The storm raged quite strongly last night. It sounded like someone was trying to break in through our door because it kept rattling from the wind. Our morning began like any other — with a quick nasal swab followed by the traditional covid mouth swab. Other than poking our nasal cavities for fun, the morning was rather calm. At one point, a rainbow formed on the horizon. For whatever reason, they decided to completely alter the breakfast situation. Whereas before, we would receive a basket with about four pieces of bread/pastry and a fruit plate, we were now directed to a buffet where we each were given our own individual tongs. Presumably other elite Hilton members were complaining that their $55 breakfast had been slimmed down to a bread basket and fruit plate and that was that.
We handed our biohazard bags with our covid samples to the reception and checked out around 8am. We took one last look at the sprawling Conrad Bora Bora Nui and its 10 guests. We boarded a boat with three of aforementioned guests and set sail for the Bora Bora airport. Whereas most people probably end their vacations at this point, ours could fortunately continue onward. 25 minutes or so later, we arrived at the airport dock. Since we were going to Raiatea rather than back to Tahiti, the airport did not seem terribly busy. We ended up checking in right away and then discovered there was no security, so that was that. We boarded ten minutes prior to departure time and found ourselves in the air within no time.
We had some good views of Bora Bora on our way out and got to catch a glimpse of some of the extra posh, super expensive resorts on the eastern motus. These go for a minimum of $2000 per night. Nicole’s gold status would not have helped us. The flight from Bora Bora to Raiatea was about ten minutes. We collected our bags and boarded another boat. Having spent five minutes of quality time on Raiatea, we left with a sadness and heavy heart for the great memories we had established there, but it was time to soldier on.
This boat was also about 25 minutes. We passed the remainder of Raiatea and its neighboring island Taha’a before we reached our own little private island resort of La Pirogue Api, which I booked using credit card points. Though the sun was partially shining down during the boat ride, it disappeared behind the clouds promptly upon our arrival.
We were met by a French couple named Aurélie and Pierre who gave us leis and a welcome drink. They essentially run the place. It has four bungalows, and we are the only people staying on the island, so I suspect we will have a very one-on-one experience. It also gave me a chance to practice my French a bit. The entire island is perhaps 1/50th the size of the Hilton property on Bora Bora to give a rough estimate. It’s quite small.
After being shown to our private bungalow, we changed, and it began to rain. It came on hard and fast, but subsided quickly as well. It would come in waves for the rest of the day. When it settled down for a moment, we walked around the island with Pierre showing us around. As one might imagine, it’s very quiet here.
We decided to take out the property’s kayaks for a little bit. We paddled around the island, which did not take long. We thought another wave of rain was coming, so we decided one lap was enough.
While we sought refuge back at the bungalow, Nicole got some emails about three different scripts she has submitted to a prestigious script competition. All of them advanced to the top 10% and one of them is still advancing through the quarter finals. We will have to celebrate later — perhaps with Pierre and Aurélie.
It was a lazy day of just settling in. Pierre is also the chef, and his outfit consists of board shorts and a chef’s top which Nicole finds very amusing. Unfortunately for her, however, I imagine Pierre cooks a lot of fish, which Nicole has never been keen on. For dinner, which was very fancy, but somehow unpretentious, we did indeed have some fish. We also had some sweet potato waffles that Nicole enjoyed very much, and a flaming banana dessert with local rum from Taha’a.
As dinner drew to a close, Pierre looked out the window from the vacant restaurant and then leaned toward us as if he had some sort of secret to share and asked, “Do you want to feed the sharks?” We were intrigued. Evidently like clockwork, a half dozen or more black tip reef sharks like to swim in the shallows right next to the island around 8pm every night. We were just feet away. It was very exciting to watch them circle. More adventures tomorrow.
passports & pepto bismol 