Waterfalls in Bora Bora (We Make it Rain)

Hive, I apologize for my brief hiatus It's been a hectic couple of days over at the Waterfall house! I've been dealing with some more medical issues and had to undergo yet another procedure. But it wasn't all bad... over the last few days, Mr. Waterfall and I also celebrated ten years of being together, two years since we got engaged and three months since we got married! We also finally got our video back from our videographer, which means I'll FINALLY be able to get my recaps on! But before we get to that, we should probably finish the honeymoon first... where were we again?

Ah, yes. When we left off, Mr. Waterfall and I were loving life, basking in the sand and sun at the Hilton Bora Bora, eating delicious food and making out by the pool. Honestly, that would have been more than enough for us, but our amazing guests spoiled us rotten with our honeymoon registry. Almost every activity got purchased, and we wanted to make sure we could do it all, so we decided to plan out the rest of our vacation as soon as we got to Bora Bora and book every single activity at once. So, on our first day at the Hilton, we basically showed up to front desk with a huge wad of cash, which made the concierge think we were high rollers or something. After that, we got treated like VIP's everywhere we went! In all fairness, they probably treat everybody like VIP's, especially honeymoon couples,  but we like to pretend that it was because we made it rain ;)

On our first day, we took a Polynesian cooking class, where we learned to make poisson cru, a Tahitian delicacy:

We also took a cocktail making class (and yes, you get to drink the drinks you make!):


On our second day in Bora Bora, we went on Mr. Waterfall's favourite excursion of the trip: The underwater safari where you can walk on the ocean floor using an old-timey diving helmet while hundreds of colorful fish and rays swim around you!

The best part was that we were allowed to bring our own underwater camera to take pictures and video, so we didn't have to spend extra money on the professional ones. I love this video because it captures how happy Mr. Waterfall looked, he was like a little boy! (Scroll to 0:50 to hear me freaking out when the sting rays swam beside me). I don't know the name of that really big fish at the end, but it had TEETH you guys... needless to say I stayed as far away as I could from it.


Aquasafari from Mrs.Waterfall on Vimeo.
The next day, we woke up bright and early to go on a 4x4 jeep tour of the main island of Vaitape. While this tour was probably our least favorite, it was a great way to experience the best views in all of Bora Bora.

View from the top of Mount Otemanu, roughly 2,385 feet up!

After our exhausting morning of sight-seeing, we were due for some pampering so we booked the Honeymoon Sweet massage. This couples massage is done right in your bungalow, and you can choose to have it indoors or outdoors. We obviously chose outdoors because it's freaking Bora Bora and when else are you gonna have this opportunity? The sound of the waves crashing against our bungalow as we got massaged was pretty much the most relaxing thing ever, plus, we could sort of watch the fish from our little peep hole.

After the massage, they draw you a bath with your choice of fresh flowers and essential oils. Can I please go back and relive this day?

The next day, we went for a hobbie cat ride to the coral reef which is totally free, you just need to reserve in advance.

We also did the Million Dollar View massage. Hina Spa is at the top of the hill, so it has the most amazing view overlooking the entire resort. This massage includes a foot scrub, an amazing massage, a full-body sugar scrub, and a platter of delicious sashimi and fresh fruits!

On our last full day, we decided to book the Motu Tapu day in paradise picnic where they take you to Motu Tapu, a small private island owned by the Hilton Bora Bora where you can spend the morning lazily lounging on the private beach or snorkeling.

Motu Tapu

We didn't realize at the time that we had booked a more expensive version of the excursion where you basically have an entire side of the island to yourself, complete with a private butler and all you can drink water and soda. It also included an amazing private lunch for two right on the water while little fish swam around our feet. It was so romantic!

What was for lunch, you ask? An amazing platter of lobster, shrimp, and fresh fish, along with some white wine and champagne.

We were a little sad when the day came to an end and we had to say goodbye to Motu Tapu. Now I get why celebrities are all about private islands!

View of Mount Otemanu from Motu Tapu

What a wonderful way to spend our last day in Bora Bora! And just like that, it was time to return home :( But not before taking a much needed picture for weddingbee!

Yes, that is a Waterfall. It's not a great one, I know. Truth is, I may have picked my icon because of the waterfall from Couple's Retreat and then found out that the waterfall in the movie does not actually exist in real life, and was a set build for the movie, but I made due

Was anyone else sad when their honeymoon ended?

