Hawaii + French Polynesia

[Peter]

My wife and I were lucky enough to take a delayed honeymoon this fall in Hawaii + French Polynesia.  It felt like a trip of a lifetime, and here are some photos:

We started in Oahu-Lyon Arboretum:

Ho'omaluhia:

Parkia javanica:

Familiar scene-Kentiopsis and Neoveitchya:

[Peter]

Continued:

Tabernaemontana :

Double Coconut:

[Peter]

On to French Polynesia.  We flew into Tahiti-we arrived at midnight and checked out at 8am to fly straight to Moorea-which is only about a 10 minute flight if I remember.  We were on Moorea for 4 days; 3 of which were pouring rain.

Here's the beach:

And the property where we stayed-it was the Intercontinental.  We quickly learned that in French Polynesia, you either stayed at a super posh resort, or you were at a pension, which could be fairly basic(to be kind).  Since it was our honeymoon, we went posh.  Save your $$ if you want to go this way as it was extremely expensive there:

[Peter]

On to Bora Bora.  I can best describe it as a dream come true.  Many times while we were there we would just stop and look around and shake our heads at the beautifuly scenes.  I can't imagine a place being more beautiful:

[Peter]

Our property on Bora Bora:

[Peter]

We spent a couple days on Huahine, which is one of the least developed islands.  We loved it, but just had to get back to Bora Bora so we cut our time here short.  

Great snorkelling:

We spent 3 days on Tahiti and were pleasantly surprised after most people had bad mouthed it.  Definitely more developed, but lots to do, and great scenery as well.  Plus we really enjoyed the French culture.  Here is the main market in Papeete:

The happy couple under a coconut frond:

We rented a car and drove up the coast for a day, where we hiked into a waterfall not too far off the main road:

[Peter]

After 2 fabulous weeks in French Polynesia, we headed back to Hawaii.  We visited Kauai for the first time.  Here is the national botanic garden in the South-sorry can't think of the name of it right now:

And here is the view from the Princeville hotel on the north side:

Since we had only 4 days on the island, everyone recommended we do a helicopter tour.  We signed up without thinking too much about it, but as we rolled into the airport we weren't so sure-neither of us had been in a helicopter before.  It took about 3 minutes into the flight to realize that neither of us were helicopter people.

Sudden realization that there are 57 minutes left in the flight:

White knuckle ride:

[Peter]

But what a view:

Very happy to be on the ground again.  Never again, but glad we did it.

[Peter]

Now on BigIsland.   Gigantic Metroxylon-for scale, those Archontophoenix behind it are easily 50-60' tall:

Brownea flower:

Maybe the most perfect tree I've ever seen:

[Peter]

And winding down the trip.

My wife packed light as usual:

And finally, glad to be home, but sad that the trip is over:

[Palmgrover]

Peter,  wow looks like the trip of a life time.   Trully amazing  photos . thanks for sharring with us.

[mike453]

Peter,

those are some fantastic pictures. Wow! And the look on your face after the helicopter ride is great  Looks like a cross between "what? no big deal." and " I can't believe I actualy lived!" thanks for sharing the pics, they are awesome.

                    Best regards, Mike

[Justin]

Peter,

Congrats on tying the knot.

Best Regards,

Justin

[fiji jim]

Looks great you 2,

We live in a tropical paradise but really got to get to those places one day also.

thanks for sharing.

Jim & Marijani

[bgl]

Peter,

Congratulations! And the two of you obviously had a great trip. Beautiful photos! And we look forward to your next visit here (hopefully both of you!)

Aloha!

Bo-Göran

BTW, I'd love to visit Moorea and Bora Bora one day. Beautiful places! And, incidentally, 'Tahiti' in Hawaiian is 'Kahiki', which intriguingly means 'foreign land'!!

[Don Little]

Great photos Peter and congratulations on your wedding,

My wife and I had the chance to visit Tahiti, Moorea and Bora Bora back in 2001.  It was stunningly beautiful and would go back in a heart beat.  I was just starting to learn of the different palm species and not that I consider myself and expert now, I was just a infant back then palm wise and so I wasn't able to distinguish and ID many of the different species like I'd be able to now.  Where did you stay at on Bora Bora because the grounds of the hotel look familiar, well that probably doesn't say much because it's all incredible.   Bora Bora had some of the clearest waters that I have ever seen.  Thanks for the photos

Don

[Kris]

Dear Peter  

some of your best stills in this very perticular post are the following_

Post 4 (stills 2 & 3)

Post 3 (Still 1)

hey were you a proffesional photographer working for any

fashion magazine.since the stills that i have quoted above do

not have any palms but sea and women and its picturised in a

fashion that its some think of utopian dream.

and post 4 still 3 i suppose it was once your avatar_am i right.i had praised it a lot in one of the avatar threads.

