The Most Beautiful Place on the Planet

At long last we come to the second stop of our French Polynesian adventure: Bora Bora! My expectations were pretty high for this place, but I can honestly say that they were exceeded in every way. I knew we were staying in "overwater bungalows" but I thought there might not be much to see directly under and around our place, and that we'd probably have to go somewhere else for good snorkeling - FALSE!
We saw sting rays, eagle rays, sharks, puffer fish, barracuda, eels and all manner of fish within about a 50 foot radius of our little diving platform. And all of this in water so sparklingly clear that I watched from the deck as a shark lazily swam circles around the pilings of our bungalow 20 feet below the water. And in water so warm that I never got cold even after hours of swimming (even at night!) and never wanted to get out - ever.
Words cannot describe how happy this place makes me! So here are some pictures. Ok, not just some pictures, A LOT of pictures.

Hilton Bora Bora Nui Reception

We took a jet ski tour all the way around the lagoon and stopped along the way to learn about coconuts, and our guide's upbringing. He was raised on one of the little islands surrounding the lagoon - I think he said with no power or running water, and incidentally he knows a lot about coconuts.

This pictures are from a snorkeling tour we went on with a funny frenchman who showed us some amazing spots, including this one that features entire boulders covered in anemones and clown fish!

Diving with more entertaining frenchmen! The manta rays eluded us (as they tend to do) but we saw a whole group of eagle rays and had fun watching Maddie dive for the first time (sooo cute).

eagle rays!

Ah!

A viewing window from the reception area down into the water below provided endless entertainment as we waited to scare people when they looked down at us. And scare we did! I wish we could have caught the expressions - priceless.

Jumping from the balcony - another endless source of entertainment!

more eagle rays right off our dock

I wish I could do these stars justice! You'll have to settle for this.

sleep twinners

happy birthday to me

awesome trigger fish that was as curious about me as I was about him!

the ones who made it aaaaall possible

sting rays!

My dad gave us a beautiful little Easter sermon on Sunday evening just as the sun was setting in the cute little chapel they have up on the hill above the resort.

our bungalows

Maddie was SO SAD to be leaving.

sleep twinners again!

I'm totally convinced that there is no place on earth more beautiful than Bora Bora - feel free to challenge me on that now that you've seen the evidence ;). I can't wait until I get to go back some day! We are so lucky that my parents like us enough to let us tag along on their vacations. In fact, we may have been the luckiest people on earth in the most amazing place on earth.