Trip report for Rangiroa and Fakarava in French Polynesia

[Liam hemsworth]

Thanks Wingy - sorry for this tardy note of gratitude but life gets in the way when you're making plans, eh.

And great breakdown - it's this sort of info that's just as important as the trip reports, cos things change from year to year like costs, flight options, accom standards and food options!

and I can see the costs really mount up... Guess that's the way of things these days everywhere. Hard to get much change out of $7 or 8 k...! And having to share rooms/cabins for that sort of dough.

So okay - anyone can chuck in a comment - give me a bottom line - was it the best diving you've done or just good (there's no bad diving LOL) but say why you make this conclusion.

I regard my trip last October to Fiji - Somosomo Stait - Rainbow Reef - as good cos it was mostly soft coral (not many big fish which is my interest) day after day after day (after day) for my week on Taveuni. Sure i would recommend it cos it's worth going diving in all foreign places - esp if you like Soft Coral - but for me I enjoyed Exmouth in April more. And for the $7k I spent...? Not sure it's worth the current multiple time wasting flights.

 

[Wingy]

Im 50/50....Rangiroa and Milne Bay Papua New Guinea....as far as WOW this is awesome. If you like soft coral you wont find them in Rangi but you will at Fakarava - I didnt get there last trip thanks to a slight lack of planes. All I can say is, if you get to dive the pass when the current is screaming......you will never forget it. I love exmouth, but F.Polynesia is a different kettle of fish, its..primal. Life is very close to the ocean there, the people are really down to earth. I stayed at a lovely pension with my own little cabin for a steal and fantastic meals, but i also thought its such a long way from perth why not throw in Bora Bora and do the whole dream bit..and it was worth doing that too. Different diving, lemon sharks, manta and eagles rays everywhere, but its SO far from Perth, its fun to do. I had a ball hitch hiking around the island cos I refused to pay outrageous taxi fares and shopped at the local marches. No sharing rooms on Rangi if you stay at the pensions, there not like backpacker dorms. Big fish you will find to your hearts content at Rangi - Napolean wrasses the size of small cars LOL, its quite hilarious when you dive the pass if its screaming seeing turtles and huge grand parakeet wrasses (i fell in love with that fish) going backwards with you - diving under a wave is something really special
Diving Rangiroa - YouTube
I have heard nothing but good things about Rainbow Reef, and will get there, my trip was this year so those prices are pretty much valid...thats the best diving ive done so far...ive got a lot of other places on the list but Rangiroa was worth the hassle. The Air NZ flight leaves perth late afternoon, you get into NZ the next morning, a bearable 5 hour stopover til you fly back to yesterday and arrive in Tahiti before you leave Perth....there is no cheaper way of doing it. I looked at jetstar etc and realised id be spending half my time in airports so went with Air NZ and would recommend that flight. Sometimes I ate ''flash'' and did the whole Bloody Marys thing on Bora Bora, other times I ate baguettes and cheese and met people who kept giving me fruit (tourists usually behave themselves and stay in their ow bungalows not go wandering around the islands) and you need to time the flight to Rangi right or you will need a night in Tahiti either side of your trip. If ningaloo did it for you F. Polynesia will make you smile.
PNG at the moment is just as expensive and as much of a hassle....but worth it too.
Heading to Africa to dive next .....good question......where is the best diving? I guess it hasnt been found yet..but its going to be hard to top Rangiroa for me.

 

[jusug]

So okay - anyone can chuck in a comment - give me a bottom line - was it the best diving you've done or just good (there's no bad diving LOL) but say why you make this conclusion.

I like watching the big stuff and warm waters, and even from Europe which makes it a long and expensive trip by most standards the amount of marine life, large schools of fish, numbers of sharks etc. really makes it the best diving we have done (possibly until we experience cocos as that remains on the "to do" list and hopefully soon). But it beats Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia, Red Sea and a few other places we have dived.

[video=youtube;laT-hrSo5D0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laT-hrSo5D0[/video]

 

[Liam hemsworth]

Wingy and Jusug - thanks guys - this is the sort of info that kinda turns me on. No bull****.

We could probably start a thread on this sort of info but I'd guess its been done to death over the years. Although its worth updating every couple of years I reckon cos places change - not the diving so much as the infrastructure stuff. Let me know if you think it's a worthwhile exercise to benefit other readers and I'll start the thread and risk the wrath of long term members who've seen it all before!

Wingy - I had a gut full of soft coral last year and I guess that's not my thing. Why not flick me a private message if you like and we'll see if we're close enough geographically in Perth for an ale. After 20 years as an OWD, I just did the AOWD cert last weekend and joined Dolphin Dive Club, as you know, in Freo.

 

[Deankel]

I like watching the big stuff and warm waters, and even from Europe which makes it a long and expensive trip by most standards the amount of marine life, large schools of fish, numbers of sharks etc. really makes it the best diving we have done (possibly until we experience cocos as that remains on the "to do" list and hopefully soon). But it beats Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia, Red Sea and a few other places we have dived.

[video=youtube;laT-hrSo5D0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laT-hrSo5D0[/video]

I'm reading this thread and lots of other great threads about Rangiroa, since my husband and I are close to finalizing our tentative dive trip planned there for mid-September. Most videos look spectacular like the one posted above, but I'm wondering.... are all of the great videos I'm finding -- from dives that were at depths deeper than 29 meters? That's what Six Passengers tells us we'd be limited to in Rangiroa.