you have great taste,great lenses and a great model(your

wife)for the right photoshoot..in the dream location(Bora Bora) hey peter din't you feel like being in heaven in such

a location ?

thanks for the tour !

love,

Kris  

[Urban Rainforest]

Peter, What an awesome trip! congratulations to you and your beautifull wife on getting married. We went to Tahiti and Moorea 5 years ago for our 10 year aniversary and had the time of our life. On Moorea we stayed in an over water polynesian bungaloo. What was cool is it had a light underneath and at night I would throw pieces of french bread (which they gave us with every meal) into the water and the fish would come up and the feeding frenzy would ensue   . I must make it back someday to Bora Bora. Thanks for sharing the great pics.

Steve

[paulgila]

very enjoyable pix.the double coconut was fantastic!

[ania]

Great pictures from fantastic places. I have always wanted to see the "real South Pacific".

Congratulations to both of you.

Ania

[Jeff Searle]

Peter,

    Congrats. to you and your new wife! You two took a hell of a honeymoon. Your pictures are beautiful and hope you have more to share with us. It brought back some good memories of my trip there back in the early nineties. I went there in search of Pelagodoxa. And I too remember how expensive it was for hotels.

   It is so beautiful there in and around the islands. All the best for the two of you!  Any children on the way? (I just had to ask,lol) Take care.....

Jeff

[Carlo Morici]

Thank you for the pictures and wishes for your wedding. Bora Bora is supreme.

Carlo

[deezpalms]

Great pictures of your trip Peter! Looks like your wife and you had a wonderful time on your extensive travels! In total, how many islands did you visit?

[Peter]

Thanks everyone for the kind words.  It was fun reliving the trip while I was putting together these photos.  To answer a few questions; the property we stayed at in Bora Bora was the Sofitel, which was just remodeled and we loved it.  We stayed both in a traditional bungalow on land, as well as an overwater bungalow-both were very cool.  And yes Kris, I am a photographer, so part of the trip we were shooting, which was also a dream of mine to photograph in such a paradise.  Plus, I needed to make some money back to pay for the trip!  While in French Polynesia, we visited Tahiti, Moorea, BOra Bora and Huahine.  All were great in their own unique ways.  Bora Bora was all about water; Moorea was more about the land, Tahiti had a good variety of topography, plus the capital city of Papeete which was culturally interesting.  And Huahine was relatively remote and undeveloped, and gave a good glimpse of what the whole area was years ago.  We literally fell into this trip at the last moment; we were in Hawaii about to head to SE Asia when this trip presented itself so we had only 3 days to plan it and then all of a sudden we were there.  I'm sure we could have done it more cheaply and efficiently; now that we know our way around we'll just have to return some day.

[Kris]

Dear Peter  

Thanks for being open about your work.since your stills did

not look regular or ameature kind.so i had to ask.

Great work and wish you both a very happy and joyful married

life..

Lots of love,

Kris  

[SubTropicRay]

Congratulations Peter.  It looks like you had a wonderful trip.

[junglegalfla]

Stunning photos! Thanks so much!

[TikiRick]

Wow is all I can say. What raw beauty. Thanks for posting the pictures, Peter.

[happ]

I agree w/ everyone.  Great photos of some beautiful Pacific islands  

[doubravsky]

wow... great pics! My wife and I honeymooned on Moorea, Bora Bora and Tahiti in 2000.... it was the beginning of both the palm obsession, and the tiki obsession! Your pics take me back... thanks!

[Kim]

Absolutely spectacular scenes, Peter!  Congratulations to you both.  One of these days I'll have to make the trip to Bora Bora, just too gorgeous to pass up.

[pogobob]

Wow Peter! Congtratulations to you both and your great photography.

[DoomsDave]

PETER!

Congrats to you both!  You both made a great catch!

Great pictures, the palms are okay, too . . . . .

dave

[mari]

Peter,

Those are some of the most beautiful pictures that I have seen posted.  The postitioning of the model, the light the camera quality simply marvelous.  I hope that you blow up some of those pictures of your wife and put them in a frame.  You guys are obviously happy and the sheer artistryin the photographs clearly show.

Marisha - Atlanta

[Trópico]

Peter, thanks for the trip! Your vivid pictures made me think I was traveling along. So it was true that was your wife in your old avatar. Congratulations!

[Peter]

Thanks again!

[Al in Kona]

I'm a bit late in seeing these fantastic photos of your trip but had to say something.  First, congratulations to you two!  On your next trip to Hawaii island, come see us too - and can direct you to some nice tropical gardens with lots of palms.  

Your pictures and raving about Bora Bora now have me interested in going there too.

[Peter]

Thanks Al-I hope to take you up on that offer one day.