We were in the Club Restaurant for breakfast shortly after it opened at 7am, with me poring over circle island tour information for Bora Bora in the two Tahiti books I had on my iPad. By 8:30am we were on the island and at Alberts car rental, located just a block back from the tender pier. For 8000 CFP, we had arranged to rent a brand new, air conditioned Kia for 4 hours. We could also have rented scooters (one of them cost the same as the car, so it would have been twice as expensive), or a dune-type buggy, which would have been $120 for 2 hours, with no back seat and obviously no A/C. There was a point in our lives, nearly 15 years ago, when we would have selected the buggy in a heartbeat. But things have happened to us- roasting sun burns, pelting rains, theft worries because they aren't lockable, being 15 years older- that made us opt for the tamer, four door car instead. We hadn't driven in 69 days...I think G was as excited about doing that (and having fun playing with the stick shift) as he was about seeing Bora Bora on our own.
A quick note here about using US $ in French Polynesia. Can you? Yes, most places, especially those catering to tourists, will accept them. But don't. The exchange rates offered are pathetic (only Marc of Huahine-Nautique offered a competitive rate). Today, at Alberts car rental on Bora Bora, we could have paid 8000 CFP or US $95, a very poor rate of exchange. Ice cream on Huahine was 200 CFP or US $3...even worse. Instead, today we used a credit card without any international transaction fees, charged the 8000 CFP and I've already checked my card account online...$81 and change. It's a much better way to go. I use an ATM card from my bank at home and get an excellent rate of exchange, plus a 3% international transaction fee. Oh, and I also recommend bringing a second ATM card. I once had one gobbled up by at ATM machine at Gard du Nord in Paris on a Sunday morning. There was no chance of getting that card back!
And regarding extra tipping for the crew...we're taking care of that tonight, and so had a conversation with headwaiter Mehei about it this morning. It makes no difference at all to the crew if they are tipped in local currency or US $. They are given a very fair exchange rate by the crew office on the ship, and appreciate extra tips regardless of currency. We chose to use US $, only because we don't want to carry any extra US currency with us to the Hotel Tiare Tahiti.
We set out around the island counter clockwise, driving first down the western coast from Vaitape village towards Matira Point. It was a beautiful day, sunny with just a few thin, white clouds, and the Bora Bora lagoon glistened in the sun. I took a hundred blog-worthy photos; I'll need to narrow them down just a smidge, even with faster wifi only a couple of days away.
It's just over 20 miles around the island on Bora Bora's only real road, one that follows the coast, so we had initially considered a two or three hour car rental, but, in the end decided on a four hour rental so we didn't have to rush. It was a smart move. We followed along in our guide books (on my iPhone) as we drove from one village to the next, pulling over for frequent photo stops. I would (try to) pronounce to G the name of the next village, or the next bay as we'd approach, and one of them had me stumbling. I said, "It's spelled P-a-o-a-o-a Point", to which G replied, "Of course it is"; which nearly had me falling off my seat. It reminded us so much of our first trip to Hawaii together that I just have to take a minute to tell that story here.
Our first trip to Hawaii together was in 1995 (I had also been there with a friend in 1982, on a frequent flyer ticket where we spent more time getting there and back than we did actually staying in Hawaii. But we were young...). In 1995, we flew over and spent nearly three weeks visiting the four major islands, and on all of them except Oahu we rented a car for the duration of our stay. G was the designated driver, and, armed with maps and Frommers guide book, I was the navigator. I tried my best to pronounce the names of streets and towns and landmarks, but they were all at least 15 letters long and by the time I'd struggled through the length of the name, we'd have missed our turn-off. "The first five letters. Just give me the first five letters", I remember G yelling at me through gritted teeth after he'd had to turn around or back up for the fourth time. So that's what I started doing. However, we immediately hit another snag. It seemed like the first five letters of EVERY street or place were K-A-N-A-E or H-A-I-O-E. We couldn't figure it out...until one evening when I was reading the Frommers guide book and discovered the Hawaiian alphabet only has 13 letters- 5 vowels and 8 consonants. No wonder we were having trouble. Well, the Tahitian alphabet is exactly the same. Take one or two of the same eight consonants, throw in about ten vowels, and you have the name of 95% of the places in French Polynesia. And Paoaoa Point is a perfect example of that.
Even so, it was easier to navigate today, what with that one major (mostly one lane) road around the island. The biggest challenge we had was in trying to find the American guns left behind after World War II. I had directions like, "When you get to Alain's art studio, pull over and look at the hillside. On the left is a path, and about a 15 minute walk up the path is one of the seven guns remaining on Bora Bora". We could never find Alain's art studio, let alone the path. Still, we found two of the guns more easily accessible from the road, and G was pleased with that.
It's interesting how different the same mountains look when viewed from different parts of Bora Bora.
We were about 2 hours into our four hour rental, and nearing Vaitape village again, intending to turn around and go back around the island again in the opposite direction when we drove past piano entertainer Jere Ring walking along a particularly bad patch of road. We didn't think anything of it...Jere's been walking every spare minute since he got on the Pacific Princess. We drove on another minute or two and the road only got worse. G said he didn't think Jere would want to walk back to the ship again through that mess, and so we doubled back right them to find him. Well no, he wasn't interested in returning that way, but was very interested in being our back seat passenger for our ride back around the island in the other direction. If you knew Jere, you'd know it was a harious two hours back around Bora Bora. We were supposed to fill up with gas before we returned the car, but when we arrived at the gas station in Vaitape, we were told they were out of gas. We turned in the car and handed over 1000 CFP (about $10) for gas. Surely we hadn't used any more than that (about 1.3 gallons worth) going just less than 40 miles on flat road at 25 mph in a small Kia. Alberts car rental seemed happy with that, so we were, too.
Once back on the ship, we had lunch in the buffet and then rested until it was time to get ready for dinner and the evening. Waiter Ricky loaned us a wonderful adaptor he purchased at Office Depot in Fort Lauderdale two years ago to use while we're in Papeete. It has a USB adaptor too, so we'll be able to charge two devices at one time. This was a huge weight off our shoulders. Slowly but surely we're getting lose ends tied up. We received our disembarkation paperwork and luggage tags last evening; we can stay on the Pacific Princess until about 2:30pm on Sunday, which will be perfect, as check in at the Hotel Tiare Tahiti is 2pm.
We were on the terrace behind the buffet for sailaway from Bora Bora. It's a great place to watch from when we don't want to get wind blown (like when we're dressed and ready for dinner). There was no Elite Lounge tonight due to the Captains Circle party being held later on. Tonight's dinner menu was the usual second formal night menu (e.g. lobster and beef Wellington), and, following the party, we chose to skip production show Stardust and returned to our cabin to rest (and start this post). We're heading back out tonight for at 10:15pm show called "Dancing with the Stripes" (like Dancing with the Stars) where each of the six production show dancers is paired with an officer or crew member. There are judges (I know Jere Ring is one) and the passengers will also vote on the winner. It's a great idea, and should be fun.