Archiv der Kategorie: Oceania

French Polynesia, World Trip 2018-19

Fakarava – the best of the Tuamotus

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Seems like we saved the best for the end! Our last island in the Tuamotus was a pleasant surprise: white sand beaches and underwater sharks galore! Fakarava’s North and South Passes are known for being among the best dive sites in the world…But after the rather disappointing dives in Tikehau and Rangiroa, we weren’t sure what to expect. Luckily, Fakarava delivered! We first dived the South Pass, which was a very choppy 2.5h boat ride away from the main island. But – it was worth it! Both dives were amazing: We finally saw rather healthy coral, lots of fish aaand…hundreds of sharks!! I’m not exaggerating. There were walls of grey reef sharks waiting for us underwater where we stopped a couple of times at different depths to admire the action. The second dive had some crazy currents and a little less shark action, but was still really great. Happy diving times!

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Another day, we dove the North Pass, which was only a 20min boat ride away. Much easier! I loved our one dive there and wished we could have done more still: Loads of fish – big schools – everywhere, here and there some grey reef sharks, not quite as many as in the South Pass, but still plenty. And beautiful coral! We had some nice drift during our dive and could just glide along and watch things. Awesome!

The rest of our time in Fakarava was spent cycling around the island and stopping at various spots for snorkelling. I was sooo happy to see some nice coral again after all the grey dead coral of Tikehau and Rangiroa. And there were always some sharks around, wherever you jumped into the water! Usually blacktips, but in town and around the harbour there are also a couple of shy lemon sharks which we tried to approach sometimes.

Above water, Fakarava was beautiful as well! I liked the main village Rotoava, quiet and peaceful, and finally we had some nice sandy beaches again! Especially the stretch at PK9 (kilometer 9 up North past the airport) is pretty with white sands, turquoise waters and of course photogenic palm trees. It was quite a cycle up there, but we managed to go twice. I had heard before that there is good snorkelling too, but when we went into the water here, we only saw dead coral. Maybe we should have swam out farther? But there were quite some waves every time we were there, so not the best snorkelling conditions anyways. More time to enjoy the beauty above water then!

We ended up liking Fakarava best out of the three islands we visited in the Tuamotus and would have probably traded a day in Tikehau or Rangiroa for more time in Fakarava in hindsight. If I was to return to French Polynesia, I wouldn’t mind going to Fakarava again for some more diving and lagoon tours, which we didn’t manage to do this time.

French Polynesia, World Trip 2018-19

Moorea – last but not least

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As a last island of French Polynesia, we decided to visit Moorea. I had always wanted to go there, but since we were not able to include it in our air pass, we saved it until the end and took the ferry from Papeete instead – which was easy enough. And a beautiful ride! First, we had great views of Tahiti, with Moorea in the distance, somewhere in the middle we had humpback whales breaching close to the boat, and later on we got the most spectacular views of Moorea – Tahiti faint in the distance. What an entrance to Moorea! The harbour is located between some high green mountains with beautiful blue waters around. Wow!

The next few days we explore the island by scooter and by foot, and of course soaked up the sun a bit more on the beach in front of our camping… some last beach time before we would go to South America and cooler temperatures would await us!

One day, we rented a scooter and drove around the whole island (which is not thaaat far). First, we headed to a viewpoint called Magic Mountain where unfortunately the guy told us it’s better to hike up than drive by scooter. A sweaty walk up an almost perfect road…where we easily could have gone by scooter. Oh well! The views were absolutely worth the hike though. Green mountains and turquoise waters, once again!

We then decided to drive along the South coast first, since the weather in the two bays in the North looked rather grey and rainy. Good choice! In the South, the sun was shining and we were able to enjoy some beautiful views. A really nice viewpoint is just past the Sofitel, where you can see the over-the-water-bungalows and the perfect clear water. Too bad we cannot afford to stay here! (Well, we probably could, but then our entire travel budget would be gone veeeery quickly…)

It was all very pretty, but the best are the two twin bays in the North: Opunohu Bay and Cook’s Bay. Here we took countless photo stops, relaxed a bit on the beach and enjoyed the typical Society islands landscape a bit more. Too bad this is the last island we are visiting!

Of course, we also drove up to the Belvedere, the most well-known viewpoint in Moorea. You don’t even have to hike at all to get this amazing view! Unfortunately, it was still a bit cloudy, but we nevertheless really enjoyed it.

