Boracay getaway

"Stroke him!" our captain commanded as he hoisted a flapping, slimy stingray towards me, its cartoonish mouth hungrily sucking up fish from his hand.

Around us, maple-leaf-shaped stingray slithered across the sand and stubby reef sharks cruised by in the emerald water of Bora Bora's lagoon. I was sitting on a little boat with a tentative toe in the water, working up the courage to jump in and watching my mother squeal as a school of stingrays ballet-danced around her. I was on a cruise of the Society Islands, the most romantic destination on Earth, with my mum and some hungry fish.

The South Pacific islands of French Polynesia are a paradox — they attract honeymooners but hold a natural beauty that men will merrily leave their wives for.

In love with simplicity

French artist Paul Gauguin did this in 1891 when he left his young family to sail to the South Seas to escape debt and discover a simpler life in Mataiea, Tahiti. He fell in love with the islands and made them his home. He died in the Marquesas Islands in 1903. Gauguin would certainly have approved of his namesake cruise ship MS Paul Gauguin and the attractive Tahitian hostesses, "Les Gauguines", who, clad in brightly coloured pareos (sarongs), treat passengers to tales of island life and demonstrate the traditional ote'a dances.

MS Paul Gauguin was specially designed to sail the South Pacific's shallow lagoons. She is built for romance but was also ideal for a relaxing mother-daughter cruise. My mum and I went for Tahitian-style massages in the spa; tried, and failed, at water sports; and talked to some of the 332 guests at dinner in L'Etoile every night.

This is not a ship for dieters — the food was mouth-watering and included local fish such as wahoo or mahi mahi. We would do extra laps at the pool to work off the creamy coconut beverages or cakes served at afternoon tea.

The ship has a water-sports marina, where we collected snorkels, kayaks, water-skis and windsurfers.

Subtle yet notable

After leaving Tahiti, our first stop was Raiatea, where we took a bus trip to see the interior. French influences are seen in unexpected places; among the orange hibiscus, ripe bananas and papayas, and there were long, thin metal boxes by each house, where fresh baguettes are delivered daily.

The air was heady with the sweet smell of the islands' official flower, the tiare (gardenia), found all over French Polynesia. A strange energy hummed through Raiatea, once the religious centre of the islands and home to Taputapuatea, the most important marae (temple) in Eastern Polynesia. Rounded volcanic rocks formed an open-air sacred place with tiki figures standing guard.

We swapped tikis for our bathing suits the next day at Motu Mahana, a sand islet adjacent to Taha'a, where we tried snorkelling and saw brightly coloured fish and the coral reef. At Bora Bora there was another excursion to a private beach, with awesome views of the aquamarine lagoon and the famous craggy basalt giant of Mount Otemanu that rises out of Bora Bora.

We also had two days in Moorea and whiled away one relaxing on a catamaran cruise that took us to Cook's Bay, round the corner from where Captain James Cook landed in 1777 at Opunohu Bay. The Bounty anchored there 12 years after Cook.


I had fallen in love with the beautiful tropical paradise.


mayet