Waterfalls in Bora Bora (We're Still on a Boat!)

After checking out of our hotel in Moorea, we took a small plane over to Bora Bora. Apparently, it's best to sit on the left side of the plane to get the best view as you land... Unfortunately, this girl didn't get the memo, so, my pictures suck... but I have this glamour shot of me disembarking the plane instead ;)

We arrived to Motu Mute airport, Bora Bora's own domestic airport, where we were greeted yet again by leis and ukulele music. We were then ferried to the Hilton Bora Bora on a small boat. Bora Bora is basically a collection of small islands, or atolls, so the only way to get from one place to the next is... you guessed it... on a boat!

The Hilton Bora Bora was amazing  and our private overwater bungalow much more luxurious than the Intercontinental in Moorea. Waiting for us in our room was a chilled bottle of champagne and a box of French macarons. I'm telling you guys, this honeymoon thing ain't half bad ;)

Bungalow 120, I love you so!

The water in Bora Bora is seriously amazing. I grew up in Cuba... I know good beaches. But this was unlike anything I've ever seen! Even Moorea didn't compare to the deep aqua color of the water in Bora Bora! 

We spent a lot of time chilling on our deck, just enjoying the view and feeding the fish!

We also snorkeled off of our bungalow almost every day using the free equipement provided by the hotel, the fish were so vibrant, and extremely friendly! Check out this video, taken just outside our bungalow, using our underwater camera:

Snorkeling in Bora Bora from Mrs.Waterfall on Vimeo.

We explored the resort...

...checked out the beach...

...Chilled poolside at the amazing infinity pool...

... Drank lots of yummy (and extremely expensive drinks)...

...And ate lots of delicious food at the Hilton's three different restaurants (the beach restaurant for breakfast; and the French and Polynesian restaurants for dinner):

But that's not all! Stay tuned for all kinds of amazing excursions and activities, courtesy of our Honeymoon registry!

What are you most excited about for your honeymoon?

Waterfalls in Moorea (We're On a Boat)

Hive, I apologize that it's taken me so long to write these honeymoon recaps. We bought a brand new underwater camera the day before we left, which ended up seriously malfunctioning toward the end of our trip and DELETING over half of our pictures. Yeah, I know. Tears were shed. Luckily for all, superdad came to the rescue once again with the help of a hacker friend and I'm happy to report that we were able to recover most of the pictures. It just took a while. Anywhoo... let's get started, shall we? This post is a little long, but I had a lot to condense into it, so bear with me :)

If you recall, we had booked our honeymoon back in February. But as I got sicker and sicker, my family started to worry that maybe running off to the other side of the world wasn't the best idea. Even my doctor strongly advised me to stay and made me sign a release after I told him that I was going on my honeymoon come hell or high water. That might seem crazy and irresponsible to some of you; but for months, every time a needle pierced my skin or I had to lie on a procedure table, I went to my happy place and pictured myself in Bora Bora. I just had to go!

Our flight was for the Tuesday after our Saturday wedding and that worked out perfectly for us.  I have to admit that with everything else going on, I hadn't even started packing for our honeymoon (well, unless you count piles of new outfits haphazardly strewn on top of your suitcase as packing). The days immediately after our wedding were spent saying goodbye to friends and family who had come into town for our little shindig and running errands. Having those few days gave us just enough time to get our affairs in order before jetting off on our honeymoon.

We showed up at the airport with plenty of time to spare, mostly because I was determined to get us upgraded to first class like they do in movies, which my brand new husband found extremely amusing. I tried every technique I could think of, but nothing worked, so we had to fly coach... I know, the humanity! We first flew Montreal-LAX, then LAX-Tahiti. The Tahitian airline, Air Tahiti Nui, was awesome, and greeted us with fresh jasmine, pineapple juice, cozy blankets and pillows, fuzzy socks, and the soothing sounds of ukulele music!  However, we weren't able to get any sleep on either flight and watched some movies instead.

We finally landed in Papeete airport at 6 am on Wednesday  and were greeted by some more ukulele music and our very own leis! We were then taken to the Papeete marina and waited a few hours for our ferry to Moorea.

