we were going to be hiking uphill I'd have worn more than flip flops!

Anyway, we reached the gun sites, and the view was remarkable. I was told that 5 months after Pearl Harbor (and yes, it grinds my gears to spell it that way!) 5000 Americans arrived in Bora Bora, and within 3 months had built and armed 4 gun placements at the cardinal points of the island; the guns came from a 1^st world war battleship.

Then round the island once more with a few stops for views before returning to the Maitai Polynesian at around 4:30.

It had been a brilliant day, and now that I’ve circumnavigated the island I don’t feel the need to do it tomorrow. Some results from the day though:-

1.          I have more video footage than I know what to do with; I have 59 Gopro video clips to sort through, and a few from the Sony camera as well.

2.          Laying face down in the sea for much of the morning means that my back has now gone an interesting colour; a little warm but no pain, so the sun cream seems to have done the trick.

3.          I’m absolutely chuffed that I’ve seen a Manta ray in the wild; it’s not something I had expected from this trip