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Lagoon Lunch Landing

The Maohi Nui ¾-day tour lasts about five hours.  It includes two snorkeling stops with a Polynesian feast between snorkeling areas.  The feast is traditionally prepared in an in-ground “oven” of heated lava rock covered by banana leaves and a suspiciously untraditional-looking synthetic oilskin tarp.

Patrick checks the Polynesian “Oven”

We’ll take a look at the goodies inside that oven shortly, but first a brief word on our snorkeling adventures this outing.  Our pre-lunch snorkel was in a coral area, and the waters were teeming with many docile, almost tame stingrays and curious blacktip reef sharks.  The image below is from NewsCrab’s article Bora Bora Island – The dream honeymoon destination of everyone:

Blacktip reef shark — Image from NewsCrab

Once our first snorkel was complete, we headed for a private motu (Polynesian reef islet with vegetation).  :

Double-Parked next to the Picnic Table

Now let’s look into that Polynesian oven.  Here’s Patrick opening the “oven door”:

Opening the oven door

Next he removes the “foil wrap” from the food, revealing the traditional banana leaves covering the pit:

Checking the baking dish

And finally we get our first glimpse of lunch:

Fantastic Feast

The goodies were removed from the pit and arranged buffet style atop tables.  The menu included suckling pig, chicken with local spinach, manioc (starchy root vegetable similar to cassava or yucca), plantains, bread fruit, and a side of raw fish salad with coconut milk.  Wines were included; white, red, and even champagne.

Meats and Local Vegetables

Heading for Bora Bora?  Want to enjoy this tour?  Here’s the website for Maohi Nui (and make sure you get on Patrick’s outrigger):

Maohi Nui — Lagoon Tour & Lunch

Bora Bora

I simply cannot recommend highly enough the magnificent folks at Maohi Nui and their lunch and lagoon snorkeling tour.  It was simply a fantastic way to spend our time here on Bora Bora.  Below you see Ursula posing with our outrigger guide, the flamboyant and exhibitionist (more on that later during this week’s Fun Photo Friday) Patrick.

Patrick smoozing with Ursula

Our large tour group split among several Maohi Nui watercraft.  Two groups, including Ursula and I, opted for the more adventurous outriggers, while others wound up in a more conventional tour boat.

Maohi Nui outrigger

Maohi Nui tour boat

As you can see, the outrigger outran the tour boat on our way to our lagoon lunch.  We were waiting ashore as the boat meandered in.  Here you can see the tour boat saddling up to a dock:

Maohi Nui tour boat

In the distance you can see below one of the many resorts here in which the thatched roof bungalows sit atop stilts over the tropical blue waters:

Maohi Nui outrigger

Sitting options for lunch offered one particularly unique option, sitting at a table in seat-deep water:

Bora Bora lagoon lunch