10th Anniversary Trip Day 4: Stand Up Paddleboarding and La Villa Mahana

7/8/2026
10th Anniversary Trip Day 4: Stand Up Paddleboarding and La Villa Mahana

We had a "later" start today, at 7:30am!! I was psyched to go back to the breakfast buffet again as I had held back the day before so as to not overeat before the snorkeling trip, so I had pent-up excitement to try alllll the things. It was nice to try more stuff today and enjoy and savour the breakfast experience without having to rush off to anything that we had pre-scheduled. The waitress suggested I try the "detox" drink which was some sort of ginger carrot something-or-other. Good, weird, and tasty. Good times. The coffee, again, was EPIC. I was a bit nervous to ask the brand of the coffee, figuring I would embarrass them when they inevitably came back to tell me "It's Nescafe" (I had actually read that often 'drip' coffee can be just Nescafe here, actually!) -- so still unclear if it's the cream that is magical or the coffee, but either way I am hooked, and I drank an entire carafe on my own.

We got nice seating outside with a great view and a bit away from the buffet area. I cut myself a slice of sourdough from a freshly-baked full loaf, and that with cream cheese and smoked white tuna was INSANE. The pastries again were so excellent, I think this must be a specialty of the chef here.

Glorious!!!

The pastry quality was insane

Made-to-order giant waffles and pancakes, generally with nutella or maple syrup and tahitian vanilla whipped cream

The epic coffee on the right!!

What a view

Today, got a nutella crepe!

Tiny french baguette with french butter

After a nice, long 1.5hr brekkie, we went back to our amazing room and did a lot of reading. I am, 10 years later, finally taking time to read and enjoy Ed Catmull's "Creativity, Inc.", a book about the founding of (and moreso, the ongoing philosophy of) creating and nurturing of Pixar Animation Studios over the years. It's obviously crucially important to the work I do, leading people at ILM (the birthplace of Pixar-- so all these ideas are extremely close to home) and also having worked there myself and seeing the magic in action with my own eyes, and having the opportunity of a lifetime to be a part of it all. It is so important and so interesting to see how philosophical and contrarian Ed's methods are, and how successful and impressive his work was to create and stoke the magical culture of that beautiful place of work. It took me so long to read this that Ed has actually updated the book already with new chapters and updates. In any case, I am happy to finally have time to read this important work.

Oh! And on that Pixar-y note... I ran into Ryan, a former Pixar Story Dept employee... AS we were eating breakfast!!? I was like... WHAT?! Here?! Someone I know? "Fancy meeting you here, halfway across the world!" She was there also celebrating a milestone anniversary with her family so that was just so funny. Of course I would run into someone I know in the middle of nowhere, classic Mike Jutan behaviour.

We relaxed and continued to enjoy, and then headed off to the spa area at 10am for a Yoga session. The instructor was a funny French lady who was stick-thin with some very intense 'smoky eye' eyeshadow. She was quite a character. She set us up for the yoga class along with a Danish man and his daughter and one other fellow, in an outdoor covered Yoga platform onlooking the rainforest. Pretty epic spot for a class. The class was a good stretch after all the snorkeling yesterday and the sitting on the plane a few days prior. She had some funny lines as we were stretching out our arms, sometimes talking softly... and breezily.... AND THEN VERY POINTED AND INTENSE. haha. "Ahhh... yes...... be like a bird, ahhh... you slowly flap your wings... you relax.... and THEN YOU FLLLYYY!!!!!" Haha it was hilarious and so very vacation-y to be doing something like this. Could easily be in a honeymoon Hollywood vacation movie.

After the Yoga, there was a little rain so we waited it out under the spa overhead-covered seats. Michal read while I tried out the plunge pool. There was a button "for bubbles" as the staff said, as well as one "for the jets". I had presumed that was somewhat like a sauna tub but it was very much not. The "bubbles" button lasted for approx 30 sec only, and was only for one small section of the pool. It was very nice, but shockingly short! I figured I'd try the jets button but it was very much not jets within the pool like a hot tub -- it turned on two VERY intense taps a bit above your head, shooting down directly at an angle to the top of your back. It was quite surprising! I tried the wet and dry sauna too, and then also continued to read my book for a while before we headed back to the room and the sun came out again.