Mr. W and I love the lonely island's I'm on a boat, so of course we kept singing it the whole time we were on the ferry. The part about riding the dolphin will become especially funny as you read on!

Upon checking in to the Intercontinental hotel in Moorea, we were greeted yet again with fresh flowers and delicious fruit juice. To avoid jet-lag, and since we would only have two days in Moorea, we decided to avoid sleeping until that night. While I sipped my delicious juice, my new husband snuck in a cat nap. No shame, guys!

Our bungalow was amazing and had the most serene view ever. Little did we know, we were right across from the dolphin center! We got to watch quite a few dolphin flips right from our back yard!

After getting settled, we decided to grab some lunch and explore the grounds a little bit.

Moorea is very different from Bora Bora with its lush vegetation and grassy mountains. The water was crystal clear, and the reflection of the mountains is what gives it the green hue you see in these pictures. We also checked out the resort's turtle rehabilitation center. Turtles are actually endangered in French Polynesia, but they're considered a delicacy, so they still get hunted by locals. The rehab center rescues injured turtles and nurses them back to health until they can be reintroduced back into the wild.

That night, the hotel was hosting a Polynesian BBQ right on the beach, complete with traditional Polynesian dances. This was one of our honeymoon registry items and it was a great way to kick off our honeymoon!

The next day, we woke up bright and early to grab some breakfast. In order to save some money, we opted for the half-board plan instead of full-board. This meant that breakfast and supper were included, but not lunch. We honestly didn't feel the need to buy lunch except on the first day (we were starving since we didn't eat on the plane). The breakfast buffet was completely insane and that was normally enough to keep us full until supper. We had read how expensive meals can be in French Polynesia, so we brought some snacks like chips and dried nuts as well.

After breakfast, we headed over to the Dolphin Center to swim with the dolphins! We actually booked our stay at the Intercontinental in Moorea solely because that's where the Dolphin center was. Dolphins are my absolute favourite animal, and I've been dreaming of swimming with them my entire life so this was, hands down, the part I was most excited about.

Before our swim, can you see the excitement?

While it's certainly pricey, the apnea program in Moorea is one of a kind in that you're actually swimming with the dolphins. Yes, you read that right. We got to hold on to the dolphin's dorsal fin while it dragged us underwater! Mr. Waterfall is not as good a swimmer as I am, so he was a little worried about running out of air, but he ended up loving it almost as much as I did. We also got to observe the dolphins perform tricks under water and learned quite a lot about them from our guide, who was a marine biologist. Finally, we had a little meet and greet where we got to kiss and snuggle the dolphins. I even got to feed one! Mr. W says it's probably one of the happiest he's ever seen me, and it was definitely my favourite part of our honeymoon. We also paid for both pictures and video because honestly, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, you want to have those memories for a lifetime. Plus, I get to share them with you :)

Dolphin Swim from Mrs.Waterfall on Vimeo.
Here is an edited version of our dolphin video. You can see us swimming with the dolphins, playing with them and kissing them at the end. There was another couple on our swim, which I tried to edit out as much as possible. For some reason, the original soundtrack for the video was this weird, 80's softcore porn music, which I switched for some Gavin Degraw for your listening pleasure ;)

After our swim, we popped into Helene spa, where we enjoyed a deep tissue Tahitian massage, yet another registry item courtesy of our amazing guests!

We spent the rest of the day snorkeling right outside our underwater bungalow, taking in the sunset, and eating one of the most delicious French gourmet dinners I've ever had - which is saying a lot for someone who lives in Montreal and has visited France on three occasions! We did take pictures, but they simply didn't do the meal justice, so use your imagination.

Before we knew it, our time in Moorea was up and it was time to move on to Bora Bora!
Did anybody succeed in getting upgraded to first class on their honeymoon?

* All photos personal 

Baby you can Have Whaterever you Like: Registering

Last time, I revealed our amazing honeymoon destination, and I can't wait to share those recaps with you all, but before I do, I want to take a moment to discuss our honeymoon registry.

