Rangiroa, French Polynesia

I've been fortunate enough to have been to some really nice places in my travel history (Hawaii, Pacific Mexico, Fiji, Jamaica, Bonaire, Kosrae, Antigua, Bora Bora, not to mention my local Channel Islands CA!), but by far the place which eclipses them all is Rangiroa in French Poly. My wife and I spent a week diving there and the wonder never wore off for us. We stayed at the wonderful Hotel Kia Ora ( http://www.hotelkiaora.com/home.php ) in an overwater bungalow and enjoyed the hotel's great food and hospitality in what is one of the most spectacularly beautiful places on earth. We dove with TopDive (who we loved in Bora Bora, but not in Rangiroa) and I would not recommend them ... opt instead for the far nicer and better equipped Blue Dolphins ( http://www.bluedolphinsdiving.com/index_eng.html ) .

Diving in Rangiroa is done through the two passes into the lagoon during the tide shift, primarily Tiputa. You dive off of a zodiac, which drops you outside the pass in the bluest ocean you could imagine. Usually the first thing you'll hear is dolphin calls and they appear out of nowhere to play with you. As you drift toward the reef you will see turtles, mantas, huge Napolean Wrasses, and sharks. We even sighted a hammerhead on one dive. As the current pulls you into the pass you look down and then you see them ... hundreds of sharks. More than you can hope to count! They look like ants swarming over each other below you (I shot a short vid that I'll try to post from high up so that you can see the enormous number of them but I know there are several on YouTube that you can check out). Then you notice that the current is starting to pick up, faster and faster as you move into the channel. You'll reach a speed of six to eight knots or so and you are absolutely flying! The world is passing you by so fast that there is no hope for you to swim against the current ... if you wish to stop and watch the sea life you'd better be close to something to hold on to. As you feel the current let up you are deposited into the lagoon, where you pop your SMB to let the zodiac know your location. I could do that dive a million times and never tire of it because each time we did it we saw different things. And you never get tired of seeing those sharks!!

Rangiroa is a huge atoll, only a small part of which is populated. We rented a scooter and rode from one end of the island to the other in about 20 minutes. There are a surprising number of good places to eat and there's even a winery on the island where you can stop by and do some tasting. The wine's OK, nothing earthshaking but how cool is it to have a winery on a tropical island?

I'm sure I'm forgetting many things but I wholeheartedly recommend it to be on anyone's "short list" of your life's dive destinations.

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Permalink Reply by Lynne Flaherty on February 25, 2009 at 5:46pm

Yes, I agree with you -- Rangiroa is one of the most fantastic places I've dived. We did two days there on our South Pacific trip, and from a diving standpoint, I could easily have spent the whole trip there. We dove with dolphins, saw my first manta, and didn't get to spend NEARLY enough time exploring one of the healthiest and most densely packed reef systems I've ever seen.

We drifted the pass, but saw no sharks at all . . .

I'm surprised, though, at your take on Top Dive there. We dove with the Top Dive establishments in Papeete, Moorea, Bora Bora and Rangiroa, and liked the Rangiroa operation best. We had a WONDERFUL guide named Sergei whose enthusiasm added a great deal to our fun. What did you like better about the other operator?

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Permalink Reply by Jamie on February 25, 2009 at 7:19pm

We loved the shop and the guys with TopDive in Bora Bora. They were friendly, respectful, knowledgeable, and generally happy guys.
However .... when we were in Rangiroa we had two dive leaders, Marina and a guy whose name escapes me at the moment but he's the light-haired guy in the photo here (sorry about the aspect ratio of the photo). They were snotty and curt and not friendly in the least. One of the things that bothered me the most was their insistence on speaking French between each other and the other divers on the presumption that we wouldn't understand what they were saying. Having had three years of French and having dated a Parisienne for a while, I could make out a lot of what they were saying and they were not being very nice to my wife and I behind our backs. One of the things that annoyed them the In great contrast, the woman who owns Blue Dolphins (her name is Jun) could not have been nicer to us. Very friendly, very accomodating, better shop, better equipped (even supporting rebreathers), nicer boat.

I attached a couple of short clips. The first is from high up near the surface so you can see the huge number of sharks below you. The second clip is a little further down.

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MVI_0294.AVI, 4.4 MB
MVI_0461.AVI, 3.2 MB

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Permalink Reply by Lynne Flaherty on February 26, 2009 at 8:48am

Goes to show you that guides really can make an experience a good one or a bad one!

I wonder if the reason we didn't see any sharks is because the viz into the pass the day we drifted it wasn't very good. Those guys are way down there; we might just not have seen them because we couldn't see that far.

It didn't much matter. What with the dolphins and the manta and the incredible reef, we didn't mind missing a few sharks.