Michal encouraged me to go try borrowing a SUP (Standup Paddleboard) in the Lagoon and it was awesome. I went all around all the rooms with the GoPro attached to my head (thanks for the borrow, Alex!) as you were allowed to go around the rooms and into the Lagoonarium, a coral garden / coral reef built literally in the middle of the hotel. I SUP'd all the way to our own dock for our room, got out to take a minute break, and then continued into the Lagoonarium. I paddled mostly on my knees due to the wind and some waves from other boats. Into the Lagoonarium it was very calm so it was much easier to stand there. This was really fun and then Michal took my photo from the Lagoonarium bridge. I dropped the SUP back at the beach and saw the popsicle dude at the pool, handing out free Mango fruit popsicles! I've never moved so fast in my life. "Would you like one sir?!" Oh MY yes I would, thank you. I recorded the entire SUP video here, it's a bit long, but feel free to watch my escapades here:)

What a glorious place for a Standup Paddleboard!!

Inside the Lagoonarium

Just so epic

Michal took my video while standing on a bridge, and there was a stingray also in the Lagoonarium!!

After the SUP experience, we then went to go snorkel in the Lagoonarium. This is a coral reef literally inside the hotel, which is just insane that they have this.  There's some Coral regrowth work happening too with various kinds of coral being regrown under the water. In addition to the Coral rebuilding structure at the end, we also did a snorkel at the other side of the lagoon near the Spa and there were lots of fish. See the video here!

Here's a bunch of the fish we saw

The coral rebuilding area

After the snorkeling, we went to check out the pool as we hadn't been there yet. I got a Banana-Vanilla juice which was, as is my favourite thing, 'weird and good'. On our way back to the room we laughed at the restaurant named "Arii Moana", where "Arii" means "King". Ari is gonna love that but also will wonder why they spelled "Ari" with an extra "i"! We got changed and ready for an evening boat ride to the main island.

We took some photos with this funny picture frame thing they had up near the checkin area.

We got on our boat transfer, and this was a short ride, maybe 10 min, and then we got picked up by a Taxi to take us to the famed La Villa Mahana restaurant. The restaurant is famous and has been there for 22 years. The chef is French and married to a Polynesian woman, who is one of the servers. What a cool family vibe it was there. The whole schtick, the homeyness, the decor, the music -- it was all chosen so intentionally that you couldn't help but fall in love with the place. We were so psyched to go there and experience it for ourselves.

Very excited for dinner!

I wore my Pixar Ratatouille Hawaiian Shirt from back in the day, seemed appropriate for the fancy French restaurant we were about to experience!

Michal fitting in well with all the fancy artwork and French bistro vibes of it all

A cool welcome note in the menu from the Chef

The garden around the restaurant and patio area

Michal ready for dinner!

First: the bread. "Crack!" It had a very crusty outside and was perfect. I made a huge mess cutting it on the table due to the crusty outer shell of it, but hopefully I'm just another one of many uncivilized North Americans to do the same thing this week.

They do both a classic French bistro menu, as well as the "Menu Exotique", which was based on Polynesian ingredients and "island flavour". I did the wine pairing which paired very well with all the various deliciousness.

First on the menu was:
THON ROUGE A LA VANILLE
Seared Ahi Tuna with Vanilla Oil, Potatoes and Lime Mixed Green Salad
Paired with: Champagne Brut

The Tuna was so good. It was sea-salted which was a delicious addition, and the edible flowers and salad were a perfect start. The Vanilla Oil was very rich and tasty, I thought it was Truffle Oil at first.

Next up was MAHI MAHI CURRY ET BANANE DOUCE PUREE DE POMME DE TERRE, SAUCE MANGUE
Mahi Mahi with Curry and Banana, Mango Sauce, Sweet Mashed Potatoes
Paired with: Sauvignon Blanc

This banana-mango sauce was actually insane. It was a really just fascinatingly tasty, sweet-but-not-overpoweringly-so, perfect addition to the tender Mahi Mahi. The dishes were such interesting and unusually-blended flavours, just so, so good and such a nice vibe in there too.

The vibe was a tad reminiscent of our favourite spot in Italy, a place we're still talking about 20 years later, Vini e Vecchi Sapori in Florence. Just the homeyness of it all, the amazing family business inside a home environment, the kindness of the staff treating you like family, the whole family involved in the business, just 8 tables available each night and once you're there, there is no rush as it is your table for the night. This slow pace and deliberate hospitality reminded me of that amazing experience way back.

Next up, the steak! It was also insane!!

FILET DE BŒUF A LA VANILLE DE TAHITI GNOCCHI A LA CRÈME DE PARMESAN, SAUCE VIN ROUGE VANILLE
Roasted Beef Tenderloin with Red Wine Vanilla Sauce, Creamy Gnocchi and Old Parmesan Cheese
Paired with: Cabernet Sauvignon

Let me tell you... wow. This was actually the most perfectly-cooked steak I have ever eaten in my life. Sorry Gary Danko -- this one takes the cake. This was just utter perfection, perfectly seared on the outside and an absolute exactly-what-you-want medium rare-medium inside. Not even a morsel was under-done or too chewy or anything, the flavour was truly stunning and the sauce was rich and beefy and a powerhouse, some sort of unbelievable, rich wine reduction. This plate was QUITE rich and large, so Michal was struggling to eat her entire piece (I 'begrudgingly' had to assist a bit!) but WOW. Honestly it's hard to picture a steak I've ever enjoyed more than this one. Truly epic.

