Woke up on Sunday, had one last breakfast buffet in Tahiti, and then headed to the airport. We were originally scheduled to take a ferry from Tahiti to Bora Bora so that I could dive the previous day, but when the travel agent called to confirm the ferry, they let us know that it had been canceled. (Nice of them to let us know, huh?) So I had to book a last minute flight later in the day to allow for enough time after the dive. We were both looking forward to the 8-hour ferry ride for something different, but the flight did turn out to be more convenient anyway.

The Bora Bora (BOB) airport was tiny and unique. We landed and taxied right to the terminal building, walked off the plane, and right into the building. Baggage claim was just a shelf on an open wall where they loaded the bags from the open side and then you met up with a representative from your hotel to take a boat to the respective island. Most hotels here are on their own private barrier islands just a few minutes away from the main island. The water was the most absolutely beautiful teal color. We were met at the Intercontinental Thalasso hotel's dock with the sound of a conch and then Paul took us on a golf cart tour of the resort. After getting settled in our room, we checked out the Sands restaurant on-site for lunch and then explored some more to capture the photogenic views.

On Monday, I woke up early to go diving and then in the early afternoon, our friends Jeremy and Jillian arrived. We took a boat from our resort to their resort at the St. Regis. This required a $150 (14,690 XPF) one-way fee which was absolutely ridiculous. Their resort was even fancier than ours and we had a lovely time having dinner and drinks at the Lagoon Restaurant there. The food itself wasn't great -- I had the steak and mashed potatoes which was over $100 for two small pieces of cold steak and a tiny portion of whipped potatoes with a pecan on top. But it was good to spend time with our friends!

Tuesday, we decided to explore the main island which was another $130 boat taxi ride (this was cheaper because it was between the two Intercontinental hotels). We arrived around Noon when Jeremy and Jillian picked us up in a rental car. We stopped at a cute food truck for lunch although it was a bit difficult to order since we didn't speak good enough French and they couldn't understand our English. We then stopped at a local gelato shop that Jillian had found online. We then drove the Route de Ceinture (RT 101) around the outer edge of the entire island and finished in about an hour. From there, we didn't have anything else to do so we went to the beach until it started pouring raining so we went to the Intercontinental Moana resort bar for drinks. James and I had dinner at the Bora Bora Beach Club, right on the beach which was delightful. Had a bit of a scare where it took nearly 45 minutes to get a taxi and we almost missed our boat back to our resort, but fortunately we were the only ones on the boat so they had waited for us.

Wednesday, I went diving again while James and Jillian did a snorkeling tour of the island. I surprised James when he returned with a couples massage before dinner at the polynesian bbq night. They had roasted a pig in an underground oven with a small unearthing ceremony. The food required some adventure from me, but we both left with full tummies.

Thursday, James and I went diving together and then Jeremy and Jillian came to our resort for the afternoon and prime rib night at the restaurant. They had a fire dance following dinner.

Friday was our last day so we again took a boat tour around the island. We were hoping to go whale watching or something, but the boat turned out to be a very slow solar-powered relaxing cruise of the lagoon instead. We still had a great time and I got in the water at every stop to look for more marine life. Unfortunately I forgot my DJI camera but I was able to watch a school of spotted eagle rays in crystal clear 15 foot water with my goggles and snorkel. After one more dip in the pool back at the hotel, we said goodbye to the Thalasso and headed back to the airport. Another short flight back to Papette where we basically went right to sleep before we had to get up at 4am for our flight back to Los Angeles. Since I can never get enough adventure, I took a flight from LAX directly to Las Vegas to see the Unity at the Sphere show (photos coming soon) as an ending to an amazing vacation.