Dive passes in French Polynesia (Top Dive and Te Moana)

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Sorry for the delay in responding, had a few things on. Ok, having dinner tonight with the old owner from No Surrender the boat that did surrender (circumnavigated aus, nz, pacific islands all the way out to Marquesas, Australs and Rapanui, back up through torres strait around birdsdhead peninsula, back down thru indo, singapore, thailand.......and sunk 30m from Hillaries yacht club). Obviously after sinking our logs and charts were er..wet..but we will piece together our route and I will probably put it in a word doco and pm it to you.

Always enter on a slack tide, especially rangi - glad to see you hang your husband out to look for bombies, I think I have spent more time hanging upside down off bowsprits looking for bombies than actually sailing over the years lol. What a wonderful adventure. Soggy Paws guide is great was just having a look at it.

One thing I would suggest throwing in if its not going to add too much to your route (and it wont) is going over to the Marquisas - absolutely stunning and very rarely visited. You can dive at Nuka Hiva there but the rest of the Marquisas are ringed with very foreboding cliffs. If you do get there, its a very different FP again - the wild horses of the Marquisas have been there since the Spanish stopped in for a look and are magnificent. You can hang a left and head to Hawaii no dramas :)

When you are in the Societies, you no longer have to pass customs at Papeete if you have been in and seen the gendarmes at any other point of landing (Gendarmes at Moorea and Rangiroa seem to be the less busy and speak better english) - Id bypass Tahiti Yacht club and anchor up in Opunoha bay in Moorea. Provisioning up would be cheaper in Tahiti but its only a ten minute ride by the ferry anyway so you would be best taking your tender and provisioning there. Opunoha bay is quiet beautiful. Theres a fantastic restaurant just by the bay too...trying to remember the name but its always full of (french) locals and tourists. If you feel like seeing if your legs work on land theres often a market when the cruise ships are in at Oponoha pier. Great place for pareos and pearls...but save the pearl purchase for Rangi when there are no cruise ships in you will get a much better bargain.

To be honest I really wouldnt bother diving BB - Raitia may be little tiny bit better and anchorage used to be cheaper and is only a few minutes away. Snorkel BB save your dive budget for the Tuomotos. Given you are doing the Tuomotos and all those other wonderful places all you will really see at BB is Lemon Sharks conditioned to arrive at the sound of the cattleboat engine. I personally dont like Topdive and prefer to go with local french ops as im Cmas certified.

I am a bit ambivalent about dive passes. For some people they work out great value, some people get stung by weather and cant use all the dives before they leave and lets face it, a credit for next time you come back to a dot in the middle of the ocean is pretty much a write off. Unless you have your own boat :wink:In your situation where you are not bound by a flight schedule it may be a great option for you.

TBH I have not known anyone with personal experience using the Te Moana pass - but it looks pretty good on paper. You could easily sneak in a dive at Tahiti...or two..theres a wreck there and also a nice not too ballistic drift the Tahiti express.
Saving your dives for the Tuomotos and snorkelling the societies seems to be the way to do it. Dive Spirit Fakarava and Six passengers seem to get good reviews so I would focus my diving there if you go with the pass.

You wont have any trouble with briefings in French - if you do have a ridiculous question someone will ask someone to translate out in the tuomotos. I believe all the centres with the Te Moana pass are fine with Padi.

Its pretty much standard for most of your route - inside lagoons and leeward good, outside lagoons as im sure you would know can be rough - remember this when you are doing the passes - if you do a blue water entry its likely going to be a swell but you end up in the nice bathtub lagoon, the opposite way, you end up perhaps in the blue with some nice sized sharks and those walls of fish you are looking for around..not to mention the dolphins :)

Fakarava still eludes me due to a plane deciding not to fly (this is common in FP but wont affect you) but I recently spoke to someone who had just come back and said the diving was awesome at faka but hit rangi at the wrong time. Try and schedule your trip around avoiding the cruise ships - and check the schedule of the aranui supply ship - we basically followed that out to the marquisas to make provisioning easy.

There are a couple of things you need to do in FP - have a bloody mary at Bloody Mary's in bora bora (because its bora bora) eat a gateux at Caramalline in Moorea and come in from an awesome dive on Rangi and have lunch at Lili Cafe - the mahe mahe with vanilla sauce is amazing.

If you need crew let me know lol....very jealous....fair winds will have that word doco to you as soon as I can.

Oh yeh - moorea - lots of blacktips and lemons and eagle rays, also a nice pretty dive called Coral Gardens. Worth doing as its a nice pleasurable easy dive.
 
