Honeymoon pictures from Moorea/Bora Bora - Above water (56K!!)

[Leopardess]

Alright, here are pictures from our honeymoon (from Moorea and Bora bora) that we took on our digital camera. Here are some of my favorites in no particular order.

This one is definitely one of my top pics. This is unedited and not color enhanced. This was near sunset on Moorea.

This was so fun. After we had dinner and watched the dance/fire show, they let us take a picture with the group – and gave me a beautiful flower head wreath, too!

Us standing in front of a huge Tiki god in front of our hotel after:

Us…hard to take pictures of yourselves:

I have so many sunrise/sunset pictures that I can’t even choose which I like better. We saw every sunrise/sunset on Moorea but one. The sun set around 6 there and rose also around 6. Because of the time zone change and sun pattern, we’d naturally go to sleep between 7-9 and wake up between 4-5 am. Perfect for sun pictures

More to follow...

EDIT: The quality of these is quite crappy, I now realize, because they were compressed. Sorry.

 

[Leopardess]

Black tipped reef sharks. I have underwater closeups of these from our swim with them that will be posted in the underwater pictures thread. They look so similar to great whites, but smaller and with a black tip. They also have lemon sharks there, outside the reef barriers, but we didn’t see any.

Us after a long day of doing things (it was so hot that day, too).

Here is chris and a sting ray. Those things are so awesome. They’ll jump all over you for some food.

One of the coolest places we went was Bloody Mary’s in Bora Bora. It’s world famous. As the name suggests, this is where the drink the Bloody Mary was invented. I had one and it was pretty good. The floor of the restaurant was sand (you could check your shoes) and you sat on polished coconut tree stumps. The ceiling was covered in hanging bamboo leaves and trunks. It’s supposedly “the” hangout spot on Bora Bora. In front of the entrance, they have big boards listing all of the famous people who have come there (lots of names I knew, lots of names I didn’t. I have the pictures if anyone wants to see them – just ask). There is no menu. The day’s catch of local seafood (and 1 chicken dish, 1 meat, 1 vegetarian) is on display and they explain what each thing is to a group of about 10 people at a time. Then you pick what you want in what order.

Our hotel in Bora bora. The water was so clear.

 

[Kasakato]

Those are so nice, its not even nice. I don't know that that means but they are nice.

 

[Leopardess]

Another beautiful sunrise in Moorea. They had two docks; one was facing sunrise, the other sunset. It was perfect. It’s hard to believe that that is ocean water you’re seeing so calm.

Yet another sunrise in Moorea. Breathtaking.

We went on a 4X4 excursion on Moorea, up Magic Mountain and to Belvedere Look out. You wouldn’t believe this trip. We were standing on the seats of an open backed land rover hybrid of some sort (sooo beat up), going up the steepest “road” ever. I’d call it a drainage ditch. They had to put planks in parts to drive across. We were ducking to avoid getting hit in the head with mangoes, oranges, grapefruits, coconuts, etc because the trees hang into the roads. At one point, we stopped in this mucky stream and the tour guide “Blanc Blanc” (White white) – self named since he’s one of few white natives – got out some canned fish, opened it with a machede, and splashed the water until some eels swam up. He said they get to be about 8 feet…we only saw one that was about 5 feet. It was so cool:

Another sunset on Moorea with a big boat. The sky was really pretty that night.

We rented a car one day (Ford Fiesta) since there is no transportation on the island (or any of them for that matter, but this was Moorea again). Gas is about 5 US dollars a gallon there. We drove around the entire island in about 50 minutes. If you get gas in one of the marinas in Bora bora, you’ll get charged 24 US dollars PER GALLON. This spot is one we drove to on the other side of the island. It’s the Sofitel hotel. The lagoon section they were in was gorgeous – just all white sand and between 2-5 feet deep. However, I think I prefered where our hotel was located – on the edge of a coral reef. The interior secion of the bungalows was shallow and white sand, but at the end of the bungalows, the reef dropped down about 30 feet, all the way to the bottom, sometimes sloped, sometimes steep. This meant you could snorkel all around it. In the white lagoon like at the sofitel, the live rock and corals are only smaller pieces that are spread out. It depends a lot on what you like, in regards to which you’d prefer.

 

[Leopardess]

Here’s a little pineapple field in the mountains. Holy crap are those leaves SHARP.

Here is a little sea urchin. Most of them didn’t look like this kind, though. The others were spinier and longer (like on the poster picture).

Here is a huge fish skeleton that we found while perusing a live rock beach. There were other vertebrae in the water that had already broken off. I’m not quite sure what kind of fish it’s from.

This is a little blenny (? Goby? I have no clue really)…so let’s go with “fish”…that we found on the same beach. He was chilling on a piece of rock and I’m surprised we even saw him. He let me get really close to him, too.

Here are a couple of posters that were done by the bar to let you know the types of things you could see. We saw pretty much everything on there, and a lot more that wasn’t too.

 

[OrionGirl]

Gorgeous! That first one is an awesome display of contrast.

Don't worry about the compression issues--oranges and reds are never friendly. You could try resizing options, but really, the colors will make it hard to avoid some quality issues.

 

[Leopardess]

This is an aerial view of Bora Bora from the plane (on which I had one of the scariest experiences of my LIFE...involving something that would never be allowed in the united states:

Here is the Pearl Resort where we stayed on Moorea. I thought I had a better picture of it somewhere....

Us at the Sofitel Lookout:

 

[Dangerdoll]

GREAT pic's Leo.... WOWEE it looks like such a paradise over there!! Thanks for sharing! Good Luck with everything, sweetie

 

[Leopardess]

Tall Volcanic peaks:

Quite honestly where you rent a car on Moorea (notice the smoke fire in the background. You could smell smoke all over the island...it's to keep the bugs away). Everything is open air there. Airports, restaurants, hotel lobbies, everything. There's no crime there, no poisonous bugs, no poisonous snakes, and no dangerous land animals. So it's really a safe, laid back place:

Sunset. I'm a sucker for them.

It was an amazing trip. We just may move there someday.

That's all I'll post for above water pics unless anyone wants to see something specific that they think I may have gotten a picture of.

EDIT: A couple of random notes:

1) The islands are over run with wild chickens. They are everywhere. In the roads, on the front yards, running around your restaurants and hotels. Everywhere. They let them go wherever they wish because they eat the dangerous centipedes that can cause a nasty bite.
2) The islands smell of smoke everywhere you go. It's easy to dispose of garbage (much of which is organic material anyway) and it keeps the mosquitos away. Smoke fires are everywhere.
3) Here, in the NE US, the crescent of a moon is always on the left or right. There, it was upside down like the smile on a smiley face.
4) Even at midday equatorial sun on a white sand motu (island), where the lagoon water is 85F +, the sand is NOT warm to the touch.
5) They don't have tides, they don't have waves (in most places) because the barrier reefs protect them.
6) The reefs around much of Moorea will stop a 20ft tall tsunami.

 

[nursie]

SPECTACULAR!!!!
What a wonderful way to spend your honeymoon. I looked at these at work..the internet connection there much better than my 56K at home.