I used Top Dive in Moorea and Bora Bora and they were awesome. Large boat with a couple of DG's and only a handful of people. Moorea and Bora Bora reefs were extremely healthy and colourful. They were mostly hard corals, not as much soft corals, but a lot of life. In Bora Bora, I saw lots of black tip reef sharks, lemon sharks, a green moray eel, trumpetfish, triggerfish, clownfish, scorpionfish, sea stars, shrimp, crabs, etc. In Moorea, I saw lots of blacktip sharks, lemon and nurse sharks, huge grey sharks, clownfish, angelfish, trigger fish, lionfish, a moray eel, trumpetfish, butterfly fish, hawksbill sea turtles, etc.
I did a night dive in Bora Bora with our Tahitian Princess cruise ship op, since none of the other ops could guarantee a night dive in advance, and the cruise ship op in Bora Bora was with Bora Dive Centre. Bora Dive Centre was great, and the night dive was awesome with lots of life.
In Raiatea, I dove with Hemisphere Sub and they were good too. Raiatea was not as colourful or healthy but there was tonnes of big life, black tip sharks, grey sharks, titan triggerfish, clownfish, etc. We saw dolphins and hammerheads from the boat, but they took off when we stopped. Unfortunately the Crown-of-Christ is destroying the reef in Raiatea and it has taken hold in a lot of regions.
In Huahine, I dove with Pacific Blue Adventure and they were pretty good. We had attempted to do a "pass", which is a cut in the coral where the large pelagics tend to hang out, but one of the handful of divers on the boat was having issues equalizing and descending in time, so we missed our entry. The current is swift around the pass, so since the entry was missed, the DG toured us around the reef, which was ok, not very colourful or healthy.
I chose not to dive in Tahiti or Rarotonga, since my research of other people's experiences showed that those locations were less healthy, particularly Rarotonga, which apparently has a substantial Crown-of-Thorns invasion.
I didn't find any of the charters to have reasonable prices. The dives were pretty expensive on those islands, like other remote islands, and the difference between not renting gear and renting gear was about $5.
I heard excellent things about Fakirava and Rangiroa, but there was a flash promotion that we couldn't pass up on the trip we ended up taking, so unfortunately, I didn't get to experience those islands, but had originally planned to.
If you're interested, here are pics, both topside and underwater of our trip on the 11 day Tahitian Princess in February 2007 (it's a good thing for detailed logs). My camera is just a point and shoot without strobes or anything:
French Polynesia Photos by Ayisha_05 | Photobucket
