From Bora Bora, we took a flight via Rangiroa to Tikehau – our first island of the Tuamotus archipelago. While the Society Islands, which we had visited so far, are mountainous and green, the Tuamotus are narrow strips of land, mostly consisting of coral rocks and palm trees. The islands are shaped in form of atolls, which means that they form a ring of land around the lagoon inside, with the open ocean on the other side. This ring is usually interrupted by a couple of passes – and this is where the main diving action takes place.
While Tikehau is not the main place for diving, we still booked 2 dives there to check out the high amount of fish said to be there… Well. It was 2 of our most boring and disappointing dives ever. There really wasn’t much of anything to see. A couple of fish groups here and there – but not a captivating amount for sure. The coral was all dead. And while we did see a reef shark or two, we had definitely expected more!
The only thing that made the day better was that we stopped by a manta cleaning station before the dives, and there were two big mantas putting on a show for us! Unfortunately we could only snorkel there, but it was awesome nevertheless!!
The rest of our time in quiet, low-key Tikehau was spent relaxing at the beaches, cycling around the island and enjoying 🙂 Life on a small island like this also has its complications though: it was at times difficult to find food with baguettes having to be pre-ordered 24h in advance, and you can only buy beer when you have an empty bottle to return (how does one start? We don’t know.)
We were camping right on the beach at Chez Justine, in a basic setup – and unfortunately with millions of mosquitos! The location was great though – right at the lagoon with blacktips circling around. The snorkelling wasn’t great otherwise, but the sharks made up for it! Where we found even more sharks though, was in front of the Royal Tikehau Hotel. We spotted them when we picked people up there for diving, and then went back twice ourselves. Once we cycled to the tip of the main island and then swam across the 2 small channels to the hotel pier and restaurant. Another time, we took the kayaks from Chez Justine – which was the better choice! Once in the water, you’re surrounded by blacktips! We counted up to 15 at times, and some were quite curious. There was also lots of smaller reef fish waiting for scraps from the restaurant – so all in all a really cool spot to visit!!
After a couple of days, it was time for yet another scenic flight onwards to Rangiroa.
Just Booked A Trip 