Tahiti
Pool and Lagoonarium at the Intercontinental Tahiti Resort
Sandy and I went to Bora Bora in 2011. It's one of the most beautiful tropical islands that we have ever been to. Ever since have been thinking about going back. We resolved that this was the year that we were finally going to do it. So we went to Tahiti.
Ok, let me explain. Bora Bora is in the Society Islands, part of French Polynesia. It's not a big island and has a small population. There is an airport, but it is quite small and only accommodates small, short-field aircraft. So to get to Bora Bora, you first fly to Tahiti. It's the largest and most populous of the islands in French Polynesia. It actually has a real city, Papeete, which is a major harbor. It also has an international airport that you can fly into from North America, Asia, New Zealand or Australia. So to get to Bora Bora (or any of the other islands in French Polynesia that we have been to, like Moorea or Tahaa'), you first have to fly to Tahiti.
One of the convalescing turtles
Tahiti sounds exotic and the name is much more recognizable then any of the other islands. It turns out that it really isn't much of a tourist destination. Papeete isn't that interesting a city. It's a working harbor. And we haven't ever gone much beyond it when we have been there. All of the times that we have gone to French Polynesia, we have just passed through Tahiti on our way to one of the other islands.
On this trip, our vacation package from Costco Travel had five nights on Bora Bora. Since United only flies to Tahiti once a week, we had to add an extra night anyway to line up with our return flight. We decided to add that extra night on Tahiti because it was cheaper. That would give us one full day there. We would have a chance to get out and explore the island. I was looking forward to seeing more of Tahiti than just the part of Papeete that was near the airport and the ferry terminal.
Overwater bungalows at the resort
One nice thing about going to French Polynesia is that we can make the trip all the way there in one day. We can leave Boise early in the morning and connect to a flight in San Francisco that afternoon and arrive in Papeete that evening. That's better than some of our other favorite tropical destinations, like Bonaire or the Cook Islands, where we always have to stop overnight in San Francisco, Los Angeles, or Houston.
One small complication was that our flight from SFO to Tahiti was part of our holiday package while our flight to SFO was booked separately by us directly with the airline. To avoid having to pick up our luggage in San Francisco, we had checked our bags all the way from through to Papeete. That took a while at the counter. For some reason, the United agent had a lot of trouble because we each were traveling on two separate tickets. She was finally able to figure it out though, or so we thought.
Sandy hanging out by the sandy infinity pool
Actually it was just the start of our problems. United lets you check the status of your checked luggage online through their mobile app. As soon as we got to San Francisco we looked. Mine was ok and showed as transferred to our Tahiti flight while Sandy's didn't show up at all. It just seemed to be in limbo.
Ruh roh!
We had over four hours in SFO before our next flight and Sandy spent that entire time on the phone with customer service trying to get them to find her luggage and get it on the right plane. The fact that the two flights were on different tickets seemed to be causing them a lot of problems, although my bag was routed just fine. It was pretty frustrating and I have to admit that I learned a few new swear words by listening to Sandy trying to deal with United Airlines. Fortunately in the end her bag did make it and she was able to claim it when we arrived in Tahiti.
I guess you can fix anything with duct tape
We still had one more minor irritation to endure. We were near the exit and got off the plane quickly. We were only about eight or ten people back in the line for immigration and customs. Not bad, except that there were only three lines. One was for residents. There was only one or two people in that line, so we expected them to process others when it cleared. Except that someone new would always get off the plane just as we were expecting the guy to take someone from our line.
Well, at least we had two lines, right? Wrong. As we entered the terminal there were several people with signs that had names of passengers on them. Those people must have been VIP's of some sort as they got taken right to the front of the line. Whenever one of them was let into the line ahead of us I made sure to glare at them. I knew exactly how to do it because we have gotten lots of dirty looks in US airports when we go through CLEAR and are taken to the front of the TSA line. Now it was my turn to give those people the Evil Eye.
View of Moorea from the resort
Even though we were close to the front of the line, it still took us half an hour to get through immigration. We got our bags (so Sandy could finally stop worrying) and found our ground transport. We were afraid that we would have to wait for more people, who we were sure would be at the end of the line in immigration, but they left soon after we got there. Then it was just a short ride to the hotel - less than ten minutes.