Next day, we went hiking! We first hitched a ride to Opunohu Bay, then walked up again to the Belvedere – not along the road we had driven the day before, but on a nice trail in the forest. Up at the Belvedere, we took another trail which took us to a couple more viewpoints along the way and then all the way down to the other side of the island. It was pretty, but to be honest, the view stayed pretty much the same the whole time and a lot of the walk was just in the forest. In addition, it was raining for a big part of the hike, so at one point we were a bit done with it and ready to finish the hike. Also, hitchhiking proved difficult that day and it took us about 45min to get a ride. All in all, it was good to do some hiking again, but probably not absolutely necessary.

And…that was it for French Polynesia! Bus to ferry, ferry back to Tahiti and then a long wait during the night for our 3am flight to Easter Island. Why do flights have to leave at crazy times like these!? Seriously…

French Polynesia, World Trip 2018-19

Rangiroa: Some disappointments, some surprises

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Rangiroa is the biggest atoll of the Tuamotos, but still feels very remote. Here, we were camping in someone’s back garden, a place we found on AirBnB as the usual choice for campers, Rangiroa Plage, was fully booked. It wasn’t the best place, setting up our tent on hard and sometimes sharp pieces of coral. For 5 nights I worried about our inflatable sleeping mats and tent. But for now it seems like it survived… Rangiroa itself is also no beauty. We knew there would be no beaches, but to see only dead coral everywhere was sad. We cycled the whole length of the island and there really wasn’t much to see or take photos of. 

 

The best part for us was the spot at Tiputa Pass where you can watch dolphins in the afternoon, jumping in the waves. We went there many times with the mission to take the perfect picture.

 

Of course, we also had to go see some underwater action in the Tiputa Pass! However, once again after Tikehau, we were kind of disappointed. There were definitely more sharks to see than in Tikehau, but only reef sharks once again and not in masses either. On the first dive we had 2 dolphins coming close for a bit, but they didn’t stay long to play. We met a lot of people who had expected more of the famous Tiputa Pass than there was. I guess that’s always the danger when a destination gets so much hype – your high expectations might not be met. I’m not saying the diving wasn’t good – but it isn’t one of these places that we’re gonna remember for the rest of our lives. Even people who did 10+ dives there didn’t have much better experiences. Maybe they got lucky once or twice in that time with a hammerhead or a longer dolphin encounter. But that was it!

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I think my favourite part about Rangiroa (next to watching the dolphins from the shore) was a yearly festival that we were lucky enough to see. The Farerei Haga was really cool! They had some competitions in the afternoon, like boat races or rock lifting which were fun to watch and quite impressive. And every night at 7pm there was a dance show given by a different dance group from the Tuamotus or Tahiti. And it was all for free! The dances were beautiful and they really put a lot of effort into them. Everything was well choreographed and they changed outfits after almost every dance. We went there three evenings during our time in Rangiroa and it was great every time!! Some groups were adults, some just kids but they were great! Once we were lucky to get front row seats for good pictures – so here are some:

 

The festival really made our stay in Rangiroa so much better, an island which otherwise didn’t fulfill our expectations at all…

…except for the Blue Lagoon tour we did one day! It was an all day boat tour, crossing through the whole lagoon to the other side of the atoll where the Blue Lagoon – kind of a mini lagoon inside the lagoon – is located. It was a 1 h ride across, but weather conditions were perfect and when we arrived we were straight away captivated by all the blues of the lagoon and the little picture-perfect islets with photogenic palm trees. What was more and super special for us: sharks everywhere!! Seriously, we have never seen that many blacktips in one place at once! And cute little baby ones, just the size of my underarm! And all of that in perfect clear water, white sands and a turquoise shimmering lagoon in the background. Awesomeness!

 

Our guide took us for a short walk, more through the water than on land, to Bird Island with some very nice views along the way. We were taught how to open a coconut and how to make a hat out of palm leaves. Then it was time to return to the main island where a delicious bbq lunch was waiting for us, yummy! We really enjoyed our time at this special place.

 

Too soon it was time to leave, but on the way back we made a stop for snorkelling which was amazing! There wasn’t much of a reef, but sharks, sharks, sharks!! Mainly blacktips once again, but also some huge lemon sharks! They were a bit more shy, so it was harder to get close to them, but when we managed we had some really impressive and close encounters! A perfect ending to a perfect day – and without this lagoon tour we probably wouldn’t have such fond memories of Rangiroa now. So if you go…do not miss out on this tour!

 

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