Raiatea - French Polynesia

During our 2 weeks in Bora Bora, we decided to take a day trip to the opposite island of Raiatea, also known as the sacred island; it's only a 10min plane ride away and well worth a visit!

We had the chance to meet the owners of the Hotu Vanilla plantation, Guy & Odette Tauatiti, who took us around their plantation and told us all about how their award winning vanilla is made, what an amazing experience!! You will be seeing quite a few vanilla recipes on the blog as I seem to have developed an obsession for it ;)

*Young vanilla pods - 9 more months to go until they ripen and can be collected*  

*Vanilla pods are left a couple of hours per day in the sunshine and then wrapped in dense cloth so that they can go through the process of "sweating", thus getting rid of all the water to release the vanilla bean flavor*

*The vanilla pod on the right is not yet ready for consumption as its thickness indicates that it is still full of water and must be dried out to resemble the pod on the left*

*Taputapuatea Marae - one of the most sacred places on Raiatea, believed to the very first Marae dating back to 1000AD*

*Tahiti's famous local dish "Poisson Cru a la Tahitienne" - will be trying this one at home sometime soon!*

Check out more pictures of French Polynesia on my new instagram profile - click here 

Bora Bora - French Polynesia

*View of Bora Bora from the plane*

Our honeymoon was by far the best holiday we ever had!!
Throughout the years we have had the chance to travel in many paradise islands, and we live only 2h plane ride away from exotic destinations such as Thaliand and Indonesia but Bora Bora is just the most unique place we have ever been to. 
You are so far from the rest of the world yet the Polynesians make you feel at home with their warm smiles and their enthusiasm in sharing their culture with you.
As much as I would love to share all the hundreds of pictures we took, I made a small selection with some of the highlights as well as a small guide should you be passing by this side of the planet ;)

Getting to Bora Bora:

Air Tahiti Nui flies from Paris (with a stopover in L.A), L.A, Auckland & Tokyo 

Other airlines include Air New Zealand and Air France

All above airlines arrive in the capital of Papeete, from there a short 45min flight with Air Tahiti will bring you to Bora Bora

*Air Tahiti Nui*

Where to stay:

We stayed at the St Regis Hotel, we could not recommend it highly enough, it's truly worth it!

*The St. Regis Bora Bora*

*St. Regis Bora Bora - overwater villas*

Activities:

There are so many activities to do in Bora Bora:

Snorkeling, diving, swimming with sharks & sting rays, jet skiing, sunset cruise and romantic dinner on a private Motu (island), paddle boarding and many more but it is of course a perfect place to indulge in some dolce far niente enjoying the crystal clear water and powdery white sand beaches  ;) 

*Must see: 

-Traditional Polynesian dance show

-Vanilla plantation (more on this in the next post :))

*Swimming with Sting Rays....*

*...and sharks...*

*...and more sharks!!*

*Snorkeling in the lagoon*

*Polynesian dance show @ St Regis*

*Sunset cruise and romantic dinner on a private Motu*

Where to eat:

I would never have guessed Bora Bora to be a culinary destination, but foodies that we are, we tried to discover as many restaurants as we could, what a treat!!

Being in the middle of the pacific ocean means that you have some of the freshest fish available... mix that with a Polynesian twist and you are sure to not be disappointed!

Here is the list of the restaurants we tried and highly recommend:

-Japanese/fusion: Sushi Take @ St. Regis

- French/ Polynesian fine dining: Villa Mahana

-Iconic/ serves the catch of the day/ feet in sand dining: Bloody Mary's 

-Beach restaurant: Matira Beach 

* Must taste: The traditional Polynesian dish called "Poisson Cru" - literally meaning raw fish - it is mixed with cucumber, carrot, fresh coconut milk, onions & lime

*The catch of the day @ Bloody Mary's*

*Delicious coconut cocktails*

*Villa Mahana*

IA ORANA BORA BORA... WE'LL BE BACK :)

Check out more pictures of Bora Bora on my new instagram profile - click here 

Summer popsicles

After spending over 2 amazing weeks in Bora Bora for our honeymoon, it's time to get back to reality...
Before I share some highlights of the beautiful French Polynesian island, I wanted to post a simple refreshing popsicle recipe that I made before leaving on holiday:

Lemon, Lime & Lemongrass summer popsicles

Recipe

4 lemons (freshly squeezed)

4 limes (freshly squeezed)

Maple syrup (to taste)

8-12 Mint leaves

2 stalks of Lemongrass

Add cold water (to taste)

- Combine all the ingredients together and leave them to infuse for a couple of hours in the fridge

- Strain the infusion through a sieve and pour into popsicle molds 

-Freeze for about 3/4 hours

*For extra flavor, add some freshly grated ginger

Enjoy!

**FASHION GOURMET IS FINALLY ON INSTAGRAM!!!** 

(Better late than never right?;) Click here to view) 

It's Honeymoon time!!!

We have been waiting for this trip for such a long time, and today it's finally time to start our 20 hour plane ride to the beautiful island of Bora-Bora in French Polynesia :)

When we first started looking at honeymoon destinations we knew that this island was a must. Whilst we were there we also thought about island hopping also stopping by the Cook islands, however we have been traveling so much lately that we decided to stay the full 2 weeks in Bora Bora... no one's complaining ;););)

Here are some of the many things that we are looking forward to do once we get there:

See you in 2 weeks!!

*Bora Bora, French polynesia*

*Snorkeling in the lagoon*

*Visiting a vanilla plantation*

*Jumping into the crystal clear water from our over water villa*

*Drinking and eating everything with coconut!*

*Digging my feet in the soft white sand*

*Seeing traditional Tahitian dances*

*Wear flower crowns*

* All pictures from Pinterest