After THAT epicness it was time for dessert. They first brought the Sorbet du Jour which was Mango, bold and beautiful palate cleanser it was.

And shortly after, they brought out the main dessert:

BANANE FLAMBEE AU VIEUX RHUM DES ILES GLACE A LA VANILLE DE TAHITI
Banana Flambée with Old Rum and Tahitian Vanilla Ice Cream
Paired with: Sauternes

This flambee was a perfect conclusion to an incredible dinner. So tasty and so deliciously local, I just loved it. Michal was keen for their Lava cake so she swapped to that one instead but I was very happy to enjoy the magic of rhum and bananas together! What a glorious night, we had such a good time and the food was even more stunning than I had anticipated. It was really something special to enjoy... and we did! We signed the guestbook after this, said "Merci Beaucoup" to the chef, and then they had our taxi ready to take us back to the boat dock.

Back at the dock we only had about 10-15 min to wait for the boat to arrive, and so I enjoyed seeing all the 'dock cats' there, relaxing and cleaning themselves.

We boarded the transfer boat back to our hotel and slept very well after a great meal.

10th Anniversary Trip Day 3: Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays

7/7/2026
10th Anniversary Trip Day 3: Snorkeling with Sharks and Stingrays

For our first morning in Bora Bora, we started with quite a magical start! First things first was the breakfast buffet bright and early at 7am. We were about to go on a Full Day Snorkeling trip with Lagoon Services Bora Bora and it was going to be about 7 hours long so I figured wise not to over-eat -- we'll get another 3 mornings at this epic buffet so no need to try every possible thing the first day... I had to repeat this to myself:) The coffee was incredible!! Wasn't sure if it was the coffee itself or the cream in it, but it was magnificent.

The bungalows, the mountains, and Michal!

The pastries were out of control delicious

Time for some more Red Tuna and Salmon

Glorious view from Breakfast

So...many... passion fruits...

We finished an awesome breakfast and sat for a very 'short' 1 hour only today; we'll take it more leisurely on the future days. This day was the most scheduled of the trip, with the pickup at 8:30 for the snorkeling trip. Our guide Mana picked us up and I apologized for being a minute or two late. "Hey! You're on Island Time, buddy! All is good!"

Mana picked us up in a cool outrigger-canoe style speedboat, pretty sweet. We met some of the other travelers that were staying at a couple of the other hotels and everyone was super nice and celebrating something special on this trip.

The first stop was the Coral Garden. We had brought our own masks on recommendation from Lonely Planet and a few other spots, and they did not disappoint. The mask is made of one piece of glass and was very clear. The snorkel itself is super amazing and has a valve in the front (for when you get water into the tube, you don't have to shoot it all the way back up the snorkel) as well as a stopper at the top ("dry snorkel") that lets you dive down without the tube filling up with water. Pretty cool stuff!

Alex kindly lent me his GoPro 11 which was amazing as I was able to capture some really cool videos I'll post here. Along the way, Mana showed us a mountain with a hole in it. He said that his people believe that Maui broke the hole in the mountain, making the cave, and in a 2nd attempt, lifted the mountain up out of the water with his hook! He talked about the movie Moana and was clearly quite excited and pleased about the Polynesian vibes successfully portrayed in the movie.

Excited to snorkel!

The hole Maui made when he lifted the mountain out of the water with his hook

We arrived at the Coral Garden and it was great. First some underwater photos from the GoPro and then a video.

Michal getting ready for the initial snorkel

These funny Clam guys were smiling at us!

Pretty incredible times! After this we drove a bit more and we saw a giant shark in the water, which Mana pointed out to us. This was a different type of shark to the main ones we would be seeing today, which were Black-Tipped Sharks.

This mountain he said is supposed to look like a face

So... sharks eh!??!? Let's go!! It was incredible that they came so close -- it was crazy, you just dunk your head underwater and there's a bunch of sharks, right there. Michal was a little bit iffy on this whole 'swimming with sharks thing' but I was very proud of her for just jumping in and doing it anyway.

And here's the video of us from both this location number 2, and the final 3rd location I'll talk about next. WOW this was incredible. What an absolutely stunning experience this all was. This is the main video of the day so this is the main thing to watch. The 2nd location, the sharks were all around and it was made even more picturesque by seeing some divers as well that show up in the video here, too. The 3rd location was my favourite spot on the trip since you were so close to the sharks and it was crazy how much they swim around you and right by you.

