To read the trip report that Andrea (aka QuincyMom) posted to the Kauai forum on Trip Advisor, click here.
Taken from the pages of Andrea's daily journal, it provides details of our stay on Kauai leading up to our wedding as well as an account of our sunset wedding ceremony.
Enjoy!
Following our wedding in Kauai, we spent a week honeymooning in French Polynesia. We spent one short night on Tahiti and then spent the next six nights on Bora Bora between two hotels: the Hotel Bora Bora and the St. Regis Bora Bora.
To read the review of the Hotel Bora Bora that Andrea (aka QuincyMom) posted to Trip Advisor, click here. She also posted the same trip report to the Tahiti Travel forum; to view it, click here.
To read the review of the St. Regis Bora Bora that Andrea (aka QuincyMom) posted to Trip Advisor, click here. She also posted the same trip report to the Tahiti Travel forum; to view it, click here.
Today is our last day at the St. Regis and last day in Bora Bora. We get to stay in our room until 5:00pm and then we begin more than 24 hours of transit to get home. Yuck.
We first must fly back to Tahiti from Bora Bora. Our flight is at 7:00pm and arrives in Tahiti around 7:45pm. Then we have to fly the red eye flight from Tahiti to Honolulu, which arrives around 6:00am tomorrow morning.
Unfortunately, we have quite a long layover in Honolulu, as our flight back to San Francisco doesn’t leave until 1:00pm. We’re planning on checking our bags as soon as we clear customs and then head to Waikiki for some breakfast at Duke’s.
If all goes well, we’ll arrive back home in San Francisco around 9:30pm tomorrow night.
Because the WiFi at the St. Regis has been spotty (and that’s being kind) and then we’ll be in flux for the next 24 hours after we check out, this will probably be our last post before we get home. Our goal is to have some photo galleries up for your viewing pleasure within a week or so. Wade has to wade through (bad pun intended) more than 3,000 pictures, so it may take a little while.
We’ve had a wonderful two-week South Pacific adventure and we hope you have enjoyed following along at home. Much love and aloha to our friends and family!
We decided to go have breakfast at the main restaurant – Te Pahu – where we treated to an extensive breakfast buffet. Breakfast choices included crepes, pancakes, eggs benedict, sausage, bacon, hash browns and an egg and omelet station. There was an entire table dedicated to baked goods including three kinds of croissants, chocolate chip bread, muffins, brioche (yum), baguettes, etc. There was also fresh fruit, yogurt, granola, muesli and fresh squeezed juices including orange, pineapple, and raspberry. Andrea loved that Nutella was included over near the crepes!
After breakfast we went back to our room to get ready for our 9:00am pickup to take us to the Oasis Pool where we had reserved a cabana until noon. Today was definitely the hottest day we have had in Bora Bora, and by noon, we were feeling a little cooked and were definitely ready to get out of the sun for a couple of hours.
After a couple of hours of relaxing, we put on a boatload of sunscreen and decided to walk over to the ocean side of the resort and check out the scene. There are six one-bedroom villas and two two-bedroom villas on this side as well as a helicopter pad. The beach is pretty craggy over there, but it provides a great view of the islands of Taha’a and Raiatea. We agreed that we preferred the beach villa to the ocean villa.
By the way, did we mention how freakin’ hot it was??? We could not wait to get into the water. That said, our next stop was the lagoonarium. We snorkeled around for quite awhile, and other than a French couple that took a quick dip, we had the place to ourselves. We did not see the resident turtle this time (who we’ve since learned is a girl), but Andrea had the fish eating out of her hands again. They seem to really like baguettes!
While were snorkeling, we heard a helicopter come in and land on the helipad that we had just checked out on the ocean side of resort. Not far from our villa is the resort’s Royal Estate, which is where Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban honeymooned last year. The Royal Estate is 13,000 square feet in size and runs about $10,000 a night. As we were walking back from the ocean villa side of the resort, Wade saw some hotel staff prepping the Royal Estate for guests, so perhaps some celebrity had arrived via helicopter for Memorial Day weekend? We hope it’s not Paris Hilton. Yuck.
When we went back to the villa, we found a couple of treats had been left in our room. One was a small apple tart and the other was a huge hunk of fresh mango with some coconut slivers. Delicious! We also found our statement in our room and a letter from the front office stating that the resort had automatically extended our checkout time to 5:00pm due to our late flight. This was a very nice touch.
We had another bottle of Veuve Amiot to drink, so we ordered another champagne set up and a cheese plate again. The sunset was absolutely spectacular (perhaps due to the intense heat) and we were treated to gorgeous colors with lots of pink, purple and orange.
As it got dark, Andrea lit a bunch of tea lights around our pool and we just kicked it in the chaises on the deck. We listened to more than two hours of Steeley Dan music on Wade’s iPod which was perfect for the setting. It was very peaceful but still very, very warm. We ordered dinner in the villa again and then watched a DVD. As usual, Andrea couldn’t keep her eyes open past 10:00pm. Good night!
p.s. Happy Birthday to Andrea's Uncle Nick!
