We had rough seas last night and that made me fear the impact the weather would have on our day in Bora Bora. In fact once you pass inside the lagoon, which is inside the atoll (a ring of reef around an island) it is exceptionally calm. This atoll has only a single break in it where all marine traffic must pass, whether you are a large ship like the Zuiderdam or a small jet boat like the one we took on our excursion today with six passengers on it!
Last night we organized our bags for our snorkelling excursion this morning - and it was a good thing we did! We awoke at 6:30 am and had eaten breakfast when we were returning to the room about 7:20 am when the captain came on the loudspeaker and made an announcement. He said that tenders were open and that if you wanted to get ashore you had until 7:45 am and then all the tenders would be reserved for Holland America excursions until 8:30 am. We were to meet H20 Bora Bora at 8:30 am on the pier so we had to get a move on! We and a number of other independent excursion guests hustled onto the tender and made our way to shore. We visited with friends on shore for about 30 minutes then found Aimee with H20 Bora Bora by about 8:10. By 8:20 am we were loaded into our speed boat with our Captain and Guide Diego jetting off to our first snorkelling site.
And did we have success! We saw four manta rays - those are the BIG rays that measure more than 10 feet across - one female and three males. Once we were swimming quite a distance in the water, looking for these manta rays, my friench paid off as I heard one of the other boats talking to our guide Diego, saying there was a ray nearby. I looked down and saw a huge manta ray about five feet below where I was swimming! It was a breathtaking view!
After spotting manta rays we then travelled by boat to a coral garden and was it spectacular! So many colours of clams that opened and close and a huge school of fish, a flute fish and phenomenal coral to enjoy. At that point it started raining - and it continued to rain for much of the day. It didn’t bother us when we were in the water snorkelling, but it did make us cold when travelling in the boat after that point.
The long and skinny flute fish in the coral garden.
We went past the very expensive Conrad Hotel with thatched hut hotel rooms (with private hot tubs on each deck)! We saw all kinds of dolphins playing in the water. Diego was determined to have us see Leopard rays so he scouted some areas and found some. It was in an area with a strong current and I was too tuckered out with all of the swimming we had already done so I drifted back to the boat. But J and the other 5 guests saw the lepard rays!
We got back to the dock about 12:20 - so it was a very successful four hour excursion! We ran into two friends from Cruise Critic on the pier who were booked to head out on the afternoon tour with Diego - so we introduced them to Diego.
The private island for sale for $38 million US!
It started raining heavily then so we decided to head back to the ship, shower and eat lunch. We ran into V & R from Abbostford in the Lido. We ate lunch and tendered back over to Bora Bora. It was raining lightly at this time. J and I had raincoats on. We walked through the town looking at the grocery store (where I bought a couple kinds of juice to drink for a treat) and some T-shirt and art stores. The men were pleased to pick a mango from a tree on the street. The owner invited us to - and we were happy to take him up on the offer (I did give him a little tip in thanks!). J headed back to the ship sooner than I did and spotted some dolphins off the back deck of the ship and enjoyed strawberry daiquiri as a gift from my sister! Thanks LC!
We enjoyed dinner on the ship, walked the promenade deck once, then returned to our room to type the days events! We will pack our bags for our day i Raiatea tomorrow, then watch the end of the film “The House of Gucci” starring Lady Gaga tonight!
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