Here's a map of French Polynesia. It was such a gorgeous day to arrive on Bora Bora and there's no feeling like the one I get when we take the boat taxi to our resort from the airport. When my eyes first make contact with that unbelievable turquoise water... *sigh* ...I become rapt, like a moth to flame. Maybe in a past life I was a fish. I practically turn into one when I'm there. As long as I can remember, I've always loved fish and being in the water... I've always felt like I belonged in the water. Maybe that's why I married a Pisces man... maybe a woman of fire finds her perfect compliment therein. Maybe that's why getting married on an ancient volcano - waterworld like Bora Bora is so perfect for us, both literally and symbolically. I like to think so. We're doing a wedding back at home, too, so all our friends and family can be there, but I love that our first marriage was in this idyllic, remote paradise. Here's a video of some of our vacation.

Le Moana Intercontinental was so stunning with its brilliant array of lagoon colors and attractive leaning palms. It's situated on the main island as opposed to being on a motu like Le Meridien or The Pearl. It's on 'Matira Point', the Southern tip of the island, on a beautiful white sand beach with a mesmerizing lagoon view. The lagoon gets deeper on one side of the bungalows where it changes from the aqua of its shallows to deep blue. Our bungalow was out at the tip of the dock in that transition zone. We even had our own eel that lived right underneath our glass floor. He swam away eventually, but then he probably got tired of all our excessive happiness. It's okay. He wouldn't be the first eel to give me that irritable glance and then slither off to another crevice where he could be grouchy in solitude. Nah, it didn't really happen that way. But it would have been cute if it had. Le Moana has two pools, one with an elegant waterfall and another with a sand bottom right on the beach. Both were so soothing. The grounds of Le Moana were very lovely. I'm a gardener and tropical plant enthusiast so I just loved walking the pathways and seeing all the exotic plants and varieties of palms. This tree by the pool had the most interesting fruits and spiraled foliage... so I looked it up to find out what it is. That's one of many reasons I love doing these vacations and writing about them. It's a great way to fill in more and more of the gaps in my botanical vocabulary.

We took a day to play with the pretty black-tipped sharks, stingrays, and big schools of cute, curious fish. It was us and a French expat married couple. Again, it was so uncrowded the whole trip. After spending time with the sharks and stingrays, we snorkeled the coral gardens with all the urchins and brightly colored coral heads teeming with fish... lots of neon damsels, blue chromis, butterflyfish, those funny Picasso triggerfish, sergeant majors, and the list just goes on. We enjoyed a tropical lunch buffet on this beautiful motu island where we snorkeled with another stingray just off the beach. There was a staircase there that took us up to a lookout point with the most unbelievable lagoon view I've ever seen. The colors and clarity were unreal. We dove with Top Dive which was really great as ususal. We even saw a group of spotted eagle rays! That was a high point for sure! We saw lots of big lemon sharks, black-tipped sharks, and a Southern stingray. Amazing diving. I saw a little white eel with black spots which was new to me. You can see all of this in my video. I even saw the same titan triggerfish that bit me on the shin when I dove there in 2008! She looked exactly the same and was guarding the same cavern. She charged me again but I was ready for that she-devil this time. I kept my fins in her face and she backed away. You can see my Bora Bora underwater video here.

There was a guy on our tour who kept saying how all the beautiful vacant land should be sold and developed... I kept hinting that Bora Bora's unspoiled allur is one attribute that makes it so desireable, but, of course he didn't get it. It made me so mad it was all I could do to keep from rolling my eyes at him. Some people's ignorance is absolutely astonishing! The safari tour was excellent, though. We went to the Thalasso Spa for dinner our second to last night there. It was really gorgeous but not very Polynesian. It was very Euro-chic with modern interiors and slick, innovative style. It lacked the warmth and authentic Polynesian feel of the places we stay but we still loved it. Beautiful location! The Thalasso Spa had an amazing layout, gorgeous palms, mountain/lagoon view, and the world's first overwater wedding chapel (below right).

The dinner was fabulous and although the staff were a bit snooty and lacked the warmth of the Polynesian people and resorts, I'd definitely visit again. We had our Polynesian beach wedding our third day on Bora Bora. We hired a photographer from Tahiti to come shoot us before and during the wedding. He did a great job and I'm so glad we did. We spent the day with him boating around the lagoon on a private charter getting photos above and below the water. It was great fun! Then we arrived back at our bungalow to get ready for the ceremony. I was in awe of how lovely the wedding dancers were with their grass outfits, head dresses, and bright colors. The dancing ladies led me down to the beach from our bungalow and, in accordance with Polynesian tradition, my sweetie got a canoe ride to the beach from the deck of our bungalow. After the ceremony, we enjoyed an elegant lunch in the surf. The whole thing was so simple, romantic, and exotic... I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. We will always remember that day lovingly... our wedding on a white sand beach on the most beautiful island in the world. You can see photos of our Tahiti Wedding day and ceremony here. We also enjoyed seeing the Polynesian dance show that evening at the resort after dinner. People were congratulating us and coming up to our table to tell us how amazing the ceremony was. I felt so welcomed and honored. The staff at Le Moana did such a great job of orchestrating everything, too.

Every time I visit Bora Bora, there's something new and intruguing to explore. We took a stroll down the road from the resort one day and it had to have been 95º out... it was so hot I had to duck down an alleyway to the beach and jump in the lagoon with my clothes on. The weather was so amazing with maybe one brief rain shower the whole time. Actually, there was some torrential downpour on another day but it was when we were at the airport waiting for our flight home... I think Bora Bora was crying because she was so sad to see us go. I hope you enjoy the photos below... click any image to make it larger: