Tikehau is part of the Tuamotus Island group in French Polynesia. You probably haven’t heard of the Tuamotus—neither had we, before doing research for this trip—and after having visited, we have mixed feelings about telling you all about them. If you visit, you just might feel like keeping them a secret as well! The Tuamotus sit conveniently hidden in a vast expanse of blue ocean, resembling a scattered handful of loose rubber bands. You have to view the satellite imagery to believe it! Zoom in closer and you realise it’s more like a beaded necklace of tropical islets, herein referred to as mini-paradises. We started our Tikehau adventure on the main island, where the security-less airport stood in a grassy field sans walls. Tikehau definitely gets my vote for “Best Airport”!

We transferred by car for several hundred meters on a sandy road until we reached our accommodation, one of the five bungalows at the Pension Hotu guesthouse. It’s a tough call, but I think Erin may have looked even happier on our honeymoon than our wedding! ;) If there exists an optimal set of elements, that then when combined, work together to take Erin’s happiness to the max, then we had found it! Hammock on a tropical beach? Check.

Super-lovey perpetually purring kitty cat? Check.

Unspoiled beaches, crystal clear azure waters, and endless coconut palms swaying in the breeze? Check, check, and check! Erin was in heaven!

You might think that lovey cats are dime-a-dozen. Heck, you might even have a cat sitting on your lap right now! I hear you asking, “What’s the big deal?” Well… does your cat come straight to you when you call out to her? Does your cat call a tropical paradise her home? Does your cat hang out with you on the freakin’ beach!?

Will your cat jump in your lap and sleep with you on a freakin’ swinging hammock!? I seriously doubt it. So I’m pretty confident that you’d agree with me, when I say this is… the BEST CAT EVER.

Okay, as awesome and surprising as they were, and as grateful as we were, we didn’t come to Tikehau for its beach-loving cats. We came because the brochures promised views like this:

The incredibly remote atolls that make up the Tuamotu Islands are remnants of ancient volcano calderas whose centres collapsed long ago, leaving behind gorgeous blue lagoons teeming with tropical fish. On our second day there, we signed up for a lagoon excursion to explore the vast Tikehau lagoon. At our first stop, we found ourselves walking down this postcard-perfect boardwalk to a mini-paradise called L’ile d’Eden, or Eden Island.

Next stop was Bird Island, a tiny motu that served as the home for many colonies of beautiful sea birds and their adorable chicks! This was a birdwatcher’s paradise!

Finally, we made our way to another remote mini-paradise for some swimming and snorkelling along pink sand beaches after enjoying a lovely Tahitian barbeque.

Soon, we would have to face the reality that the sun was setting on yet another day of our long-awaited honeymoon.

For the last two days of our honeymoon, we decided to go out with a bang. If ever there was a chance or excuse to splurge and stay in overpriced overwater bungalows, it was now! Erin began fantasizing about staying in one of these as soon as the word “honeymoon” was first uttered. So off we went, to the Tikehau Pearl Beach Resort.

And well, I gotta admit… it was divine! There was a bottle of champagne waiting for us in our bungalow, and so we toasted to our relatively recent wedding and the lives we had decided to spend together.

As with everywhere else we visited in French Polynesia, we didn’t hesitate to jump into the warm tropical waters and take advantage of the spectacular snorkelling literally underneath our feet!

Did I mention the sea life in Tikehau was absolutely incredible? And after I heard about the Giant Manta Ray cleaning station in the lagoon, the scuba tanks and masks were on in a “Jeffy”! We just sat on the lagoon floor as these gentle giants, with wingspans up to 4-metres wide, glided peacefully around us.

As you can imagine, it was really hard to leave this paradise we had so briefly visited, but as they say, all good things must come to an end. Bye bye heavenly sunsets and glorious sunrises, bye bye wonderful starry night skies, bye bye beach huts and lazy beach cats, and bye bye glassy waters teeming with tropical fish… ’til next we meet. Parting was such sweet sorrow.

We had always thought that visiting French Polynesia would be a once in a lifetime treat. But after experiencing the friendliness of the Tahitians, the romantic way-of-life of the French-influenced culture, the wonderful seafood and the thriving seas, we have no doubt in our minds that we will return. So we want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who contributed to our Honeyfund and helped give us the honeymoon of our dreams! And a very special thank you to the biggest contributor… you know who you are! :-D

If you enjoyed our photos, you can see more and even buy prints from our French Polynesia gallery. Have we inspired you to pack up your bags? Or do you have your own French Polynesian stories or tips to share? Let us know in the comments!

I had to twist Jeff’s arm to convince him we should go to French Polynesia (read: I mentioned the words scuba and sharks and we were good to go) but after we decided on our destination, we discovered that our October wedding date put us smack at the start of the rainy season in the South Pacific.  We were not about to spend beaucoup bucks on a Tahitian holiday to risk sitting in our bungalow in the pouring rain, no sir-ee! So, a June holiday it was. Our patience paid off as we had sun, sun, sun, with a high of 29 and a low of 24 degrees every single day.  A local woman told us that usually in the rainy season it just pours and pours… and then one day, someone just turns off the faucet.  It seemed we had just missed the end of the rain by about a week! Brilliant.

