What an amazing trip, we visited 4 islands over the course of 2 weeks, did everything by land, and felt this was more-or-less the right pace for an exploratory trip. Thanks to all on this forum who chimed in with suggestions in my prior threads.
After much deliberation (cuz you know, FP is so expensive and you never have enough time to do everything), we did:
-2 days in Bora Bora, did a sharks and stingrays lagoon tour with Lagoon Services instead of diving, 100% recommend
-3 days in Rangiroa, did 3 days of diving with Y aka Plongee, for 6 dives total
-3 days in Fakarava North, 3 days of diving with O2 Fakarava, for 6 dives total
-3 days in Fakarava South, 2 days of diving with Tetamanu, for 5 dives total
-2 days in Moorea, did a private humpback whale watching tour with Moorea Ocean Adventures instead of diving, 200% recommend.
There were definitive highlights that defined each place for us:
-Bora Bora: stingrays and lemon sharks
Bora Bora - Oct 2019
-Rangiroa: dolphins (everyday)
Rangiroa - Oct 2019
-Fakarava North: mantas (everyday)
Fakarava North - Oct 2019
-Fakarava South: the true wall of sharks (every single dive!)
Fakarava South - Oct 2019
-Moorea: humpback whales
Moorea - Oct 2019
And of course you will see tons of black tips, white tips, grey reef sharks, and nurse sharks everywhere.
Water temperature was between 26-28 Celsius. We are skinny wimps and felt cold in a 3mm full+2.5mm shorty, would suggest a 5mm.
It was a long journey getting there, we flew HK to Sydney (via Cathay) to Auckland to Tahiti (via Air New Zealand). Note if you transit through Australia or New Zealand you need a transit visa for both countries. From HK you could also fly direct to Auckland but we booked Sydney-Tahiti leg on points - it’s only 12.5k Krisflyer points one-way which is a bargain. HK to Tahiti booked on one ticket is ~$2000-3000 so this way we only paid $600 for HK-Sydney roundtrip and 50k in Singapore Airlines points. The downside is you cannot check your baggage all the way through and have to take it out / go through customs / recheck it in Sydney. We had a short (2 hour) connection so decided to forgo taking our dive gear and just took carryon luggage so we can stay airside at Sydney.
We left at 9.30pm on a Friday and arrived at midnight on the same day due to the Tahiti being 18 hours behind. Spent the first night at Tahiti Airport Motel which is a short <5min drive from the airport, got some rest, and off we were on a 6.45am flight to Bora Bora the next morning. We bought the Air Tahiti Bora Bora-Tuomotu pass which was quite worth it as it was only slightly more than Tahiti-Bora Bora roundtrip. You cannot backtrack though hence why we did Bora Bora first (there is a direct Bora Bora->Rangiroa flight, but not in the other way, you have to layover in Tahiti which counts as the end of your air pass). No security at the domestic airports, so you just need to be there ~30 min before.
Bora Bora
So actually our decision to go to French Polynesia was solely driven by Bora Bora in the beginning. It was always going to be either Bora Bora or Maldives for our honeymoon and we did the whole over the water bungalow thing which was quite nice to experience once but not something I would pay for again. We were at the Intercontinental Le Moana which is located right by Matira Beach.
The hotel is very nice and but the water beneath the bungalows is not very deep and snorkeling was kind of meh. As it’s right by Matira Beach there is a convenience store nearby and also Snack Matira which is a 10 min walk has the best (and cheap) local food (their poisson cru is the best). The OWBs are usually >$1000/night but we learned of a hint through tripadvisor which cut the cost to about half. You can buy the Intercontinental Ambassador membership for $200, then use the free weekend night certificate which lets you get your second night free if you stay at least 2 nights between Fri-Sun. You also get a guaranteed 1 category room upgrade which means you can book their cheapest room (beach bungalow) for 2 nights, and get a guaranteed upgrade to an over the water bungalow with the second night free. You can also skip their super expensive boat shuttle ($75pp one-way), take the free public ferry to Vaitape, and take a $20 taxi to the resort.
We debated doing a 2 tank dive but ultimately decided against it as I wasn’t sure how tired we would be the first day and the one thing we definitely wanted to do was the sharks/stingray lagoon tour. No regrets here as we ended up seeing all of what we would have seen here (lemon shark, mantas) at the other islands. The lagoon tour is amazing, you are taken to 3 spots in a traditional Polynesian canoe. First is a stingrays spot, they do feed them so tons of stingrays started circling the boat right as we arrived. The guide will hold them and feed them, but they will come up to everyone looking for food and we got some fantastic shots. Second is a spot by the outside reef where you can see tons of black tips and also a few lemon sharks. Again they feed them and they come super close in large groups. The black tips are quite small, maybe 1-1.5m only, but the lemons were quite big and this was our first time seeing them. We also saw a humpback whale, mother and calf, on the surface breaching but we didn’t get close. Last stop was a coral garden, nothing too special, but it made for some good photos as tons of butterfly fish and other reef fish would swarm us for the food.
The other thing we did was a self drive boat rental, which was a bit disappointing. The idea was you could take your time circling the lagoon, stop whenever you want, etc. In reality the boat was too slow (6hp as we didn't have a boat license) and the lagoon scenery doesn’t really change much. We did this the first day as we arrived at 9am and check in wasn’t available until 3pm.