With only a PADI open water certification (even though diving for 10 years - with well over 200 dives), that limits me to 29 meters. I don't want to make such a huge investment and not experience the great stuff. I came upon this video today : Drift dive at Passe de Tiputa, Rangiroa, October 2013, M/S Paul Gauguin - YouTube
and - and it doesn't look like fantastic diving like most of the other videos out there do. Would this be more typical of a 95 foot (or more shallow)dive....?

 

[jusug]

If you are planing a trip don't leave out fakarava when you are already in the area.

Many of the interesting dives do start on the deep end. In Rangi we even did some deco dives (with a small group of divers all having training for that). But also interesting things to see above 20m. The dolphins normally came to say hi in quite shallow water.

In my experience (my wife until recently was like you 200+ dives but only open water cert) most dive centres let's you dive based on your ability, when they have seen you in the water. But to avoid any discussion she did the advanced a few years back. would recommend you do the same (also for much of the diving would recommend you have (or take there) nitrox cert.

Also your travel insurance may only cover if you dive within training limits so another reason to take the course.

HTH

 

[wico6768]

I'm reading this thread and lots of other great threads about Rangiroa, since my husband and I are close to finalizing our tentative dive trip planned there for mid-September. Most videos look spectacular like the one posted above, but I'm wondering.... are all of the great videos I'm finding -- from dives that were at depths deeper than 29 meters? That's what Six Passengers tells us we'd be limited to in Rangiroa.

With only a PADI open water certification (even though diving for 10 years - with well over 200 dives), that limits me to 29 meters. I don't want to make such a huge investment and not experience the great stuff. I came upon this video today : Drift dive at Passe de Tiputa, Rangiroa, October 2013, M/S Paul Gauguin - YouTube
and - and it doesn't look like fantastic diving like most of the other videos out there do. Would this be more typical of a 95 foot (or more shallow)dive....?

Hi,

We are not advanced divers, but about or a bit more than half our dives, are in FP, and specifically the atolls.

We don't go deeper than 30 m really, or if so at the very start only and then just briefly, at maybe 106 feet once. For us, the most memorable dives have been just outside the pass, and then drifting in the pass, along the reef portion and not through the middle in a deep pass dive.

We always see tons of huge schools of fish, generally dolphins and often many dolphins, all sorts of reef sharks, thousands of tropical fish, and are now spoiled. The dives are almost always incredible, only one was not (we now know why, but didn't at the time as it was our very first post cert OW dive, that was in Tikehau, a story for another time maybe)

Anyway, I ahve not dove with 6 passenger, but you do not need to go deep to have a spectacular dive, imo, like in the video and the many other videos on you tube.

Rangi is my favorite, but we've also dove Fakarava and the coral was truly spectacularly beautiful there, but you will not find dolphin. Plenty of sharks, though, and all the same large groups of fishes, plus we had a surprise visit by a Tiger.

I don't think you can go wrong, even if you don't do the deep dives. I guess, we aren't fans of the deep dives and feel no need to do them, so will stick with our typical FP dives, they've always been wonderful but one. (and that had nothing to do with not being able to go over 30 m)

 

[Mike]

Don't need to do the deep dives in the center of the pass, but I'm glad we do them. We only did a couple of the deep deco pass dives, but the ones we did -- Great Hammerhead on one and an enormous Tiger shark on another, just a giant mac truck of a shark with stripes on it, seems the big sharks in Rangiroa like the deeper water, maybe maybe not?

 

[wico6768]

Don't need to do the deep dives in the center of the pass, but I'm glad we do them. We only did a couple of the deep deco pass dives, but the ones we did -- Great Hammerhead on one and an enormous Tiger shark on another, just a giant mac truck of a shark with stripes on it, seems the big sharks in Rangiroa like the deeper water, maybe maybe not?

Maybe, I know the group with us that did do a deep dive in Rangi, at the end, saw a hammerhead.

But, the Tiger we saw (about 4 meters) was pretty shallow, about 50-60 feet)) but that was in Fakarava and it was a complete fluke we saw him. I think the guides at that shop last saw one about a year prior to our dive. I'm just happy we got a picture of him. We were only about 10 feet away, as he swam up right in front of us heading out to the blue.

So yes, you have a better chance for larger sharks (probably) but for us, that's fine. I prefer the dives no more than 100 feet, briefly, and more outside the pass/edge of pass than center.

I guess it's up to personal preference. But, even on a shallow dive (if 80-100 feet is shallow) there's always been a ton to see. One dive, we started out in the blue, a bit further out than normal, and were diving in what was like a funnel of sharks. As far up and down as we could see. It was pretty cool. And then we went over to the reef for the drift, at a shallower level, and by the time the dives over we're at about 25-20 feet, for about the last 10 minutes.

 

[qwimjim]

I like watching the big stuff and warm waters, and even from Europe which makes it a long and expensive trip by most standards the amount of marine life, large schools of fish, numbers of sharks etc. really makes it the best diving we have done (possibly until we experience cocos as that remains on the "to do" list and hopefully soon). But it beats Thailand, Maldives, Indonesia, Red Sea and a few other places we have dived.

[video=youtube;laT-hrSo5D0]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=laT-hrSo5D0[/video]

Just curious, where did you dive in Indonesia that you felt was inferior to FP? And why did you prefer FP? I am debating between the two at the moment