14 Sep 2022
We booked via Manawa, a private whale-watching tour for 3 hours in Bora Bora. Maui was our captain/guide and we set off on a very rainy, windy Sunday morning. The weather was abysmal and we moved up and down the coast in the open water looking for humpbacks. We found 2 boats that had sighted them and we played the waiting game for about 2 hours, without any success.
We moved on, near the reef and the swell which was pretty wild, and suddenly with 30 mins to go we spotted a mother with calf.
The sea was too rough to swim and the current too strong, however, we had 30 minutes of uninterrupted observation of 2 whales, which was pretty awesome.
Maui was a true gentleman, he could see how important it was for us and he let us stay and observe until they submerged - we returned 30 minutes later than scheduled but we at least had seen the whales and had a positive experience.
The private tour for this activity is very expensive, we paid a substantial amount of money and it was only for 3 hours - in Moorea the whale-watching is 4 hours long.