Mount Pahia

The second-highest peak on Bora Bora at 661 metres, Mount Pahia stands beside Mount Otemanu as the two jagged spires that define the island's famous silhouette. Where Otemanu is the island's highest point and the one most visitors fixate on, Pahia is arguably the more beautiful in profile — its flanks are covered in dense tropical vegetation that changes colour through the day as the light shifts.

Guided hikes approaching Pahia from the ridge between the two peaks give perhaps the best panoramic views available on the island, taking in the full sweep of the turquoise lagoon, the outer reef, and on clear days the silhouettes of Tahaa and Raiatea to the west. The hike requires a local guide — the terrain is steep and the trails unmarked. Several operators in Vaitape offer the combined Otemanu-Pahia ridge hike as a half or full-day excursion.

things to do sight hiking
A story
Mount Pahia and Mount Otemanu were once a single volcanic peak — the central plug of the shield volcano that built Bora Bora over millions of years. The saddle between them was carved by erosion over hundreds of thousands of years. Local legend holds that the peaks are the dwelling place of the gods, which is why the summit of Otemanu was forbidden to ordinary people and why Bora Bora was sometimes called Pora Pora — 'created first' — in Tahitian mythology, as the island believed closest to the divine.