Up until French Polynesia our ship seemed to be traveling in a bubble of sunshine. Everywhere we went we had beautiful weather while the day before and often the day after it rained at our destinations. In New Zealand some folks in the tourism industry whose job it is to track cruise ships said Zaandam was the lucky ship and people were beginning to look forward to our visit because we brought the sunshine.
In French Polynesia our bubble burst. We had rain and overcast in Tahiti; In Mo’orea we had a beautiful morning followed by rain. In Raiatea we had rain. When we arrived in Bora Bora the weather wasn’t half bad. We waited until open tendering, at about 9:30 and got on the tender boat. Just as we pulled into the harbor everything broke open. Wind and rain with the promise of thunder and lightning. We ducked under the thatch of the marketplace while a ukulele band strummed furiously. I took a video.
The squall and rain cleared up but looking at the sky, we decided to not negotiate for a boat to take us around the lagoon, which had been our plan, but to go for a cab tour. Suzi and I negotiated with a tout and we agreed on a price in mixed currency, we wanted to unload our French Pacific Francs but didn’t have enough for the tour, and got into a cab with Dylan, the tout’s son. “My name is Dylan, as in Bob, or Matt, take your choice.” Kitty was riding shotgun. I am not sure where she fit in, all she said to us was “my name is Kitty.” We were never sure if she was a girlfriend or a tour guide in training. Dylan had a baseball cap with both the New York Yankees and LA Dodgers marks, not playing favorites with the favorites. The soundtrack was a playlist that the screen said was “Dylan’s Polynesian Reggae.” This is really a thing. In Hawaii it’s called Jahawiian, reggae with ukuleles. I rather enjoyed it.
Our first stop was at an open air market run by someone who looked a lot like Dylan’s dad. An uncle it turns out. Suzi and I call it the Uncle Tonoose stop. Usually, it happens in the Middle East or India at the uncle’s rug shop but in Polynesia the shop sells pareos, a Polynesian length of cloth that can be wrapped around the body to be almost anything. We got a demonstration on how to wear them from both the uncle and an auntie.
Almost everything Dylan told us about Bora Bora came back to Marlon Brando. For instance, we passed a new resort hotel under construction, it will be called Bloody Mary’s. Bloody Mary’s was a famous bar in Bora Bora and it seems like Mary is expanding the franchise. But Dylan told us, “Bloody Mary was made famous in a film by Marlon Brando.” Well, no, James Mitchner as interpreted by Rogers and Hammerstein, but okay. Dylan pointed out a hotel that used to be owned by Brando, Brando’s condominium, places where Brando shot scenes, including a World War II bunker. “Brando was in World War II.” It was an entertaining tour.
Bora Bora has a lot of remnants left from the war including bunkers and gun emplacements. There was also useful infrastructure including the port which is now the ferry and cargo port, and the airport, built on a motu, which you can reach by a short ferry ride from Bora Bora. Until 1960 at the start of the jet age, it was French Polynesia’s only international airport with a strip big enough to handle commercial airliners. Now the jets come to Tahiti and the Bora Bora airstrip takes feeder planes from Tahiti.
Dylan also liked to show off failed 5 star hotels. The Hotel Bora Bora was the first luxury in French Polynesia, now derelict. The Club Med is the same. Both victims of the 2008 world recession. The Sofitel was being renovated in 2020 when COVID hit. All work stopped and by the time it had started cost of repair was beyond what they wanted to put into it. When we were here in 2018 its coral garden was private, for guests only so we could not visit it. Now it is public for any snorkelers who wanted to take a look. It was one of the things I had hoped to do if we got on a boat.
When we got back to the dock the rain had stopped and the forecast on my phone said it would hold off for a few hours so I looked to see if I could get a boat to take us around. The next one I could grab was not until late in the afternoon so Suzi and I decided to tender back to the ship, have our afternoon coffee, and now I am sitting on the balcony writings watching the boat traffic in the lagoon and watching the clouds play on what is left of the volcanic cone in a way to make it look like it is steaming.
