Fakarava and Rangiroa - which of them, and for how long?

[el-gee]

Hi All
I've read all the recent posts on this topic and would firstly like to thank all of you for the wealth of information I've gotten from ScubaBoard forums so far.

Alas, I got the trip of my lifetime booked (Vanuatu and French Pol) for three weeks in August, of which I plan to scuba for a week in Rangiroa and Fakarava. My flights, so far are:

arrive Rangiroa 13 August early afternoon.
Fly to Fakarava 16th august early afternoon.
Fly off Fakarava to Papeete on 20th early afternoon.

Am I doing the right think w this itinerary? The idea would be to dive Tiputa on the 14th and 15th (morning only, due to flight), then fly to Fakarava on the 16th and dive there 17th and 18th as well as morning of the 19th. Is it too ambitious to want to do North and South Pass?
I'm slowly coming to grips with the idea that it's nonsense to stay two nights in the North and two in the South, in Fakarava. Better to just settle in the North and attempt a daytrip to the South, if conditions allow? What do you guys think? (All these thoughts are based on web research done, as I've never been to these places).

Just to add: my goal w this diving would be to (hopefully) catch a glimpse of the wonderful sharks of this region, as well as maybe dolphins, mantas, etc.

I'm an Advanced Open Water Diver, and so is my gf, who is coming with me. I've done about 90 dives, she has about 20, both of us are good divers, I would say. (Does the 30m limit on our qualifications limit us? Does one need to go deeper over there?)

Thanks a lot in advance for your help

el-gee

 

[Wingy]

Yes sounds about right - Rangi is all about the pass, Faka has more soft corals - from what ive heard it is a long way to between passes at Faka. I never got to Faka due to airline problems but have friends who have nothing but good reports. F.Polynesia diving is strictly controlled re depth limits so ask the operator you have chosen. I like small french ops, they may not be your style. You WILL see sharks, mantas and dolphins amazing diving. Sounds like a good itinery. Distances across the lagoons are massive so you can easily spend a few hours in a boat going between passes so north and south may not be possible.

 

[Mike]

I personally wouldn't try to dive at so many destinations for so little time at each and would have instead focused on one or the other, but that said...

PADI advanced open water will limit your dive experience. The French dive agencies and PADI are different and you need PADI Rescue Diver cert to match up to the French system to enjoy all dive sites. It should be noted at least on Rangiroa, the French like to dive deep, 50 meters. Diving to 50 meters gets you to the mouth of the pass to the walls of fish and sharks where anything is possible. We saw hammerheads and a tiger shark amongst the hundreds of other sharks.

The diving on Rangiroa is all dependent on the weather and what it's done to the water levels in the lagoon. The water will be coming out, going in, doing both in a day, doing one or the other for days at a time, changing direction enough to make the dive plans basically a good guess until you actually get to the pass and are ready to splash in.

We did 10 dives at Tiputa pass a month ago. We heard or saw glimpses of dolphins on 6 of the 10 dives, and had dolphins play with us on 1 of the 10 dives. This is why I said my advice would be to dive one place for you full vacation. Had you dived with us on the 1st two days you would have had no memorable dolphin experience, on the 3rd day you would have hit the jackpot, you just never know.

 

[calicant]

We booked a similar trip, El-Gee, at the end of the year but decided to fly directly to Fakarava from Papeet. We will spend four nights staying in the South and then three nights at the North of Fakarava. The next leg of the trip will be 7 nights in Rangiroa then back to Papeet via a short stay in Moorea. We prefer to start at the least luxury rooms and move upwards or sideways if possible! I agree with Mike that it is a pain to move around and quite a few of our two week trips have been in the same hotel room as will be our summer trip to Bonaire. Maybe we will be back to single locations if we get worn out moving around in Tahiti (gear just gets heavier and heavier).

I hope they have nice French cheese and bread in Tahiti!