Hello everyone and welcome to this new report.
I left you in Taha'a where we had a wonderful stay.
As usual, a little music before starting the bonus.
Drone Report!
The Motu has the particularity of having a known and recognized coral garden.
Cheers!
The garden are all manucured!
We had a very nice beachfront villa with private access to it.
Our villa
With its little private swimming pool
and one thing I love: an outdoor bathtub
A desk with a small bottle of champagne as a congratulations
Flight routing
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No miles or status points accumulated with this flight, Air Tahiti is not part of one of the 3 known alliances.
The journey was to be made in a latest generation ATR72-600 with 68 seats, but in the end we will have 72 seats on a rather special ATR, as we will see below.
AT RAIATEA - UTUROA AIRPORT
We leave with our marine shuttle from the hotel quay to the airport.
We come back to the common room for arrivals and check-in.
Today's FIDS
We wait in front of one of the two boarding gates.
Boarding and for the first time with priorities where two passengers who were with us at the hotel jump the queue in a rather ostentatious way. For the record we had surprised them on 2 occasions (then caught them on the 3rd occasion) speaking very badly and in a very condescending way to the hotel staff.
ONBOARD THE ATR72
A quick word about our aircraft since it is an ATR that belongs to Amelia on wet lease for Air Tahiti to cover the excess demand. This aircraft is a former Airinair and Air France HOP (F-HOPN), in the golden age when Air France regional fleet had still a hundred units.
The transport of the aircraft was a real and long journey!
Aircraft : ATR72-600
Tail Number: F-HGNU
Engines: 2x PWV WP127
Age:9 years old
Lay out: Y72
Which explains why we find the old HOP seats.
The seat is a little more comfortable than those in the Air Tahiti cabin, they recline and there is the famous coat rack and finally pearl necklace rack that you are given as soon as you leave a hotel.
The safety demonstrations are done the old fashion way, without the little music of Air Tahiti. The staff seems to be from mainland France.
U-Turn and take off!
we take off facing east and pass back over this sumptuous lagoon.
We can clearly see that Raiatea and Taha'a were indeed one and the same island before.
A little tour on this beautiful lagoon.
and the many motu, including ours.
There is no service, the flight itself lasts 13 min!
We are already approaching the pearl of the Pacific, the unique Bora-Bora.
This has to be the most beautiful approach I have seen, I would even go so far as to say that it is the most beautiful approach ever, ahead of SXM (San Marteen) or Nice XD
Have you ever seen such a color?
The airport is located on an arm of the coral reef.
Amelia does not arm her ATR with the Air Tahiti magazine, otherwise I offer you a little moment on the continuation of the adventures of Bougainville!
On the world travel side, my book that accompanied me during this trip, we learn that Bougainville leaves Tahiti with the chief's son, Aotourou, who actively wanted to embark with him.
When approaching Bora Bora, he made it clear to the navigator that Tahiti and Moorea formed an alliance, and were practically in a state of permanent war with Bora-Bora but that they could anchor there, take prisoners and that the women were sublime.
Bougainville did not want to deviate from his pacifist approach and continued on his way, until he came across the Samoua archipelagos, Aotourou thought that it was the homeland of our navigator, he did not suspect the long road that remained to be done.
Aotourou spent all those long months of travel to France to explain to Bougainville many details on Tahitian society, almost anthropological, and even managed to unmask the assistant of the botanist on board who was a woman in men's clothes.
He stayed in Paris, never got lost, was friends with the Countess of Choiseul, loved going to the opera and even met Louis XV. However, he missed his homeland and Bougainville invested his personal fortune to pay him the trip back to Tahiti.
Unfortunately he died of illness on the way in Madagascar but the book was released before this sad end.
We do not have a portrait of Aotourou, yet he met many personalities and "influencers" of the time, it is sad that none of them took a selfie with him.
On final Approach
U-turn then taxi to the legendary airport!
AT BORA BORA AIRPORT
The airport was built during World War II by the Americans troops as a rear base in the Pacific, and was the starting point for the island's fame in the United States.
Hello Tiki
Last look at our aircraft
The airport is connected to the main city of Vaitape by a ferry whose transport price is included in your Air Tahiti ticket, and it belongs to the company. It is a change from a taxi or train to the city!
I leave you with this sign indicating the Bora-Bora airport, which finally confirms the most beautiful landing in the world!
see you at the next episode!
Hi Chris B!
Another fantastic report, Thanks for the look into more new islands!
Gosh, your villa looks amazingly stunning. I see a glass of champagne/sparkling wine, guessing it was like 25 Euros per glass?😅. Amaazing pictures, once again, thanks for sharing!
How long before departure did you get to the airport?
That is quite the journey Amelia had to get to the French Polynesia! wow! Really cool to see a different product, aka the old HOP Seats. Seems nice for a 13 minute flight😅, don’t think any service is really needed lol.
Could not agree more. Even if your pictures are amazing, it’s even more gorgeous in person. Truly surreal.
Did they also bring your bags with a tractor?😅
Thanks again for another great report, and really looking forward to the next one (and hopefully a Bora Bora tourism bonus🙂).
Hi Razza and thanks for the comment and your very kind words!
in polynesian francs, not far from it ahah
I can't really remember but sailing took like 30 min, I think we went there under one hour to maximize our time there..
But man this island was a paradise.
yes indeed!
Have you ever flown with AF before?
even for 13 min I wouldn't mind champagne ahah
Yes tractor all the way ahah
Merci pour ce report Christophe !
Eh bien dis-donc ! C’est autre chose que des vacances au camping municipal de Givors. Disons que Bora Bora, c’est un peu plus loin mais surtout que c’est un peu plus dépaysant.
T’as vraiment fait de belles photos.
Sinon, c’est le genre de balada aérienne qu’on ferait bien tous les jours. Ça doit pas être facile d’être personnel navigant dans ce coin et de rester concentré sur le métier.
Bons vols
Salut cher Lyonnais et merci pour le commentaire!
Je connais pas le camping de Givors mais peut-etre qu'il faut que j'y aille faire un tour ahah
En fait je republie mes FR significatifs dirons-nous, avec 2 ans de retard et en anglais - la destination n'est pas bien couverte sur les pages anglophones.
Merci pour les photos, mais le lieu aidait grandement!
les pauvres on les plaindrait ahha
A bientot!
Oh wow, I would love to get some drone shots like that over Tahiti! I imagine it's pretty restrictive and you have to stay pretty far from hotels/buildings to avoid noise pollution or bothering guests.
Absolutely, just amazing colours and landscapes. It's like a dream! Looks like you have to sit on the left side to get the good views on landing?
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much for your comment mate!
In France (and everywhere under french terrritory) it is in theory forbidden to fly drones over a group of people, beaches, towns etc..
But here I took the risk I mean it is just too beautiful
Well the wind changes its wind every 2 seconds so you don't really know which side is going to be the "good" one but the approah was just stunning