Shark-feeding

Woke up and the sun was SHINING!!! YES!!! Clear blue skies greeted us on our second day in Bora Bora... :)

We had booked the shark and ray-feeding tour with the reception the night before, and the boat's due to pick us up at the hotel pier at 9.30am. We chose to go for the half-day tour, which covers a circle island tour by boat, shark feeding and ray feeding. For an additional US$30, we could get the full-day tour, that includes a picnic on a private motu (island in Tahiti). But we didn't think that we could eat $30 worth of food to make it worth while.

There's another couple on the pier when we get there - Italians, what a surprise...The boat is about 15 minutes late, on island time. When it finally got there, we saw a couple of familiar faces - we shared the taxi with them from Sofitel Marara into town the day before. The Italian couple get in and guess what? There were already 3 other Italian couples on board!!! We get in the seat right at the front of the boat. Our guide's name is Patrick...I think.

He starts us off on the boat trip - we get serenaded with the ukulele as well. Hotels are pointed out along the way - well, what else would you point out when you're circling the main island and the one thing you can always see is the volcano that created Bora Bora - Mt. Otamanu... What was really annoying though, was the Italian guy who's sitting behind us (the couple at the pier ahead of us), who talks the entire time that Patrick is speaking. And he has that piercing Italian-o tone which makes it quite impossible to hear Patrick above him!

But the view that we get is absolutely amazing. The colour of the sea is an brilliant turquoise that looks like a kid's painting - it just seems unnatural! It changes from deep turquoise to bright turquoise in patches. Out in the distance, we can see the waves breaking on the atolls that surround the main island. Mt. Otamanu is the peak of the volcano, and the atolls is what's remained of the mouth of the volcano once the sea's flooded in. The water in the island is always calm, as it's actually a lagoon, but not necessarily shallow. The depths of the lagoon's waters range from 200 feet to 2 feet.

Patrick is driving us further and further out towards the atoll...and the breaking waves are HUGE! Don't think it's safe for surfing though...He finally stops the boat in about 5 feet of water and everyone's looking around to see what we've stopped for. We see shapes coming towards us...the sharks are here!

Rod starts humming the theme tune from Jaws (predictable!) and then sings a song from the film..."Farewell and adieu my fair Spanish ladies..." and it then sticks in my head the rest of the day! Argh! Eventually, we make out that there are about 5 black-tipped sharks swimming around us. The biggest one looks about 5 feet in length, not very big or scary at all. But exciting to see them up close. Everyone starts putting on their snorkel masks and reef shoes to jump in, except for the couple from Marara. The guy was worried about getting bitten!!!

Rod jumps in before me, to check how deep the water is. He says that it's okay for me to get in, but just barely. I pass him the underwater camera, since I didn't think I'd be able to manage camera and snorkel and keep afloat all at the same time. I take photos from the boat. But I couldn't imagine going on the tour and not getting into the water, so I quickly put away the camera and climbed down the ladder into the water. The water's just above my shoulders, so I was fairly 'safe' to snorkel.

Patrick allows us about 30 minutes to snorkel but we weren't allowed to feed the sharks. He's the only one who does the feeding - once he was sure that everyone had gotten back on the boat, he took out a pail of fresh tuna fish and starts throwing chunks into the water for the sharks. It was the 'photo opp' of the tour! Quick, take more photos! Take more photos!

He starts up the boat again and takes us further round the island - there's a stretch of island (on the atoll side) where the Starwood Group must have decided to over-populate. Le Meridien is already there, they recently completed and opened St. Regis and are in the midst of building 4 Seasons there - with 100 rooms!!!! It already looks very high-density and it's not even half completed yet. On top of that, the side of the main island they face is the...drum roll...rubbish dump, where they burn their rubbish on a daily basis. So it's a really expensive view to pay for. Was trying to spot the St. Regis before Patrick pointed it out - using magazine pictures of Nicole and Keith as reference. I was right in my guess too! Sad sod that I am...