I thought I had answered this already, but I'll jump on the Rangiroa bandwagon. Although I didn't think the Tiputa Pass dive was the best part -- although it was interesting to drift at that speed, we didn't see the large number of sharks that I'd seen described, and you can't get close enough to anything else to see much. What got me about Rangiroa was the outer reef, which was amazing -- probably the healthiest and most vibrant reef I have seen anywhere. And going off just a little into the blue found us mantas, dolphins, sharks, big schools of predator fish . . . I mean, life was EVERYWHERE.
We did two dives off Papeete itself; one was a shark feeding dive (more about that) and the other was probably the dive Mossman describes, where we did a lovely little wall, followed by a dive that included the airplane and a barge. That was a good dive, and we found a lot of very interesting creatures, including a great stonefish on the barge.
Many of the dives we did everywhere where shark feeding dives, and there is a reason. There is a LOT of coral damage where you are going, both from agriculture and from a plague of Crown of Thorns starfish. The reef fish density is low, but the bait draws them in, and behind them, the sharks. But how many times is it fun to go into the water and sit on dead coral and watch a guide being circled by sharks?
Of your itinerary, we dove Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, and Rangiroa; our trip offered no diving at Huahine. If you are on the Paul Gauguin, you will certainly enjoy the cruise portion of your trip -- that ship is fabulous.