Today is also our first full day at the St. Regis. We decided to spend the morning at the resort's Oasis Pool after having breakfast delivered to our villa.
Our cabana consisted of a platform that could be closed on three sides with canvas shades. It had two cushioned chaise lounges and a small table. Right in front of our cabana we had a private shallow jetted pool and a larger, deeper plunge pool that could only be accessed from our cabana. The five cabanas all surrounded a deeper pool replete with a waterfall. It was a pretty cool scene and we had the entire pool to ourselves most of the morning.
We then hopped a golf cart back to our villa. We hung out on our deck and in our private pool for a while and then decided to walk the 25 steps or so out our front door to go snorkeling in the resort’s lagoonarium. Andrea brought a Ziploc bag with some rolls left over from last night’s dinner to entice the fish to smile for the camera. They did not disappoint.
Following an excellent snorkeling session, we went back to the villa to kick it while waiting for the sunset. Wade plugged his iPod into the dock that came with our villa and we listened to music and splashed around in our pool for the next couple of hours. Such a rough life.
We decided to celebrate our one-week anniversary and the sunset in style, so we ordered a cheese and fruit plate along with some Veuve Amiot to be delivered to the room. Ooh la la! We just love the French part of French Polynesia!
At 6:30pm, we headed to the Jean-Georges restaurant that is on site, Lagoon. We snagged one of only four tables that are outside and facing Mount Otemanu. The view was spectacular and the food very good, as well. Celebrity note: Keyshawn Johnson (formerly of the Carolina Panthers) was eating at the next table.
All in all, a very good one-week anniversary!
After finishing our breakfast, we went to the front desk to settle our bill. We also confirmed our transfer time of 11:30am to the Vaitape dock so that we could meet up with the St. Regis boat. We arrived at the boat dock and the St. Regis boat was already there. The boat promptly left at 12 noon for our 15-minute ride to the St. Regis.
We arrived at the St. Regis with great aplomb. There were two Tahitian men playing guitars and singing, plus our butler – Claire – was waiting with cool towels. Yes, our BUTLER. She took us to the main reception area for our check-in process and brought us some cold fruit juice. She then gave us some tiare leis and pointed out the highlights of the central part of the resort. We then boarded a golf cart and she took us to our beach villa.
The beach villas are located quite a distance from the main part of the resort and back up to the resort's lagoonarium and the spa. We were assigned villa #404 (which we requested). Claire took us inside and we were completely blown away. The villa is probably almost the same square footage as our house. It consists of three rooms: bathroom, bedroom and living room.
It reminded us quite a bit of our rental house in Kauai in that almost all the walls are glass and completely open up. The king-sized bed in the bedroom overlooks the lagoon. The bathroom has both a jacuzzi tub and a "rain" shower and is stocked with Aqua di Parma products. Both the bedroom and living room have 50" Sony plasma TVs. Basically, no detail has been spared with the interior of this villa. Wow, wow, wow.
Outside, we have a two chaise lounges, our own little gazebo with table and chairs, and small plunge pool. From the deck to the lagoon is about 25 steps. The view of Mt. Otemanu from our private beach is spectacular.
After catching our breath, we decided to take a snorkel in the resort's manmade lagoon. They have stocked their lagoonarium with almost every type of South Pacific fish in order to achieve maximum diversity (how PC!) We had heard that there is even a resident turtle. Within five minutes of getting in to the clear, warm water, we found the turtle! Andrea followed him around for awhile. We also spotted all of the usual suspects that we saw over at the Hotel Bora Bora, including Moorish Idols, three types of triggerfish and very big pufferfish.
We then decided to kick it on our deck while waiting for the sunset. Wade set up his camera and tripod on the beach and snapped over a hundred pictures as the sun went down over the overwater bungalows in the distance. It was spectacular.
We then opted to have dinner in our room. Room service was incredibly prompt and replete with linens and silver. We ate salads, cheeseburgers and pomme frites, and for dessert, Wade had the creme brulee and Andrea had the banana and coconut tart. Delicious!
We've got a busy day planned for tomorrow, including a reservation to spend half the day at the resort's private Oasis Pool and a 6:30pm reservation to eat at the Jean-Georges restaurant, Lagoon. More to come.
Today was our last full day at Hotel Bora Bora. Originally, we thought we might do a private three-hour boat cruise today, but because the dawned kind of overcast, we rethought our plans. We’re on island time, that’s for sure. You just go with the flow.
Over breakfast, we decided that we’d go into Vaitape on the free shuttle offered by the hotel. The town is quite small and you can see the whole thing in about 10 minutes if you walk quickly. We did a little shopping for souvenirs and then caught the bus back to the hotel.
For the rest of the day, we chilled out at our bungalow. We went snorkeling a couple of times and were completely entertained by the sea life. We saw a pretty big sea turtle munching on some coral by the boat dock and also found our humongous moray eel friend, too. He is one big dude.
Our sunset tonight was wonderful. Wade snapped photos from our deck while Andrea wrote in her journal. We then headed over to the weekly Manager’s Party at the Pofai Beach Bar for some cocktails and hors d’oeuvres.
