I was given one job to do for our wedding…the Honeymoon!

Well where do we start?.

Firstly though THANKYOU Ella very much for making our honeymoon the most amazing and enjoyable experience. I was given one job to do for our wedding (the Honeymoon) and I know that Carly is grateful that I done a good job with organising everything. (All You – but I will take the wrap –haha).

Bora Bora – Words would not do this place any justice. As I said to Carly everyday whilst we were there “this is not happening, we need to wake up now”. Everything from the Bungalow, the welcoming, food, service and room service made us feel like a king and queen. Every single second we were there, was just unbelievable. Nothing was too much for the staff there. They did bend over backwards for us. Everyone that we met there too felt the same way as us. Even the very lucky 4 couples from Canada that won their trip. We took over 800 photos whilst we were away.

The meals package (breakfast and dinner) we had was the best. Every meal was definitely first class. Although we had this, some meals for dinner however did require a surcharge (this was no downside as it was worth it and plus it would have cost a lot more if we didn’t have it prepaid. It ended up being less than $50 Aus per night but this included alcohol) on top of what we had already paid for. We had a choice of 3 restaurants but whilst we were there 1 was closed due to renovations (watching the locals actually make the roof for their buildings is another experience in itself). This place was spectacular; we highly recommend it, definitely a place for relaxing and nothing extreme. Included on the resort was kayaking, snorkelling from the bungalows and much more. The weather was the best, it made up for our not to nice summer in Australia. It was about 26 degrees most days but about 60% humidity. Although there were lots to do, Carly and I spent the majority of our time asleep by the pool or snorkelling from our bungalow.

We did a tour of the Bora Bora Lagoonarium, definitely do this, you could either do the full day or half day tour. We done the half day tour and it was less than $100 each, now we wish we done the full day as it was un real but anyhow. You actually swim with the sharks, stingrays and tropical fish. Now they are not 10-20 meters from you, they were swimming up and brushing past our bodies. I don’t know of any place in Australia where you can do this, get so close. Lucky the sharks in the lagoon were only reef sharks but still. The stingrays in the actual research lagoon of Bora Bora had their barbs removed which was lucky as one of them actually brushed my side with their tail which made me bleed a little, I didn’t notice until we got out that I was bleeding. I got back in and done it again so it wasn’t too bad.

We spent a few hours in Vaitape itself (main island of Bora Bora) and it was a real eye opener. Carly purchased herself a nice black pearl necklace. We met with some locals, had lunch and had a look around. It cost us less than $20 Aus for return boat transfer to and from our resort. There is a lot to do if you want within Bora Bora. I’m not the usual person that can sit down for more than 5 minutes without getting bored, I as was Carly very surprised that I chilled out and relaxed. It was hard not to. I did try and organise for us to go on a private romantic dinner at the Hilton, but it cost $700+ Australian and when we thought about the food we were already getting we didn’t see the point in doing it. It is a bit expensive there especially in the resorts (even cheaper in Tahiti, a Corona in Bora Bora was about $12 Aus and in Tahiti it was about $6 Aus, but this didn’t stop me at all) but if you think about it you can pay around the same prices hear on Sydney Harbour.

I honestly could go on forever with Bora Bora, this place was definitely worth every cent. We will be doing this again. This was the perfect honeymoon escape.
Tahiti on the other hand was not what we expected. We are glad we did stay a couple of days here after Bora Bora; at least we can say we have been there, but it did make us want to come home. Knowing this now we would have rathered staying in Bora Bora for the extra couple of nights. I guess we expected it to be as developed as Australia as we knew it was going to be a bit more expensive, but it wasn’t. But I’m glad we did stay, I love joining in and learning about every culture.

Everything from the flights, transfers and the resort in Tahiti were all perfect. There was always someone there for us. I am a very independent person, so at first with everyone carrying our bags and waiting on us and everything I was not enjoying it, but Carly soon pulled me into line. Butler By The Sea definitely had everything covered.

If you have questions regarding our stay or even some more tips, you can email me on sclarke34@hotmail.com . In all honesty we did not find this trip to be expensive at all. We stayed on Daydream Island in Australia for 1 week and the prices were generally the same. I read up on all the blogs and things about Tahiti before we left, the majority of these were complaining about the price of food etc, but seriously you can pay the same prices in Sydney on a night out or dinner.

TIPS:
• Once you get to Bora Bora, if you have time the first day, go into Vaitape (Main Island) and get some groceries from the store to have for snacks and lunch whilst you are staying there. This does save you some money. Pretty much whatever you are looking for is there. Transfers generally leave the resort every hour.
• We took a couple of water bottles with us and filled them up from boiling the kettle in our room or from the water dispenser in the gym. Ice is readily available close to your room at all times.
• Have a hat and sunscreen on you at all times. You could really feel yourself burning in less than 5 minutes in the sun and that’s not exaggerating either.
• Make sure you take an adapter to charge phones, batteries and what have you.
• Insect repellent is a must. They weren’t too bad when we were there however just from the climate you could tell that at times they could be hell.
• Although the majority of the staff and locals can speak a little English, if you can brush up on a little French it wouldn’t hurt. Even just hello, thank you and things. Although by the end of our trip we knew a few words.

Sincerely Thank you Ella and team for everything that you have done for us. Organising a honeymoon amongst the wedding plans would not have went to well. I honestly did not do a single thing in organising this trip apart from basically answering a few questions about where would like to stay and for how long. We did get other quotes from different travel agencies before signing away with you guys and seriously with everything you guys included in our package, they could not get within $1500.00 on what you could do, even when one of Carly’s friends manages an agency. All our future holidays will be done via you at Butler By The Sea that is for sure.

Cheers. Shaun and Carly.