Reply To: French Polynesia and NZ

[Colin MacKinnon]

Were there last summer.

On Tahiti, we stayed in the Hilton – which is linked by a bridge to the carrefour, so ideal for a sunset picnic on your balcony. Don’t forget fresh milk or your tea, reception wanted to charge us $16 for a jug of milk delivered to the room!

We also went for a nice snorkel over an aircraft wreck off the Intercontinental by the airport with this French guy:
https://www.whale-dolphin-turtle.com/4-wrecks-and-coral-valley-snorkeling.html

On Bora Bora we had 150 minutes in the IC Bora Bora Thalasso Spa with our Creation free night voucher! Have to say, the overwater bungalow was a huge disappointment. Nice room and everything, but it is over a sandy bay in which there are no fish. So useless for snorkelling! (They did have a nice lagoonairium, though!)

Another day, we hired a car in Bora Bora – and drove around the island in an hour. So we drove around it in the opposite direction! Matira Bay has the big beach and some good snack bars.

In Viatape on a Sunday, everything is closed. There were some youngsters across from the end of the pier with a boom box. We (60-year-olds) laughed and wiggled a bit and they waved us over. We had some of the seafood they had pulled off the rocks, and a local beer and turned down a joint – just as the gendarmes arrived at the adjacent gendarmerie! Everyone laid back and cool.

But I have to say, Bora Bora was the most disappointing island. Moorea much better!

ps. I believe Bloody Mary’s is no more.