Help Rangiroa

[Bonoman]

Hello dive guys
I am plannig my next trip, my motivation is RANGIROA
Some friend have some experiencie in this place, I need information about a great dive center and a good hotel, cheap please, Jejejejejejejeje, a good hotel.
Thanks on advance
Bonoman

 

[Dr. Doug Ebersole]

My wife and I went to Rangiroa and Bora Bora for our 20th anniversary last June. She is "high maintenance" and loved Kia Ora on Rangiroa. We then dove with Top Dive which was great as well. There is also a dive operator (Blue Dolphin?) at Kia Ora. We just dove with Top Dive as it's owned by a friend of mine.

You'll love Rangiroa. Lots of big stuff at both Tiputa and Avatoru pass. We had lots of sharks, dolphins, mantas, etc.

Doug

 

[Mantasscareme]

While on the subject of Rangiroa, I heard from people that Rangiroa diving is pretty hard. How much truth is there to this? Is the diving fairly shallow, or are most of the sites deep?

 

[champ]

My wife and I went to Rangiroa last winter. The diving is amazing - huge schools of fish, schools of sharks, big silver tip sharks, wild dophin swam and played with us under water, surgeon fish mating ... One thing to note is that it is advanced diving becuase of the strong currents through the channel and depth.

We dove with Six Passengers (although they do have bigger boats that hold more than 6 people now). It owned by an Italian guy who loves diving. He films the dives with a HD camera and you can buy the discs off him if you want (I don't think the other dive shops offer this). At the very least it gives you something to do between dives - they have a nice HD plasma tv in the shop. It is a very quick boat trip to the dive sites, so pretty much all the shops do 1 tank trips (you go back to the shop between dives). There is a nice snack bar a short walk from the shop that offers lunch at a good price - almost everything on the island is overpriced.

The Kia Ora is the place if $$$ is not an issue and you want to stay at a luxury place. My wife and I chose to stay at a pension (bed & breakfast) to save money and imurse ourselves in the culture a little bit. We stayed at pension Henry. We had a nice basic primative bungalo on the ocean side with a geat view (all the bungalos have a great view). I think there were 2 bungalos with hot water and 3 without. There is no such thing as cold water so save a little money and get a bungalo without hot water. The meals were all family style at a large picknic table. You eat with the owners family. Breakfast is always very simple, fresh bagette + coffe + juice + different jams. Dinner is always a choice of fish (both cooked and "sushi" were available every night). Sides included rice, potatoe, and desert. The fish was always very good and my wife and I didn't mind having fish every night, but if that does not sound good to you - better not take the meal plan. Pension Henry was also a short walk into town (note-there is not much in town). There is a VERY good pizza restaurant if you are looking for a meal.

Here is a video of the silver tip sharks
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJC2JwxVr_Y




Attached below is a little research I did on Hotel Options before our trip

View attachment TAHITI HOTEL OPTIONS.doc