Bora Bora

Where it sits. Bora Bora is one of the Leeward Islands of the Society archipelago in French Polynesia, about 230 kilometres north-west of Tahiti. The land area is 30.55 square kilometres and the 2017 population was 10,605, most of it in Vaitape on the western shore. The island's structure is the reason it photographs the way it does: a jagged volcanic core — Mount Otemanu at 727 metres and Mount Pahia at 661 — sits in the middle of a lagoon several kilometres wide, itself enclosed by an almost unbroken barrier reef carrying a ring of low coral islets. There is exactly one navigable gap in the reef, the Teavanui Passage on the western side, which is deep enough for shipping and is why the island had a strategic value out of all proportion to its size.

The story behind it. Bora Bora was settled by Polynesians well before European contact, and its old name is usually given as Pora Pora, meaning first-born. Its twentieth-century history is dominated by the American war. Under Operation Bobcat, beginning in February 1942, the United States established a supply base here with nine ships, 18,000 tonnes of equipment and close to 7,000 personnel — a garrison larger than the island's population. At least eight seven-inch coastal guns were emplaced on headlands and motu to cover the passage; several are still in position and can be walked to. The base never saw combat and closed on 2 June 1946. What it left behind was an airstrip on Motu Mute, built by the Army, which became Bora Bora's airport and served as French Polynesia's only international airport until Faa'a opened near Papeete in 1960.

On screen. The island's cinema history is a story of enormous productions and mixed results. Dino De Laurentiis brought Hurricane here in 1977–78, building an entire Polynesian village set at a reported cost of $2.5 million and a hotel — the Hotel Mara, at $3.5 to $4.5 million — simply to house a crew for whom no accommodation existed. Roman Polanski was originally attached; Jan Troell took over in February 1978. The finished film was released on 12 April 1979, cost around $22 million, and returned about $4.5 million, one of the era's more spectacular failures. Troell's own verdict was that the characters had been lost in the special effects. Earlier, MGM's Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) with Marlon Brando worked in these waters during its long and troubled Polynesian shoot, and Bora Bora's lagoon has since become a fixture of aerial second-unit photography whenever a production needs a South Pacific establishing shot.

What you actually see today. A single 32-kilometre road rings the main island, flat and easily cycled in a day, passing Vaitape, Matira Point and a series of small settlements. Matira Beach at the southern tip is the only substantial stretch of public beach and shelves gently into the lagoon. The mountain interior is steep, densely vegetated and largely trackless; guided four-wheel-drive tours climb to the wartime gun positions and to viewpoints over the lagoon, and a demanding guided hike reaches the shoulder of Otemanu — the summit itself is loose basalt and is not climbed. In the lagoon, the standard excursion is a boat circuit with stops for reef sharks and stingrays in the shallows and a snorkel over the coral gardens; manta rays and eagle rays are seen in the deeper channels.

Overwater bungalows and cost. Hotel Bora Bora opened in 1961, and nine years later the first bungalows on stilts over the lagoon were built here — the origin of a form now copied across the tropics worldwide. That legacy has made Bora Bora one of the most expensive destinations in the Pacific: most of the large resorts occupy motu on the barrier reef, reached only by boat, and the price includes the transfer.

Getting there and timing. Air Tahiti flies from Papeete to Motu Mute in about 50 minutes, and arriving passengers cross the lagoon by launch — a first impression that no other airport in the world quite matches. The dry, cooler season from May to October has lower humidity, steady trade winds and the clearest water; November to April is hot and wet, with cyclone risk. Prices peak in July and August and over the New Year.