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!
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.
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