We checked in, dropped our bags off in our room, and went out to look for something to eat. We had passed on the airplane food so now we were too hungry to wait for breakfast the next day. The restaurant wasn't an option. It was the night for their Polynesian dance show and the place was jam packed. We did find a snack counter in the lobby with a very limited menu. Not much to choose from so we ended up splitting an order of fries between us. It wasn't much but it was enough to hold us over until breakfast.
My view of the artificial lagoon
It was raining hard the night that we arrived. Although the forecast for the next day was unsettled, it turned out to be bright and sunny. My original thought had been to arrange to explore the island on our one day on Tahiti, either signing up for an excursion or renting a car. That didin't happen, probably because I was lazy. We considered going into town, but we have been there before and there isn't much to see. Not much is open on Saturday in Tahiti anyway. Even the public market, one of the few interesting places, is only open in the morning. We decided to just spend the day at the resort.
We were staying at the Intercontinental Tahiti Resort & Spa. It's fairly big, two or three times larger than resorts on other islands in French Polynesia. Sandy and I prefer smaller, uncrowded places for our vacations. But although there were quite a few people here, it was big enough that they were well spread out. We never had trouble finding space in the restaurant or someplace to sit outside. So it was actually pretty nice. One benefit of the resort's size was that the breakfast buffet area was huge and had an outstanding selection. Since breakfast is Sandy's favorite meal, that made her happy.
Three "wild" turtles in a small pond on the resort gournds
There was a large pool area with one of those artificial waterfalls that you can go behind. There were quite a few families with kids and the kids seemed to all hang out behind the waterfall. That kept them busy so they weren't running around all over the place. We never spent any time by that pool.
There was a second, smaller infinity pool with a sandy bottom and an artificial beach around it. It was actually pretty cool - almost as good as being on a real beach by the ocean. The view was spectacular, looking across to the mountainous island of Moorea eleven miles away. The pool had a swim up bar and we made sure to spend some time there. Sitting half in the water was a great way to beat the heat compared to sitting out in the sun. I had a couple of Hinano's, the local beer, and Sandy had some foo foo drink. We even had the swim up bar all to ourselves. Like I said, the place was big and people were pretty well spread out.
Another beautiful tropical sunset
What the resort didn't have was a real beach. There were some overwater bungalows, but if you weren't staying there you didn't have any access to the ocean. That didn't matter to us as the ocean wasn't as inviting here as on some other islands. There is a barrier reef around Tahiti, but the lagoon is big and quite deep. Not the easy swimming and snorkeling waters that are found on other tropical islands we have visited in French Polynesia. The ocean was still beautiful to look at. The overwater bungalows would have been cool for the view, but not for snorkeling access.
One unusual feature of the resort was what they called a lagoonarium - an artificial lagoon. About five feet deep with a sandy bottom, it was an artificial pond filled with salt water and stocked with coral and a lot of reef fish. There was a path all around and even across the middle of the lagoon. It was an easy way to see lots of colorful reef fish without having to dive or snorkle. You didn't even have to get wet. At night they had spotlights on a portion of the lagoon so you could watch the fish after dark. Even though it was artificial it was pretty cool and we spent a lot of time sitting by it, watching the marine life.
Sandy checks out the lagoon at night
Because it is a controlled environment, the lagoon at the resort is used as a turtle sanctuary. Te Mana O Te Moana is an organization that works to protect the marine environment and especially to help sick or injured sea turtles. They can recuperate in the lagoon at the resort until they are healthy enough to be released into the wild. If they are badly hurt or very sick, they may stay in the sanctuary indefinitely. It's always cool to see turtles up close. These were clearly convalescing. One had a plastic sheet covering its entire shell. Another had strips of tape where its shell had been damaged. But they had a safe home where they could recover while they still had quite a bit of freedom of movement. It also gave people a chance to see the turtles up close in an environment very close to their life in the wild. We spent a good part of the afternoon sitting by the lagoon and keeping tabs on the turtles.
Although we were "in transit", we had a great day on Tahiti. The weather was great. The view of the ocean with Moorea in the distance was beautiful. The resort was very nice and not very crowded.
The next day we enjoyed the breakfast buffet again and had time to take a walk around the gournds. Then we packed up to head to the airport for a noon flight. There were a few anxious moments when our ground transfer was late. We didn't know how crowded the airport would be and how much time we would need. It turned out that there was no line and we got checked in for our Air Tahiti flight with loads of time to spare. Then we were off to our next destination, Bora Bora.