So after the first shark spot, we were pretty PSYCHED. Mana played the Ukelele and told us stories of when he was younger, growing up fishing. "If you go out for a day of surf, you better bring something [some fish] back!" How cool of a childhood that must have been.

We continued enjoying the weather and the good times and chatting with the other travelers, and then we arrived at the final spot, a Sharks and Stingray location!! I had thought these rays were harmless MANTA Rays... turns out, nope, they are real Stingrays!!! Mana said he had a favourite one and they were 'friends' and he knows her by name, so he held her and let us touch the underside of it's body and fins which was insane. I thought it was like holding a giant Portobello mushroom.

At this last spot, there were a few stingrays (not manta rays?!?!?!) and more (circling!) sharks. It was all a bit nuts, but amazing, and definitely my favourite spot of the snorkeling trip. There were some incredibly bright coloured fish and the yellow-finned ones seemed the most friendly.

Michal took some photos too while I was in the water, and I got some photos with the GoPro in addition to the video above.

Mana with his "girlfriend", the Stingray!

"Feels like a Portobello Mushroom!"

What an absolutely stunning experience this all was. The water is an unbelievable shade of green, teal, dark blue, all changing in different locations. It was quite unbelievable and just stunningly gorgeous.

After a glorious 4 hours on the boat and snorkeling 3 times, we headed to a private island (Motu) for us to enjoy a huge lunch they had prepared for us. This was epic, they had rice, poisson cru, chicken, beef from Australia, Fish steak, Po'e (with Pumpkin), Pamplemoose, Pineapple, Breadfruit, Plaintain, and some sort of potato-y thing.

Mana explaining the food

This really hit the spot after all that snorkeling!

The Po'e was good and I really liked trying all these new things

Mana showed us how to put together a leaf-plate for our food

At lunch, we ended up sitting with the other couples from California/Seattle west coast. We had a nice chat with the San Jose couple that were there celebrating their 30th Anniversary! I joked that we were gonna have to figure out what to do now because it would be hard to beat this trip, and instead of smartly waiting for this trip for our 30th Anniversary like them, we were doing it for our 10th Anniversary! They suggested we just plan to come back for our 30th:)

After we finished lunch, there was a short coconut-opening demonstration, before we wrapped up the day and took the boat back to our hotels. On the way back, Michal and I got a good laugh as Mana was playing Ukelele and singing, and so he had no hands left, and was driving and steering the boat with his feet -- just like the bird does in the movie "Flow"!! It was really funny and the music was great. He played Somewhere over the Rainbow as well as a Polynesian version of Justin Bieber's "Baby". So fun and so funny.

And then arriving back at our hotel entrance, stunning:

Back we go to our hotels. What a great day out.

Enjoying music and the weather

Saying goodbye to Mana at our dock

The view from the hotel lobby!!! Not bad eh?!?!

We got back to our EPIC Overwater Bungalow and relaxed... imagine that?! We did some late afternoon reading(!!!) and took it easy after a long and fun day out. My favourite part of the day was definitely the 3rd snorkeling spot, given how close you were to the rays and the sharks. Wild!!!!

For dinner, we went to the 'casual' poolside/beachside dining area which was much fancier than expected for the dinner setup. We got the Lagoon Fish Ceviche, got a side of the smallest corn on the cob ever made, and then really won with the most utterly amazing whisky-mashed sweet potato. We also shared a main of an amazingly fresh Mahi Mahi with creamy vanilla sauce.

Lagoon Fish Ceviche with Aguachile marinated pineapple, avocado, jalopenos, edamame, and coriander

Mahi Mahi with Vanilla sauce, Sweet Potato Puree flambeed with Bourbon Whisky and Roasted Hazelnuts

Random cat!!!

The waitress and waiter were both very funny and cute and you could see they really just wanted to provide excellent and memorable service. The waitress apologized for having minimal English and I said I would try to use my French and she literally giggled as she walked away. Everyone is so jovial here, it's amazing.

The final hilarious thing of the evening was we asked the waiter if we could take one of our breadknives back to the room since I had the fruit from the Papeete Market and wanted to eat it in the evenings. He returned with a serrated steak knife from the kitchen that he said would do a better job on the fruit, and then asked us "Shall I have it delivered to your room?" which gave us a good laugh, given how amazingly unnecessary it was to make someone else schelp for this request. He was only a LITTLE bit horrified that was said we'd just walk with it, and he delivered the knife wrapped in a napkin for our safety:) Needless to say, it was time to get going on all these mangos and passion fruits that I bought!

Tomorrow: less of a plan. More relaxed and less scheduling. Sweet dreams of sharks and stingrays!