We landed on the island of Tahiti, which is the largest island in French Polynesia. If you travel there from Australia you will most likely need to spend your first night in Pape’ete like we did, due to the flight schedules out to the smaller islands. Pape’ete is a bit grimy around the edges and was quite reminiscent of some cities in South East Asia, with everything coated in a thin layer of exhaust fume residue. However, it was still interesting to wander around and explore the fish and trinket markets and the many, many pearl shops. We scored a great discount rate at a resort hotel just outside of the main city centre, where we found the completely beautiful black sand beach pictured above. It was hot and humid and it took a flat 60 seconds for us to feel like we were on holiday. We heard that there are good things to see and do on the island of Tahiti, but we decided to spend our week on the smaller islands. The next day, we headed to the local ferry port to hop on a one-hour ferry over to the island of Moorea.

Now, before Jeff knew about all the awesomeness that French Polynesia has to offer, he did have some hesitations on taking this trip. Everyone has heard of the reputation of French Polynesia—more specifically, the “Society Island” of Bora Bora—as only accessible to those with the ability to spin straw into gold. And while it’s true you may have to give up your first born child for some of the Bora Bora overwater bungalows, there are actually a number of affordable places to stay on many of the islands in French Polynesia. There may even be a few such places on Bora Bora, but we skipped it and decided on Moorea and the tiny atoll of Tikehau (which will have to wait for the next post).

Moorea was even better than I had imagined. It is an absolutely stunning green mountainous island. Can you spend upwards of $800 a night on a Moorea waterfront bungalow? Easily. Our price for the same view? AU$137! And that included a nice Tahitian host, a Frenchy-french breakfast of baguettes, cheese, coffee, tea, tropical fruit, and a menu of authentic Tahitian dinner options! What is this amazing placed called you ask? It is called Pension Motu Iti and it is one of a number of small locally owned “guesthouses” on the island. Some of these places don’t have websites but can be found in travel guides, and some of the websites are all in French, but places like these can definitely make your Polynesian holiday affordable! Sure, there’s no air-con at Motu Iti, the linens aren’t 400-thread count and the bathroom door needed a tug to open, but… really. Air-con is not needed, and the soft ocean breezes are so soothing you will want to leave your bungalow doors and windows open at all times.

We definitely recommend booking one of the lagoon view rooms that come with a lovely private patio just a metre or so from the water. We were amazed to discover that with our bungalow pictured above, we had prime views of sunrise and sunset. Naturally this is most of what we photographed for the first two days…

The dinner at Pension Motu Iti was great. Our favourite meal was the tuna with Tahitian vanilla sauce, a popular local dish. We also discovered that the hotel has another bonus the big resorts don’t have: CATS! Those who know me, know how much I love them. So naturally I was rather ecstatic to discover these friendly felines, especially this one below in particular, who showed up every night hungry for some of the day’s catch.

Once night fell, we got out the tripod for some long exposures.

The next morning, we spent some time driving around the island exploring…

And of course took a few dips for some snorkelling.

After the tough job of snorkeling in waist-deep water, sunset coconut cocktails are definitely required.

Every morning, the hotel’s friendly cat would pay us a visit on our balcony. This really amazed me since there was no food to lure him in. A purring cat wanting attention to top off all this amazingness?? Now I was really in paradise.

Of course, it wasn’t all fluffy kitty cats and sunshine! I had made promises of scuba and sharks to get Jeff on board with this holiday, and so into the water we went as shark bait. Actually, I had no idea that there would be sharks on this dive, until the scuba boat anchored in the middle of the lagoon and the instructor said in his lovely French accent, “has en-ee one dived with zee shaahks before?” I looked over the side of the boat and there were quite literally about half a dozen sharks circling our boat. I waited for a few other divers to go in first. ;)

Once in the water though, I was surprised to find that it was not that intimidating because the water was so clear. When the boat anchored I was astonished that I could easily see the bottom of the lagoon from the surface. The depth was 20 metres! The pictures below were taken with our underwater point-and-shoot and do not at all do the dive justice. It was absolutely beautiful with hundreds of colorful fish… and several dozen reef and lemon sharks. Unfortunately we learned that much of the coral had been eaten by the Crown-of-thorns starfish, but it was still totally amazing. I managed to keep calm and even went in for a second dive. Are you proud of me, Jeff?

We also took advantage of a lagoon tour on Moorea, where we were told we would get to see a stingray feeding. What we didn’t know was that the ray feeding also included being part of a shark feeding frenzy! To Jeff’s delight, the boat stopped in a very shallow portion of the lagoon, where several dozen tourists waded in the waist-deep water as our Tahitian guides ripped apart chunks of raw fish and threw them into the water. The black-tipped reef sharks swam furiously around in a feeding frenzy. Check out our video of the action!

We watched another stunning sunset…

And spent some time gazing at the Milky Way.

When the sun rose again, it was time to move on to the tiny atoll of Tikehau. Tikehau is almost certainly the most remote place we’ve ever been, and the photos are just as stunning… stay tuned!

What’s that you say? You’re desperate to find a honeymoon photographer for your post-nuptial trip to French Polynesia, or the Cook Islands, or Thailand, or Fiji, or Italy, or Greece, or…??? Well, look no further my friend, you’re in luck! We are available! Who would like us to come along? ;)