In my opinion, Bora Bora, 230 Km northwest of Tahiti, is the pick of the Pacific islands. It is two extinct volcanoes, Mt Pahia and Mt Otemanu, surrounded by a huge lagoon and barrier reef. The reef has one entrance channel. The main town, Vaitape, is opposite the entrance. Our ship, Celebrity Millenium, anchored in the channel on the side opposite Vaitape, near an island called Motu Toopua, and we were ferried ashore in the ship's lifeboats. The top photo is what we saw when the ship anchored, Mt Otemanu with Vaitape snuggled along the shore in front of it. Most of the time we were there Otemanu had clouds covering its top. The bottom photos are from the lifeboat on the way across to Vaitape. Vaitape is just how I imagined a south seas town to be and I will post more photos of it soon. In James Michener's book, Hawaii, he has a section on Americans posted to Bora Bora during WW2. He says that they will never forget the island, and you know what? Neither will I.
Labels: cruising, South Pacific
# posted by Bart Bear @ 10:15 am