Following the cocktail party, we headed to dinner at the hotel restaurant. Wade had filet mignon with sweet potatoes and taro while Andrea had pasta with coconut cream sauce and scallops. Both were excellent. Matira the cat showed up looking for some tidbits and seemed to quite like the scallops and the steak. This is one discerning little cat!
After dinner we headed over to the boat dock to see if the manta rays would show up, but they did not. We’re kind of bummed that we never got to see them during our stay. I guess this means that’ll we just have to come back next year.
As we were walking up our dock to our bungalow, we saw something in the water. It was an eagle ray that had come into the shallows looking for supper. He looked like a gray ghost just skimming along the bottom. Every once in a while he’d pause over one of the shallow coral heads and grab a snack. Very cool.
We ended the day by looking through the more than 500 pictures Wade had taken today. That is not a typo. That means over a 12-hour period, he’s almost taking a picture every minute. It makes the guys pushing the button on Lost look almost sane, don’t you think?
Tomorrow we head to the St. Regis. Keep tuned to this channel.
Editor's Note: Our internet connection is quite slow, so pictures will be posted shortly.
After saying hello to the fish off our bungalow’s deck, we went to eat breakfast at the hotel restaurant. As we waited for our food, a cute little cat showed up at our table looking for a snack and waited quite patiently. She is obviously an experienced beggar. Our breakfast was delicious, especially the chocolate croissants.
While we were waiting for our food to arrive, Tara, the activities manager stopped by to say good morning. We chatted for a few moments and she asked us if we had heard anything about our luggage. We told her we had not and that we were hoping that it would come today. About 10 minutes later, she was back with the news that our bags were at the hotel and being delivered to our bungalow as we spoke!
We went back to our bungalow and there were our bags. After some celebratory unpacking, Andrea decided to do some snorkeling. The sun was high in the sky and the water was very clear. Wade threw bread off the lower deck to attract the fish and Andrea was treated to HD Fish TV. Amazing. Wade jumped in later with our digital underwater camera and here are some shots of the fish right off of our deck:
We named this dude Cheeto based on his coloring:
We then spent the rest of the day kicking it at our bungalow. After watching the sunset, we showered and got dressed for dinner. Around 6:30pm, we went to the hotel restaurant to have our romantic beach dinner. We were escorted to the water’s edge where a table for two was set up with candles and tiki torches and plenty of fresh flowers. We had some Moet & Chandon champagne while waiting for our first course. As we had skipped lunch in anticipation of a big meal, we were pretty hungry at this point.
The first course was practically a meal in itself. Our server, Midi, brought out a huge platter of fish of all kinds: lobster tails, yellowtail carpaccio, raw oysters, ahi tuna sashimi (so good!), huge shrimp, ahi tuna rolls made with fresh papaya, and last but not least, poisson cru. The second course consisted of more fish with the centerpiece being freshly-caught red snapper. Finally, our dessert consisted of chocolate lava cakes with house made coconut ice cream and lemon granite. We were so stuffed after all of this food, we felt like the blueberry girl from Willy Wonka.
Overall, it was an excellent first full day at the Hotel Bora Bora. More to come.
After a fitful night of sleep at the Intercontinental Hotel in Tahiti, we went to the gift shop and purchased a few things to tide us over, such as a toothbrushes and toothpaste, deodorant, a couple of t-shirts and some shorts. We then checked out and caught our shuttle bus back to the airport so that we could take our short flight from Tahiti to Bora Bora. We scored seats on the left side of the plane (to get the best view) and then took off. Our plane made a quick stop in Huahine – which looked beautiful from the air – and then we were on our way to Bora Bora.
Bora Bora from the air is spectacular. The water in the lagoon is so blue that it practically brings tears to your eyes. We flew over the St. Regis (where we’re staying our last three nights) and it looked pretty fantastic. We landed and went into the airport terminal (quite small) and met with a rep from the Hotel Bora Bora. We were provided sweet smelling leis made of tiare flowers and palm fronds and some bottles of water for our 10-minute boat ride to the hotel.
Upon arriving at the hotel, we were greeted by Livio, the general manager and several members of his staff along with cool, tiare-scented towels and glasses of champagne. After chatting for a few moments were taken to our overwater bungalow. Here’s our view:
We basically spent the rest of the day hanging out at our bungalow and in the water. The snorkeling is simply amazing and there are so many fish that it’s like swimming in an aquarium. Andrea discovered a huge moray eel over near the boat dock that looked like it could eat someone’s head. We kept our distance.
After watching a beautiful sunset from the deck of our bungalow, we decided to have dinner there, especially since we didn’t have anything to wear other than shorts and t-shirts. Room service was prompt and we ate out on our deck while being serenaded by the water lapping against the pilings of our bungalow.
We were pretty tuckered out by the stress and activity over the past two days, so we hit the hay around 9:30pm.
These photos were taken by our awesome wedding coordinator, Diana Gardner of Alohana Weddings. Our professional shots should be ready in a couple of weeks.
