Best experience I have ever had. Wonderful! I have traveled all overthe world and this was the best place I have ever been at. Maui (name of the guide; not the Hawaiian island) and his sister made the experience even better: genuine, kind individuals! Will have that memory for the rest of my life! Extremely grateful and worth every penny!
We booked the private lagoon boat tour with shark and stingray snorkeling and lunch on motu.
We were picked up by our guide Rainui (the best and we’ll get to that) at our Four Seasons dock. He cheerfully greeted us and placed our belongings carefully on the boat. Once we began, he explained what we should expect as we journey around the island. He’s very proud of his culture so he’s knowledgeable and shared very good information with us. He also said if he’s talking too much, just let him know and he won’t be offended at all. We were totally fine with him explaining. I also asked him if we could stop at Matira beach for a couple of minutes to get a drone shot since our resorts had drone restrictions. He gladly anchored the boat and gave me plenty of time to shoot.
Our first spot was stingray snorkeling. One specific female stingray loves him. I forgot her name though. She always waits for him. As soon as we arrived, she started swimming around and when he jumped in the water, she was just swimming all over him. It was like seeing a puppy finally meeting its owner after a long day. He taught us about the stingrays and explained to us how they take care of them. Since it was a private tour, we got to swim with the stingrays so closely for the whole time.
After that we went out of the lagoon into the ocean side. We told Rainui my wife has extreme motion sickness so he took that into consideration and was very careful with his maneuvering into the ocean and she had no problem! Once we got out of the lagoon, we got to the shark snorkeling area. It was filled with black tip reef shark (about 4 ft long average). There I was able to fly the drone again and had time to snorkel. There were tons of shark! No need to be afraid because these sharks are more afraid of us than we are afraid of them. I admit I was a little scared when I first experienced shark snorkeling.
We headed back to lagoon and towards the coral garden. Once we got there, there were so many colorful corals. Rainui led us around the garden slowly so we can see the fish, corals, clams, and everything else that were living there. He explained to us how easy it is for us to damage/kill corals but how difficult it is to grow/revive them. He showed us a coral he and his uncle planted 15 years ago and how much (or little) it grew. That really put into perspective how corals have been damaged throughout the ocean and haven’t been revived enough since then. Sad, but gave us more motivation to be mindful about the ocean and the nature.
We were headed towards the motu (small island) where we would have our private lunch. But not so fast! During the boat ride, Rainui told us about his uncle who is the owner of Lagoon Services. He lives on his own island with 12 dogs! We talked about how my wife loves dogs. It wasn’t part of the itinerary but Rainui took us to his uncle’s island! We actually met the uncle there and saw his twelve dogs running around and swimming in the ocean. Not done yet! The uncle said to wait as we were leaving. He was just baking fresh coconut bread and he gave us some to eat. OMG this was the best coconut bread we ever had. Every coconut bread we had after that, didn’t compare.
OK now it’s time for lunch, for real. We got to the motu with a table set in the shallow water with all the food prepared for us. Rainui explained every single dish and how to eat using the plate made out of coconut leaves. The food was the bomb! There were grilled chicken, beef, and fish, along with various kinds of Tahitian bread, rice salad, vegetable salad, and various fruits. Juice, water, oh and yes, beer and wine. The quantity was more than enough for the two of us. And the quality? Idk why they don’t have any Michelin stars. Nothing beats eating delicious food with our feet in cool lagoon water, tiny fish swimming all around, stingrays and sharks come and go, the view of Mt. Otemanu right behind turquoise blue water, all the while Rainui singing and playing his ukulele.
Rainui, if you're reading this, parahata YOU ARE AWESOME! If you're reading this to figure out your Bora Bora activity, you should've booked it 5 minutes ago!