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Headed to Rangiroa in January 2018. Going to stay at Hotel Kia Ora for a week. Does anyone know if Top Dive boat dives are a two tank boat dives. They offer a 10 tank pass but wasn't sure if we should could split it between the two of us. Any info would be appreciated.
 
Thank you so much for all the time and detail you put into your reply! I'm sorry I neglected to reply before we set sail- we've been finding your recommendations very useful, along with the Soggypaws compendium (thanks for those recommendations). The Tuamotus were incredible and we're now at Moorea- and excited to be able to tag on the Marquesas in December! I'll put together a trip report but just wanted to say thanks for your help.

Sorry for the delay in responding, had a few things on. Ok, having dinner tonight with the old owner from No Surrender the boat that did surrender (circumnavigated aus, nz, pacific islands all the way out to Marquesas, Australs and Rapanui, back up through torres strait around birdsdhead peninsula, back down thru indo, singapore, thailand.......and sunk 30m from Hillaries yacht club). Obviously after sinking our logs and charts were er..wet..but we will piece together our route and I will probably put it in a word doco and pm it to you.

Always enter on a slack tide, especially rangi - glad to see you hang your husband out to look for bombies, I think I have spent more time hanging upside down off bowsprits looking for bombies than actually sailing over the years lol. What a wonderful adventure. Soggy Paws guide is great was just having a look at it.

One thing I would suggest throwing in if its not going to add too much to your route (and it wont) is going over to the Marquisas - absolutely stunning and very rarely visited. You can dive at Nuka Hiva there but the rest of the Marquisas are ringed with very foreboding cliffs. If you do get there, its a very different FP again - the wild horses of the Marquisas have been there since the Spanish stopped in for a look and are magnificent. You can hang a left and head to Hawaii no dramas :)

When you are in the Societies, you no longer have to pass customs at Papeete if you have been in and seen the gendarmes at any other point of landing (Gendarmes at Moorea and Rangiroa seem to be the less busy and speak better english) - Id bypass Tahiti Yacht club and anchor up in Opunoha bay in Moorea. Provisioning up would be cheaper in Tahiti but its only a ten minute ride by the ferry anyway so you would be best taking your tender and provisioning there. Opunoha bay is quiet beautiful. Theres a fantastic restaurant just by the bay too...trying to remember the name but its always full of (french) locals and tourists. If you feel like seeing if your legs work on land theres often a market when the cruise ships are in at Oponoha pier. Great place for pareos and pearls...but save the pearl purchase for Rangi when there are no cruise ships in you will get a much better bargain.

To be honest I really wouldnt bother diving BB - Raitia may be little tiny bit better and anchorage used to be cheaper and is only a few minutes away. Snorkel BB save your dive budget for the Tuomotos. Given you are doing the Tuomotos and all those other wonderful places all you will really see at BB is Lemon Sharks conditioned to arrive at the sound of the cattleboat engine. I personally dont like Topdive and prefer to go with local french ops as im Cmas certified.

I am a bit ambivalent about dive passes. For some people they work out great value, some people get stung by weather and cant use all the dives before they leave and lets face it, a credit for next time you come back to a dot in the middle of the ocean is pretty much a write off. Unless you have your own boat :wink:In your situation where you are not bound by a flight schedule it may be a great option for you.

TBH I have not known anyone with personal experience using the Te Moana pass - but it looks pretty good on paper. You could easily sneak in a dive at Tahiti...or two..theres a wreck there and also a nice not too ballistic drift the Tahiti express.
Saving your dives for the Tuomotos and snorkelling the societies seems to be the way to do it. Dive Spirit Fakarava and Six passengers seem to get good reviews so I would focus my diving there if you go with the pass.

You wont have any trouble with briefings in French - if you do have a ridiculous question someone will ask someone to translate out in the tuomotos. I believe all the centres with the Te Moana pass are fine with Padi.

Its pretty much standard for most of your route - inside lagoons and leeward good, outside lagoons as im sure you would know can be rough - remember this when you are doing the passes - if you do a blue water entry its likely going to be a swell but you end up in the nice bathtub lagoon, the opposite way, you end up perhaps in the blue with some nice sized sharks and those walls of fish you are looking for around..not to mention the dolphins :)

Fakarava still eludes me due to a plane deciding not to fly (this is common in FP but wont affect you) but I recently spoke to someone who had just come back and said the diving was awesome at faka but hit rangi at the wrong time. Try and schedule your trip around avoiding the cruise ships - and check the schedule of the aranui supply ship - we basically followed that out to the marquisas to make provisioning easy.

