Trip Report Poor Fakarava Experience

[bathbiggles2]

For those of you who have done it - you will know that reaching Fakarava in French Polynesia and having the opportunity to dive there is a bucket list thing! It certainly was for me!

I planned a trip to FP for two years (I live in the UK) and was in touch with the dive centre Dive Spirit, 5 months before to ascertain the best dates for tides etc to enable dives in both the North and South Passes. We settled on a 5 night stay (4 diving days) to make as much allowance for the weather etc as we could and I booked 10 dives with them.

Dive Spirit were very good with communications and I confirmed when I arrived in FP and then again the day I arrived in Fakarava - to confirm the pick up time the next day. They confirmed 7.30am for a two tank dive on the North Pass. The owner of Kaina Diving (Vincent) had apparently recently purchased Dive Spirit and I was told they were now using a combined boat. Our acomodation was 15km from the dive centre and they told me to stand on a road about 400m from my bungalow for a pick up. I did this and by 8.00am nobody arrived. I went back to the bungalow and asked the owner to call them. He did and was told they were not coming and the dives were cancelled because I would be the only diver and he wouldn't take just me. No apology, no attempt to book me with another dive centre - just left me there oblivious!

Fortunately my host found another dive centre - Top Dive who could take me that afternoon and collected me as promised.

I obviously did not return to Dive Spirit or Kaina and did multiple dives with Top Dive at the North and South Passes for the next 4 days. All the dives were absolutely amazing!

But Dive Spirit and Kaina Diving should hang their heads in shame! I flew 15.000 kms to be there and they must know how difficult it is for people to make a trip like that work. To leave me on a deserted road with no explanation says a lot about their ethics and caring of fellow divers.

Make up your own mind but if you need to be certain - then I'd suggest you use O2 or Top Dive.

 

[bathbiggles2]

A quick update to this post is that a young couple staying in our Pension, were learning to dive with Kaina Plongee (the full name of the dive shop) whilst in Fakarava and were doing CMAS Level 1. On the first day they did a couple of lagoon dives for their skills and on their 3rd dive - yes their 3rd dive ever they were taken by their instructor to the North Pass and dived to Ali Babas Cave in a raging current. They weren't even qualified at that point! Apparently that's where the boat was going that day - so the debutants just had to fit in. I've seen the photos - so I know they were there.

Now, I'm no CMAS expert but I am a PADI Instructor and I'm pretty sure that broke the depth rules. It was also incredibly risky - and in my view would be another reason to avoid this dive shop. The couple survived and were also happy to have seen what they did on the dive - but they were also blissfully unaware of the risks they were taking!

 

[jameseg]

Sorry to hear that happened to you - very disappointing after your travels to get there and especially considering that they confirmed the pickup the day before. They would have known at that point that it was unlikely the boat would go out unless they got some last-minute divers and with that information you would have had an opportunity to make new plans.

Appreciate you posting this, as my wife and I are just back from Tikehau yesterday and already thinking about when we might be able to get to Fakarava.

 

[bathbiggles2]

Sorry to hear that happened to you - very disappointing after your travels to get there and especially considering that they confirmed the pickup the day before. They would have known at that point that it was unlikely the boat would go out unless they got some last-minute divers and with that information you would have had an opportunity to make new plans.

Appreciate you posting this, as my wife and I are just back from Tikehau yesterday and already thinking about when we might be able to get to Fakarava.

Thanks James
Yes I don't normally post negative stuff - but with a couple of much better choices for diving in Fakarava with O2 or Top Dive than Kaina Plongee - I genuinely would not want anyone else to have their potentially joyful experience ruined by a lazy and uncaring dive operator.

We managed to see five other islands during our trip but did not get to Tikehau. It is on our list for next time though. How was your experience there?

I hope you get to dive in Fakarava one day - it's absolutely up there as one of the most amazing places to dive I have ever been!

 

[jameseg]

We managed to see five other islands during our trip but did not get to Tikehau. It is on our list for next time though. How was your experience there?

We really enjoyed our time there. Our diving was somewhat impacted by a swell that lasted two days into our five dive days. We still got all the dives in that we planned to, but we were limited to one main site, Poito, for all but three or four dives and there was a lot of surge. Visibility was impacted as well and seemed to vary considerably depending on how close we got to the main current coming through the pass, but was still 60'+ most of the time. Regardless, lots of fish life and healthy hard coral. Highlights were a couple hammerhead sightings and a couple manta sightings. We dove with Tikehau Plongee, who were excellent - no hesitations at all in recommending them.

We traveled to Rangiroa two years ago and I would say I preferred the diving there, but with the caveat that we had better conditions in Rangiroa. Also, it's hard to beat having dolphins come up and try to play with you.