An overwater bungalow at Le Bora Bora by Pearl Resorts in Tahiti.Pearl Resorts
A glorious day on Taha’a – the Vanilla Island, as the Tahitians call it – was wrapping up.
We had visited a vanilla plantation, a pearl farm and a rum distillery. From our open-air 4×4 vehicle, we had watched as our guide, Yvann Mama, casually ripped a branch from a hibiscus tree, took out his machete, separated the bark from the insides and created a playable flute, in maybe two minutes.
We had finished the tour, awaiting a boat transfer to our White Lotus-level hotel, when we said our goodbyes. “Maybe see you next time,” Mama said.
It was the best kind of adieu. However, the wisdom and realities of age have made it as clear as Tahiti’s lagoon waters to me: There will likely be no next time.
During the Covid pandemic lockdown, Marsha Lederman made a list of all the places she’d want to visit when travel was possible again. She added Tahiti to that list last fall.Marsha Lederman/Supplied
Ah, the optimism of youth. I have never returned to most of those places, Greece and Austria among them. And perhaps I never will.
In 2020, in a fit of despair during the COVID pandemic lockdown, I typed up a list of places I hoped to visit when travel was possible again. In the fall of 2024, I pulled up that list and saw that I had made it to exactly two of those 38 spots. In November, I added a third, thanks to this once-in-a-lifetime travel assignment: Tahiti.
French Polynesia, also known as The Islands of Tahiti, is made up of 118 islands in five groupings, stretching over a huge swath of the South Pacific (only 76 are inhabited). Tahiti is the country’s largest island, which includes the capital, Papeete. It is part of the Society Islands, also home to French Polynesia’s most famous draw, Bora Bora.
I remember with great clarity learning about Tahiti’s existence for the first time, something I’m not sure I can say about any other place. I was a kid, watching Happy Days − an episode about Richie’s dad, Mr. Cunningham, having a midlife crisis and musing about escaping to Tahiti.
The Second World War played a much larger role in introducing French Polynesia to North Americans. After U.S. troops set up base on Bora Bora in 1942, the island’s beauty was, literally, something to write home about. And, postwar, to write a blockbuster musical about, as in Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein’s South Pacific.
Bora Bora is perhaps the most famous draw of French Polynesia.Pearl Resorts
I am writing (not postcards or a musical, but this story) on the deck of my overwater bungalow at a lush resort that is a short boat ride from Taha’a. Looking at a Gauguin-worthy pink, blue and grey sunrise, listening to the fish swim under and around my over-the-water – and over-the-top – accommodation, I have a very different perspective than when I was a young backpacker. I feel fairly certain that I will never return to this place, as magnificent as it is.
The dark wisdom of age has taught me a lot about once-in-a-lifetime experiences like a visit to Tahiti. They really are once-in-a-lifetime. My Let’s Go has mostly gone. Time is ticking. Resources are finite. The world is enormous. Life is short − and that bucket list is long.
From my lounge chair, I google that Happy Days episode: Mr. C’s midlife crisis coincided with his 45th birthday. With my own 45th a distant memory, the rational part of me knows I will not be back, certainly not to this exact spot: the deck of a luxurious hotel suite I could never afford if I wasn’t here for my job.
After I shut down my computer, I descend my suite’s private staircase into the lagoon, for one last turquoise swim.
The papaya-juice glass-half-empty mopey me could be distressed by this. Such a gorgeous place and never to return. But my aspirational self tried to take that knowledge and use it to soak up every moment. Every flower in this lush paradise, every meal with the freshest mango and avocado you could imagine, every colourful fish.
At my next stop, Bora Bora, honeymooners seemed to dominate in low-season, late November (it’s still hot, still gorgeous, just less busy). Will they ever return, I wondered? Perhaps to celebrate a milestone anniversary? Maybe with children in tow? These couples are young. Life is ahead of them.
Bora Bora is a wonder; the lagoon is larger than its landmass. The airport is on its own motu (island), so visitors depart for their hotels by boat.
The island of Raiatea, where the writer attended a wellness retreat.Grégoire Le Bacon/Pearl Resorts
On these waters, I had one of the best travel experiences of my life. It was a small boat tour around the island, with stops to snorkel with small sharks and huge rays, around coral reefs and through almost cartoonishly coloured schools of fish. Then lunch, literally in the lagoon – sitting at a quickly assembled plastic table (with tablecloth), its legs stuck into the shallow water. On a grill, also stuck into the sand, our guides cooked up lobster, shrimp, mahi mahi and more for us, serving it with fresh fruit and cold wine. Afterward, we finished our tour around the island, stopping along the way for a swim off the side of the boat. The next day, we would begin the trip home.
This is one of the best days I will ever have, I thought, as the boat chugged through the clear, warm water. Remember it. Remember this moment, looking out at the lagoon in its thrilling shades of Bora Bora blue, this water where I had communed with an enormous manta ray and got close enough to harmless sharks that I could touch them (I didn’t, though). I created a postcard from my own life, for my own brain.
Earlier in the week, I had attended a wellness retreat on another island, Raiatea. Before we made hair masks and body scrubs with ingredients pulled right from the land (coconut, avocado), a guide led our little group in a meditation on an open-air platform. We were sheltered from the tropical rain by the woven thatch roof, the pelting water’s beat mixing with the gush of the waterfall nearby. Afterward, we sat in a circle and she asked us to hold hands.
“This configuration will only happen now, today,” Naiki Lutz of Aroha Experience said, “with the five of us.” Yes.
Embrace it, hold it: every sunrise, every sweet bite of fruit, every tropical fish, every docile shark, every rainstorm, I told myself. Every moment, when you think of it, is once in a lifetime.
If You Go
Air Tahiti Nui flies direct to Papeete from Los Angeles and Seattle. During the eight-hour flight from L.A., I got into the Tahiti mindset watching the airline’s videos about the islands. Could the water really be that blue, the beaches that pristine? I found out soon enough after landing: Yes. To book, visit airtahitinui.com
Air Tahiti operates domestic flights connecting the islands. To book, visit airtahiti.com
Hotel Hilton Tahiti in Papeete is a short drive from the airport and the city centre. While there is no beach access, this waterfront property has an enormous, beautiful pool. Average price per night in Canadian dollars is about $430. For details, visit hilton.com
Le Bora Bora by Pearl Resorts: This breathtaking beachfront resort on its own motu includes a spa overlooking a pond filled with white lotus flowers. A small museum on site pays tribute to the American base on Bora Bora during the Second World War and a gallery featuring work by local artists opens this year. Rates (in Canadian dollars) range from $1675 a night for a garden pool villa to $3,040 a night for an over-water bungalow with pool, including tax. Breakfast is included, as are minibars, which are refreshed daily. For details, visit leborabora.com
Le Taha’a by Pearl Resorts: A magnificent beach resort whose amenities include a coral garden that guests can snorkel through from end to end. Foosball and ping pong tables await in thatched huts. For the most romantic meal of your life, a boat can take you to a table-for-two on your own little motu, just a bit offshore. Breakfast and minibar are included. Rates (in Canadian dollars) range from $1,517 for a pool beach villa to $3,290 for an end-of-pontoon over-water bungalow. For details, visit letahaa.com
The writer was a guest of Tahiti Tourism, which did not review or approve this article before publication.