It's no secret that honeymoon registries are a controversial topic. While some consider honeymoon registries to be extremely Le Tacky, others swear by it. You can easily guess what camp I'm in since I'm writing about it. Like so many modern couples, Mr. Waterfall and I moved in together before getting married. Over the last two years, we have furnished our home with most of the household items we need. And while there are some items that we would love to add (Kitchenaid Stand Mixer, I'm looking at you), we just don't have the room in our tiny, one bedroom apartment. Since we won't be able to purchase our home right away, we didn't love the idea of accumulating a bunch of extra stuff that we would then be forced to pack up and move in a year. Enter: the honeymoon registry.

Our first encounter with honeymoon registries was a few years ago at a friend's wedding. The couple was honeymooning in Bali and had registered for yoga classes, room upgrades, even breakfast in bed! We instantly loved that we could help our friends have the honeymoon of their dreams instead of just buying them a blender or handing them a cheque. I guess it all comes down to personal preference, but seeing pictures of our friends' honeymoon gave us a sense of satisfaction that we hadn't felt with traditional registries or cash gifts.

If you're not familiar with honeymoon registries, the way it works is: you build a wish list of items - dinners, excursions, plane tickets, you name it! You can then split up each item into smaller or bigger chunks. For example: one spa day could be split up into one chunk of 200$, 2 chunks of 100$, or 10 chunks of 20$ - it always helps to have a variety of price points available for guests of different budgets. After your guests pick a gift, they can choose to bring a cheque or cash to the wedding (free of charge), or deposit the money directly into your PayPal account through their credit card or bank account. There is a small PayPal fee associated with this option - it varies, but I believe it's somewhere around 3%. You can choose to have the fee deducted from the gift, or have your guest pay it (we chose to have it deducted because as a guest, it would irk me to have to pay extra to give a gift).
After much research, we settled on Honeyfund.com. The site itself is free (aside from the PayPal transaction fees), and you can pay for an upgrade, which removes ads and allows you to post pictures of yourselves, as well as the items you're registering for. I happily paid for the upgrade, as it gave the site a much more polished look; since you're expecting your guests to transfer you money online, you want your website to look legit!

Image via www.tumblr.com/

After reading some of the comments on fellow bees' posts, I was afraid of getting a negative reaction from some of our more traditional guests, which is why we also had a smaller traditional registry at Linen Chest. This gave us the chance to upgrade a few items like china, steak knives, towels, bamboo sheets (seriously the best sheets ever, look into it!) and my dream Nespresso coffee maker.

I'm happy to report that people really LOVED our honeymoon registry and as far as we know, nobody was offended by it. Most guests hadn't necessarily heard of a honeymoon registry before, so we did have to field a lot of questions, but once people understood the concept, they were totally on board with it! A lot of people said that they wanted to give us something that we really wanted, to which we replied that what we wanted most of all was the trip of a lifetime! We had three categories of gift on our registry: the necessities (hotels, transportation, airfare and meals), the must-do's (excursions we knew we would be doing regardless of whether somebody actually bought them for us) and the VIP perks (things we would love to do but didn't have the budget for, like upgrades and fancy massages).

I would like to note that we did not expect our guests to finance an extravagant honeymoon - we had already paid in full for all of our accommodations, flights and meals months in advance. However, having a honeymoon registry allowed us to take our trip to the next level, and thanks to our guests' generosity, we were able to do every single activity on our list, which we wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.  The really unique excursions (like the underwater safari and the private beach picnic) and romantic massages were the first to get bought up because people want to feel like they're buying a unique experience. Another thing we noticed was that items with less "chunks" had more success. For instance, the dolphin swim was one of the pricier items on the list, so we split it up into six chunks, but only one actually got purchased. I guess people don't want to feel like they're giving you only a small part of a bigger present, they want to give you the whole thing! The least popular item on the registry was airfare. From the necessities list, romantic meals were a huge hit with our foodie set of guests. Another surprisingly popular item was nights in our private overwater bungalow! It goes to show: people want to buy you something different and special (and an overwater bungalow screams Bora Bora).


Snapshot of our honeymoon registry/ Image via Honeyfund.com

I know some naysayers claim that a honeyfund is basically a glorified way of asking for cash. I guess that's true in a sense, but it's more personal than cash since you get to bid on a specific item. We also promised ourselves that we would only use the money for what it had been intended and earmarked each gift for the activity our guest had purchased. We would have felt dishonest taking the money and doing something else with it. For this reason, plan your trip ahead of time and don't over-register! It can be tempting to put everything you want on the registry, but keep in mind how long each activity takes and prioritize the ones you would really love to do.  It would be terribly disappointing for your guests to buy you something and find out later that you used the money for something else. This is the reason why we included things that were already paid for, like the hotel rooms, in our registry. This way, guests who wanted to contribute to the honeymoon could still do so even after the more unique excursions had gotten bought up.  You can also heavily hint as to what activities you're really looking forward to doing if you want to make sure those get bought first.