There are a couple of things you need to do in FP - have a bloody mary at Bloody Mary's in bora bora (because its bora bora) eat a gateux at Caramalline in Moorea and come in from an awesome dive on Rangi and have lunch at Lili Cafe - the mahe mahe with vanilla sauce is amazing.

If you need crew let me know lol....very jealous....fair winds will have that word doco to you as soon as I can.

Oh yeh - moorea - lots of blacktips and lemons and eagle rays, also a nice pretty dive called Coral Gardens. Worth doing as its a nice pleasurable easy dive.
 
Headed to Rangiroa in January 2018. Going to stay at Hotel Kia Ora for a week. Does anyone know if Top Dive boat dives are a two tank boat dives. They offer a 10 tank pass but wasn't sure if we should could split it between the two of us. Any info would be appreciated.
I didn't use a pass in the end and haven't dived with Top Dive, but single tank dives were the norm with Rangiroa Diving Centre and Six Passengers. See Wingy's advice on the passes above if you're intending diving other islands. Also be aware that Top Dive seem a lot more expensive than the other ops (and I can heartily recommend the two I used)
 
Y'Aka Plongee on Rangiroa is fabulous, fast drift dives and the chance of hammerheads and tigers - just come back from there :) Fakarava, imo, is uninteresting, not a lot to see in the North Pass, though the South Pass is nice.
 
We are headed to Rangiroa. Staying at the Kia Ora Resort and have the dive passes in January. Hope the weather is good. Any tips would be helpful. We are both very active DM's from Maui but have never been to the FP.
 
We are headed to Rangiroa. Staying at the Kia Ora Resort and have the dive passes in January. Hope the weather is good. Any tips would be helpful. We are both very active DM's from Maui but have never been to the FP.
The currents are absolutely ripping in the pass! You'll probably need to do at least one dive on the outer reef before you're allowed in the pass (this isn't a problem as you're still likely to see dolphins, eagle rays, schools of barracuda and sharks). Statistically they see dolphins on one out of three dives- this fits exactly with our experience. Don't touch the dolphins, even if they approach you! Some companies don't point out that this isn't ok (I'm sure you know it already!).

The pass is exhilarating and challenging- you do really need to stick close to the instructor as dropping down into the canyons involves a bit of precision, and the counter currents are wicked! There is a dive you can do on the outgoing tide which uses counter currents- it's another precision dive but it's where we saw the best coral and there's some macro life too- worth talking to your dive company about if you're doing a lot of diving there.

Have fun, and I hope the weather is good for you! And do try to have sunset drinks/ dinner at Les relais de Josephine- it's right on the pass and you can watch the dolphins from the deck, especially if the tide is outgoing!
 
The currents are absolutely ripping in the pass! You'll probably need to do at least one dive on the outer reef before you're allowed in the pass (this isn't a problem as you're still likely to see dolphins, eagle rays, schools of barracuda and sharks). Statistically they see dolphins on one out of three dives- this fits exactly with our experience. Don't touch the dolphins, even if they approach you! Some companies don't point out that this isn't ok (I'm sure you know it already!).

The pass is exhilarating and challenging- you do really need to stick close to the instructor as dropping down into the canyons involves a bit of precision, and the counter currents are wicked! There is a dive you can do on the outgoing tide which uses counter currents- it's another precision dive but it's where we saw the best coral and there's some macro life too- worth talking to your dive company about if you're doing a lot of diving there.

Have fun, and I hope the weather is good for you! And do try to have sunset drinks/ dinner at Les relais de Josephine- it's right on the pass and you can watch the dolphins from the deck, especially if the tide is outgoing!
Awe thanks for the info. We are excited to dive somewhere besides Maui.
 
Tips for diving Tipuata - probably my favourite dive world wide

1 - grab a chair, hit YouTube and watch as many clips of Tipuata pass as you can.

2 - have the time of your life :)

Seriously, if you get the opportunity to hang on the Coral coming in from the blue and watch a wave break - awesome, adds an extra element to the dive. Relax, go with it, think of the current as your own personal roller coaster - enjoy the ride because it doesn't last long. Don't mind the silky who likes to patrol the pass when a boat shows up, he's like a resident troll under the bridge, just try not to backwards roll in onto of him. Depending on who you're diving with - learn how to struggle into a RIB and done worry that you look like a fish flapping around - there is no elegant way to get into a RIB. Have fun :)
 

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