The three of us went to the beach. We’d heard that the one public beach didn’t have any amenities—beach chaises, changing rooms, etc. Since we wanted those things for John, we decided to go to a hotel. We’d learned that the Sofitel charged $25US for use of the facilities and $54 with lunch. I’d been talking to an officer who said he’d been to the Intercontinental, which is next to the public beach, and they charged $18. So we tendered over around 8:30 AM and went in a van with Robert and Bronwyn and a few others to the public beach/Intercontinental. When we got there, we asked the van driver to wait while we checked things out. We are glad we did since the folks at the hotel said we’d have to take the lunch package since we were there in the morning, and that it would be $80US. We jumped back into the van and the driver took us another mile down the road and around the southern tip of the island to the Sofitel. She promised to be back about 11:30 and we promised to be ready.
It was gorgeous, again: a white sandy beach next to the deck with the infinity pool and bar.
We dragged several chaises into the shade. The beach sloped gently down to the water, which stayed relatively shallow for a ways out. There was a bit of dead, broken, sea-smoothed coral and some volcanic pebbles right at the entrance to the water, but not enough to cause a problem. The water was warm enough that we didn’t shiver as we walked in, but not so hot that it wasn’t refreshing. John was in a couple of times and Janice and I several more.
About waist deep in spots there was some large (maybe 20 feet around) coral mounds. It wasn’t obvious that the coral was still living, but there were three or four types of fish swimming around. Gradually, other people from the ship, mostly people who had been there the day before on the same tour we were on, arrived. We clearly outnumbered the hotel’s guests.
About the middle of our time on the beach there was a gentle rain that came and went. Later we learned that it didn’t rain on the other side of the island at the public beach. But the rain was light and refreshing and filtered the sun’s rays for a few minutes.
We were back on board in time for lunch. After a bit, Janice and I returned to town, wandered around some more, and bought some vanilla beans and beer. We talked to a tattoo artist—tattoos are really big in Polynesia—who said we could see some of his designs at boraboraink.com and look for JJ’s work.
Sail away started about 5 PM, so we had a chance to take a few more pictures before dinner. I even got a last photo out the stern windows of the dinning room while we ate.
We all really enjoyed Bora Bora. Aside from it being such an expensive place and being so far to come, the only real problem is that their best season is also our best season!
Entertainment: “Musical Comedy Actress” Sally Jones. She has quite a resume, but we left early and went to bed.