After much deliberation (cuz you know, FP is so expensive and you never have enough time to do everything), we did:
-2 days in Bora Bora, did a sharks and stingrays lagoon tour with Lagoon Services instead of diving, 100% recommend
-3 days in Rangiroa, did 3 days of diving with Y aka Plongee, for 6 dives total
-3 days in Fakarava North, 3 days of diving with O2 Fakarava, for 6 dives total
-3 days in Fakarava South, 2 days of diving with Tetamanu, for 5 dives total
-2 days in Moorea, did a private humpback whale watching tour with Moorea Ocean Adventures instead of diving, 200% recommend.
There were definitive highlights that defined each place for us:
-Bora Bora: stingrays and lemon sharks
Bora Bora - Oct 2019
-Rangiroa: dolphins (everyday)
Rangiroa - Oct 2019
-Fakarava North: mantas (everyday)
Fakarava North - Oct 2019
-Fakarava South: the true wall of sharks (every single dive!)
Fakarava South - Oct 2019
-Moorea: humpback whales
Moorea - Oct 2019
And of course you will see tons of black tips, white tips, grey reef sharks, and nurse sharks everywhere.
Water temperature was between 26-28 Celsius. We are skinny wimps and felt cold in a 3mm full+2.5mm shorty, would suggest a 5mm.
It was a long journey getting there, we flew HK to Sydney (via Cathay) to Auckland to Tahiti (via Air New Zealand). Note if you transit through Australia or New Zealand you need a transit visa for both countries. From HK you could also fly direct to Auckland but we booked Sydney-Tahiti leg on points - it’s only 12.5k Krisflyer points one-way which is a bargain. HK to Tahiti booked on one ticket is ~$2000-3000 so this way we only paid $600 for HK-Sydney roundtrip and 50k in Singapore Airlines points. The downside is you cannot check your baggage all the way through and have to take it out / go through customs / recheck it in Sydney. We had a short (2 hour) connection so decided to forgo taking our dive gear and just took carryon luggage so we can stay airside at Sydney.
We left at 9.30pm on a Friday and arrived at midnight on the same day due to the Tahiti being 18 hours behind. Spent the first night at Tahiti Airport Motel which is a short <5min drive from the airport, got some rest, and off we were on a 6.45am flight to Bora Bora the next morning. We bought the Air Tahiti Bora Bora-Tuomotu pass which was quite worth it as it was only slightly more than Tahiti-Bora Bora roundtrip. You cannot backtrack though hence why we did Bora Bora first (there is a direct Bora Bora->Rangiroa flight, but not in the other way, you have to layover in Tahiti which counts as the end of your air pass). No security at the domestic airports, so you just need to be there ~30 min before.
Bora Bora
So actually our decision to go to French Polynesia was solely driven by Bora Bora in the beginning. It was always going to be either Bora Bora or Maldives for our honeymoon and we did the whole over the water bungalow thing which was quite nice to experience once but not something I would pay for again. We were at the Intercontinental Le Moana which is located right by Matira Beach.
The hotel is very nice and but the water beneath the bungalows is not very deep and snorkeling was kind of meh. As it’s right by Matira Beach there is a convenience store nearby and also Snack Matira which is a 10 min walk has the best (and cheap) local food (their poisson cru is the best). The OWBs are usually >$1000/night but we learned of a hint through tripadvisor which cut the cost to about half. You can buy the Intercontinental Ambassador membership for $200, then use the free weekend night certificate which lets you get your second night free if you stay at least 2 nights between Fri-Sun. You also get a guaranteed 1 category room upgrade which means you can book their cheapest room (beach bungalow) for 2 nights, and get a guaranteed upgrade to an over the water bungalow with the second night free. You can also skip their super expensive boat shuttle ($75pp one-way), take the free public ferry to Vaitape, and take a $20 taxi to the resort.
We debated doing a 2 tank dive but ultimately decided against it as I wasn’t sure how tired we would be the first day and the one thing we definitely wanted to do was the sharks/stingray lagoon tour. No regrets here as we ended up seeing all of what we would have seen here (lemon shark, mantas) at the other islands. The lagoon tour is amazing, you are taken to 3 spots in a traditional Polynesian canoe. First is a stingrays spot, they do feed them so tons of stingrays started circling the boat right as we arrived. The guide will hold them and feed them, but they will come up to everyone looking for food and we got some fantastic shots. Second is a spot by the outside reef where you can see tons of black tips and also a few lemon sharks. Again they feed them and they come super close in large groups. The black tips are quite small, maybe 1-1.5m only, but the lemons were quite big and this was our first time seeing them. We also saw a humpback whale, mother and calf, on the surface breaching but we didn’t get close. Last stop was a coral garden, nothing too special, but it made for some good photos as tons of butterfly fish and other reef fish would swarm us for the food.
The other thing we did was a self drive boat rental, which was a bit disappointing. The idea was you could take your time circling the lagoon, stop whenever you want, etc. In reality the boat was too slow (6hp as we didn't have a boat license) and the lagoon scenery doesn’t really change much. We did this the first day as we arrived at 9am and check in wasn’t available until 3pm.