At Mrs. Blue Whale's suggestion, we also took a list of the gifts with us on our honeymoon and took the time to think about each person and mentally thank them as we were enjoying their gift. We also made sure to take lots of pictures and will include a printed picture of us enjoying the activity in our thank you cards. We hope our guests will love seeing us actually enjoying their presents!

After all was said and done, cash gifts were still the most popular option with our guests. Out of 150 guests, 45 gifted us cash, 36 bought something on the honeymoon registry, 10 bought something from the Linen Chest registry and 8 people gave us random other presents that we hadn't registered for, and a few people dropped off a box of fresh Wyoming air ;). I hate to admit that as lovely as they were, we're still struggling to find room for some of these registry items in our tiny downtown apartment two months after our wedding! Also, a fun fact: the award for most unique present goes to Brother GM, who bought us stock.

Personal image

Next up: we go to Bora Bora, so get your towels ready, it's about to go down!
Did you use a honeymoon registry? Why or why not?

Sugar Pie, Honey Moon

Mr. Waterfall and I have been planning our dream honeymoon since we were just a couple of crazy 18-year old kids. We would fantasize about taking a trip around the world, visiting every city that was named after either of us. Of course, ain't nobody got time for that... vacation time, that is! Or, you know... MONEY, for that matter. But the point is, we had given our honeymoon a lot of thought.

As we got older, we started seriously considering Europe. For the longest time, my dream honeymoon destination was actually Italy. I've had a major fascination with Ancient Rome my whole life (did you know they had flushable toilets?) and actually minored in Classics in college and took Italian for over a year. I could just picture us walking hand in hand in the Piazza Navona, eating gelato, or snuggling in a Gondola in Venice while a gondolier serenated us. Delicious food and wine... gorgeous romantic sights... what more could you want for the perfect honeymoon?

Well, after giving it some serious thought, we did a complete 180 and opted for a totally relaxing, beachy honeymoon instead! Last summer, we went to an all-inclusive resort in Cuba for a week and it was just the vacation we needed. It was Mr. Waterfall's first time at the ocean, and he loved it! As much as we loved Europe, there is just so much to see and do that we would have felt guilty sleeping in and lounging instead of taking in all the sights and museums. We knew we wanted a destination that offered lots of relaxation and pampering with spectacular beaches. We also wanted to go somewhere neither of us had been before, somewhere we might not go otherwise... a one in a lifetime trip. We both love travelling, and we still plan to see the world, one vacation at a time, so we wanted our honeymoon trip to stand out from the rest. One night, we were sitting on our couch and decided to yell out our ideal honeymoon destination on the count of three: One...two...three... BORA BORA.

image via Hilton Bora Bora

After some initial research, we were super bummed out by the prices, and started looking at different alternatives. I spent a good month Googling things like "cheap Bora Bora" to no avail; I was a woman on a mission!. I had all but given up when I mentioned it to Papi Waterfall, who must have been a travel agent in a previous life. My parents are huge travellers who go away every year to a different location and my dad spends months looking for the best possible deals on air fare and hotels. He asked if I would mind him taking over my research and by this point, I was so discouraged that I was seriously glad to have it taken off my hands. A few months later, he called me in the middle of a work day to tell me he'd found an amazing deal and we had to act fast. I spent the rest of the day on the phone with Mr. W, my dad, and the travel agency, and we had our honeymoon booked that same night! I still can't believe the amazing deal Papi Waterfall found! We also set up a honeymoon registry (more on that later), which significantly helped us, and our guests were thrilled to send us on our dream honeymoon.

We booked 2 nights at the Intercontinental in Moorea, followed by 5 nights in our very own overwater bungalow in Bora Bora and it was seriously amazing! I cannot wait to tell you guys all about it.

Waterfalls in Bora Bora/ personal photo

Where are you honeymooning?