Bora Bora — island
Image by Julius_Silver from Pixabay

Bora Bora

Bora-Bora

  • Elevation727 m
  • 2 min read
  • 16.498° S 151.736° W

Interesting facts

  • Bora Bora was an independent Polynesian kingdom until 1888, when France annexed it and forced its last queen, Teriimaevarua III, to abdicate.
  • James Cook sighted the island on 29 July 1769, guided by the Tahitian navigator and priest Tupaia, who sailed with his expedition.
  • Polynesian voyagers settled the island around the 3rd century AD; the first European to sight it was the Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen in 1722.
  • Its Second World War airstrip on Motu Mute was French Polynesia's only international airport until Faa'a Airport opened on Tahiti in 1960.
  • The American base never saw combat, yet all eight of its heavy 7-inch coastal guns are still on the island, emplaced at strategic points.
  • Tuuraapuo Bay is the volcano's old main crater; the islets of Toopua and Toopua-iti are all that remain of its collapsed south-western rim.
  • According to legend, Oro, the Polynesian god of war, came down to earth on a rainbow onto the summit of Mount Pahia.
  • Frigate birds nest in a large cave just below the summit of Mount Otemanu, the island's sheer central peak.
  • The stone platform of Marae Marotitini on the north shore was originally 42 metres long; two royal stone box tombs were found around the site.
  • At Marae Fare Opu on Faanui Bay, two of the upright limestone slabs bounding the platform are carved with turtle motifs.

Why it is worth it

Bora Bora is what remains of a volcano that was active roughly three and a half to three million years ago and has since been sinking slowly into the Pacific. What is left above water is a green, broken crown of basalt, about 8 km long and 5 km wide, whose summit, Mount Otemanu, rises in a sheer dark tooth to 727 metres, with Mount Pahia (661 m) beside it. Around this core lies the thing that makes the island famous: a wide lagoon, shading from deep blue to a milky turquoise over the sand flats, closed off from the ocean by a barrier reef and a ring of low, palm-covered islets, the motu, with a single deep-water opening, the Teavanui Pass, on the west side.

The best of Bora Bora is the relationship between these elements, and the island rewards looking at it from several angles. From the motu the whole of Otemanu stands up across the water; from a boat inside the lagoon the colour of the water changes with every metre of depth; from the air, on the approach to the airport, the island reads like a diagram of how an atoll is born, with the old volcano in the middle and the reef already marking the outline it will one day become. The main village, Vaitape, sits on the west coast of the main island, and on the old Polynesian land there are ceremonial platforms, marae, of the more than forty once recorded, 13 survive.

The twentieth century arrived abruptly. In February 1942 an American convoy arrived to build a fuel and supply base, known as Operation Bobcat, with nine ships and nearly 7,000 men; they built the airstrip on Motu Mute that is still the island's airport, and left in June 1946. The first hotel opened in 1961, and in 1970 the first bungalows on stilts over the lagoon were built here, a design that spread from Bora Bora to tropical resorts around the world. Today most of the overwater villas line the motu and the reef edge, facing back towards the mountain.

Getting there

Bora Bora lies about 230 km north-west of Papeete, on Tahiti, whose Faa'a International Airport (PPT) is the gateway to French Polynesia. Air Tahiti flies between Tahiti and Bora Bora Airport (BOB) several times a day; the flight takes about 50 minutes. The airport is on Motu Mute, about 6 km from the main island, and a lagoon shuttle boat connects it with Vaitape. A passenger ferry also runs from Papeete to Vaitape a few times a week, a journey of roughly seven hours.

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From the encyclopaedia

Bora Bora is a French island group in the Leeward Islands, comprising the western part of the Society Islands of French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of the French Republic in the South Pacific. Bora Bora has a total land area of 30.55 km2 (12 sq mi). The main island, located about 230 kilometres northwest of Papeete, is surrounded by a lagoon and a barrier reef. In the center of the island are the remnants of an extinct volcano, rising to two peaks, Mount Pahia and Mount Otemanu; the highest point is at 727 m (2,385 ft).

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