French Polynesia- Moorea

We arrived on Moorea just in time for sunset and to get checked in to our over water bungalow. The hotel experience was amazing. The grounds were beautiful. The room had a glass bottom floor where we could spot fish swimming in the coral below. Breakfast buffet was included. Restaurants were on site which saved us time in looking for places to eat, although we did venture out to other restaurants for dinner on occasion. Everything was very tranquil and beautiful like you'd expect from a tropical paradise vacation. 

We set out early to visit the concierge so that we could book our week of exploration and activities. Everything we wanted to do had to be booked with a guide. Our week was going to be packed with adventure!

We started off by renting a car and driving around the island. It was a fun way to see the inner parts of the island on our own, without a guide. In these tropical islands, it usually rains every day, but the sun always comes out. Pictures just can't do justice to the beauty we saw. It was so lush. Many of the peaks here have never been summited because the terrain is too treacherous. Brian would have loved to climbed Rotui, but it was too wet and slippery while we were there.

 We had a 15 minute break from our driving expedition to a 4 wheeling tour. We ran to our room, jumped in the ocean off our balcony, and ran to the lobby to meat our next adventure guide!

 Our guide took us off-roading for 3 1/2 hours around the inner island. We got to stand in the crater of the volcano, reach peaks with amazing views, and go through pineapple/avocado/banana fields.

Halfway through the ride, I started getting aches in my body and by the time we got home I was fighting full-blown chills and fever. By midnight I was puking everything I had eaten for dinner. It was awful! I was crying while I was leaning over the toilet. The realization that I was in paradise with the flu on the first vacation Brian and I had taken together without the children in 10 years was more than disappointing! Brian gave me a blessing and I prayed all night long that I would get better very quickly. We had plans to go snorkeling the next morning but it was too late to cancel and get refunded our money...and I really wanted to go! By morning, I felt decent enough to go, so we crossed our fingers that I would stay OK while on the boat. It was a chance to swim with shark and rays, and I really wanted that experience. Brian wasn't a fan so much. The food was terrible, the weather was less than desirable, but the ocean life was amazing. I loved it. I was feeling good for that part only, and by the time we got back on the boat for the ride home, I was fighting chills and fever again. My prayer was answered just long enough.

The next day and a half we rested around the hotel. We had to cancel a deep sea fishing excursion, but had fun relaxing instead. I was trying to rest and recuperate. I could only handle soup and bread, if anything at all. I felt awful! I finally decided it was time to see the pharmacy, which runs in French Polynesia like it does in Mexico. After talking to the pharmacist about my symptoms and explaining that I was indeed not pregnant-- he put me on a round of antibiotics and other medications.

 Brian loved the pina coladas more than any other drink!

 We visited a vanilla plantation

For the rest of the trip, I just worked hard at enjoying what we had- while we had it, even though I didn't feel great. We snorkeled around our bungalow, went for a scooter ride, and I buckled down for one of the favorite things we did on our trip: canyoning.  

  We got a new room with a private pool!

 Our canyoning guides were a French couple who had lived on Moorea for 10 years. The took us down 6 waterfall repels, 3 rock slides and 2 jumps. It was amazing. I really enjoyed this part of the trip. We saved one of the best things for last. What was more amazing is that I did this all on a mostly fasting stomach, because I couldn't keep anything down (I had a little applesauce and a small piece of toast for breakfast, no lunch). Once again, I was blessed to feel good for just long enough. My legs were weak from being sick and lack of food, and the water pressure from the falls was very strong. All I had brought were reef shoes, so not exactly the best for gripping the rock, but with all that said...I made the trip without a scratch! The guides had a waterproof camera which we borrowed and has most of the pictures from our trip. They will email them to us soon and I'll add them to this later. It was amazing. After canyoning, we showered up at the hotel and started the travel home! The vacation was over before we knew it. I was ready to get back to the family and comforts of home. But I'd love to do something like this again!

French Polynesia- Bora Bora

We had plans for a big 10 year anniversary trip last year, but we still had a nursing baby, so we put it off until this year (but "11 year anniversary trip" sounds kind of off, so we still say we went on our 10th year anniversary trip even though we'll be celebrating 11 years this year)!

