Sharing photos from my trip to French Polynesia

[TSandM]

I didn't think much of our first dive off Papeete, which was a shark-feeding dive. But when we came back, we specifically requested NOT to do that, and they took us to a very pretty little wall with a lot of live coral and a wide variety of critters, and two wrecks, where we found our one stone fish of the trip.

Moorea I thought was also dull, with dead coral and shark feeding. Bora Bora had a lot of dead coral, but I think that's where we saw the coral roses, and those were cool. Our dive on Rarotonga (we only did one) was again, a lot of dead coral, but we did find a few cool things, including a huge moray and a Spanish dancer.

Where I got excited was in the Tuamotos -- Rangiroa is up there in the top few places I've dived in the world. But I don't think your itinerary went up there, right?

 

[Leejnd]

I actually didn't know they were going to do a shark-feeding dive. We just kinda went...and then that's what it was. I'd never seen one, so I thought it was worth seeing. But it's kinda like the Blue Hole in Belize for me...been there done that, don't need to see it again.

Moorea was more dull than Bora Bora, but maybe the coral is staging a comeback...there was definitely some live stuff out there. And I LOVE LOVE LOVE the giant anemones with the clownfish families, and there were many of them. It was harder to find the cool stuff there, but I did find it. Kinda like some dives at Anacapa...the life can be hard to find, but when you find the cool stuff it makes for great shots!

Bora Bora was more interesting mainly because of the lemon sharks (which I just think are fun as hell to see!) and the night dive. I have so many other shots from that night dive that I didn't share...the brilliant, weird-looking critters were everywhere!

Not sure why you saw so much dead coral at Rarotonga - must be spotty there. I guess they took us to really good sites...the coral was very rich, and the colorful reef fish were abundant. I didn't get a lot of great shots because I really had the wrong lens on my camera for that dive, but I'm happy with the few I got.

We didn't visit Rangiroa on this itinerary, but we did on my cruise in 2006, when I got to dive the Tiputa Pass. AGREE WITH YOU!!! One of my top dives of all time. It was also the first place I saw a hammerhead shark, and witnessed dolphins plunging into the water from UNDERwater, which was magical!

I can't say that FP is my favorite dive location - Bali beats it, and probably Belize too (especially Hol Chan). But it's up there with some of my other favorite sites, and damn that water was warm! :coolingoff: I'm always in favor of anyplace I can dive in a 3mil shorty.

 

[Scuba_Noob]

Very nice photos. It looks like you guys got limitless visibility. I love sharks but have never seen any while diving...unfortunately. Hopefully a Cozumel trip will fix that in May. Maybe I'll take one tropical dive trip a year from now on.

 

[fnfalman]

I love the photos, LeeAnn.

One of these days I'll have to do one of these tropical dive trips and see what the hoopla is all about.

 

[TSandM]

Yes, I have to say that the visibility, most everywhere on our trip, was fabulous. And warm water IS nice!

 

[Blackwood]

Awesome. I wish I'd had a better camera when I was there.

Any top side photos?

 

[Leejnd]

LOL I have a few, but I took mostly underwater shots. My husband is the topside photographer, but we haven't downloaded his camera yet!

 

[geoff w]

Nice pictures! Sounds like you had a great time. Last time we were there, sailing from Raiatea to Bora Bora and Huahine, diving in Bora Bora was the biggest disappointment. The reef was mostly dead - locals said due to lots of rain and fresh water killing the coral, but it looked like the rain washed all the fertilizer and pesticides from the resorts into the water. It was still nice diving, and visiting French Polynesia has gotten much nicer over the years.

When we did the lemon shark dive right by one of the passes, after the dive the guides would chum up the water throwing in lots of chicken carcasses, then one would pretend to fall in and start screaming. All the divers gasped and all the guides started laughing. Then the victim would get out of the water laughing his head off. Do they still do that?

See any manta rays when you were there? The day we did the manta ray dive it was too murky to see anything, but they guides kept telling us they were right there

Is it me, or is 81° not nearly as warm as it used to be? We just got back from the Bahamas, and after an hour in 83° water with a new 3mm full suit, hood and gloves we were all cold!

 

[FrankPro1]

Wow Leejnd! You've come a long in way in such a short time. Superb selection of captures! http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/members/leejnd.html

 

[Leejnd]

Thanks! Credit Scott Geitler - he really has done a great job in helping me select appropriate equipment for what I want to do, teaching me how to use it, and giving me some elementary understanding of the artistic aspects of underwater photography. I still have lots to learn, but I think I got the basics down. Now it's just a matter of practice (especially in making quick decisions about changing settings underwater...I still find myself not doing that enough) and increasing my knowledge of photography in general. Unlike many others who take up underwater photography, I was really starting from nothing - I never had an interest in photography on land! (Still don't, really.) So I had no clue even what an F-stop was.