From early this year, we had several versions of this trip arranged: sailing around the British Virgin Islands, Sailing around Hawaii, Kayaking the Napali coast again, Mexico...but for one reason or another, our plans had fallen through and we had to start over with fresh ideas. We thought we had made final plans to go to Hawaii, but the week we were supposed to be there, it was forecasted to get hit by a tropical cyclone. NOT exactly a fun experience on the sea in a sailboat! We had to come up with yet another plan and quick! The problem was, we had booked Audrey to nanny the kids and she had that specific time reserved for us, so we had to work with what was available. We were supposed to leave on Saturday, and by Wednesday night all our plans had been frustrated!

We frantically started looking around for other options and settled on Bora Bora! We found out that the flights out of Salt Lake didn't run every day, so it was leave that same night or leave 2 days later, but still returning home the as planned. We decided to take the earliest flight out. Wepurchased our tickets at 2:00 that afternoon, and had to leave for the airport by 6:30  It was a whirlwind of planning, packing, and getting things organized before we left town. We still had guests staying with us from the 4th of July! But we made it work. Family filled in for last minute tending, we got to the airport in time, and flew all night long to Tahiti.

 
We arrived tired and hungry, but excited to start the adventure before us. From Tahiti, we caught a small flight to Bora-Bora. On Bora-Bora, the airport is on a little motu (small island strip) and so we had to be boated to the main island. It was the most amazing colored ocean I had ever seen! I'm still amazed by it!

  We rented a little bungalow that had a deck over water. It was perfect. It was a great place to relax. I got to do some yoga. We snorkeled and kayaked right off our dock. As beautiful as the grounds were, we didn't hang around the place that much. We spent most of our time exploring the island.

 The sunset view on the first night there. Amazing!

 Our first adventure was jet skiing around the lagoon. I can't say it enough, but the water was amazing! Because the island is surrounded by motus, the beach and ocean is very calm, almost like a lake. The area between the motus and the island itself is called the lagoon. It took us about 21/2 hours to tour the lagoon on jet skis. We saw sting rays in the water and all the views of Pahia (the volcano). it was absolutely beautiful. Every angle, every view was stunning.

After jet skies, we rented a paddle board and Brian boarded beside me while I swam. I am trying to train for a swim competition. Brian guesses we swam about 2 miles. We did stop for snorkeling and shell collecting a few times.  We had the current and wind against us on the way back so, it was tiring! We were starving for dinner! We ate at a restaurant called Bloody Mary's that sells fish freshly caught that day. It was a cute little sand floor, bamboo tabled place that resembled a bungalow. It had quite a list of all the famous people who had eaten there before! The food was fantastic.

Our next adventure was power boating and snorkeling around the Lagoon. It started off a bit windy and rainy, but it cleared once we got to the snorkel spots. Our guide took us to a favorite place to see manta rays. We got to swim with about 4 of them, between 8-10 ft from wing to wing. It was amazing! Then we went to another ray location, leopard rays, which swam in clusters of 10-15. They are smaller like a sting ray but fun to see in such large numbers. We also made a stop at the coral gardens and got to see amazing/colorful pink, blue and orange coral....of all different kinds and shapes and very interesting sea life. We then snorkeled in a place called the aquarium. This beat any snorkel adventure I have ever done in my life! There was so many fish that as soon as I jumped in the water from boat I was surrounded by swarms of coral fish. Beautiful varieties! We got to touch a star fish and see sea horses, our guide showed us some amazing things! After snorkeling, we went to pearl beach on a private motu, relaxed by the pool while reading books and ate lunch/dinner.

Our last day on Bora Bora was a hiking day. We hiked to an old WWII cannon site. It wasn't much of a hike, but the hikes were limited...The view was beautiful. The mosquitoes were horrendous. Meri was one of the local ladies who had helped us out while we stayed at the bungalow and she showed us around the island before we left. She introduced us to a local family that makes pareos and I got to make one for Zoey. We saw a huge gigantic coconut crab and a huge coconut to go with it. We ate at a local place for lunch which was amazing to look at. It was constructed for the heiva dance festival and was intended to be torn down. Bit all the flowers were real! As amazing as it looked, I believe this was the place where I got food poisoning from. it wouldn't show right away, but I think I'm narrowing it down to this spot. It would dampen he rest of my vacation!  :(