FairyBasset
Contributor
Just returned from an awesome dive trip in FP and thought someone may appreciate a bit of info!
We flew into Tahiti from Europe via LA with Air New Zealand / Air Tahiti Nui. We bought an inter-island flight pass, which gives you +5kg allowance if you show your diving certs. Very handy!
We booked all our accommodation and diving quite a long time in advance (we booked in Oct and went in April) to ensure we could get rooms where we wanted. We dived with Top Dive, bought a package and paid in advance to get a discounted rate.
First stop: Rangiroa. Stayed at the Mai Tai. We really liked the hotel, even though it doesn't really have a beach. There is a pool overlooking the lagoon, which is nice, but doesn't catch the evening sun. You can swim / snorkel off a pontoon in front of the hotel. The rooms were nice, had hot water, air-con, fridge etc. The restaurant / bar was nice. The prices are like in any major city, so don't expect a bargain. The staff was friendly and accommodating. Top Dive picked us up here and took us to the shop every day.
We had booked 3 dives a day, as we usually do 4 on a LOB. However, in retrospect 2 per day would have been ample as you are always diving the same site and you are dependent on tides. Also, in retrospect we wished we had saved a day to go visit the blue lagoon and look round the island a bit more.
We dived both Tiputa Pass and Avoratu Pass. Avoratu is much wider, therefore more hit or miss for seeing stuff. Tiputa pass did not disappoint. We were lucky as we were there for the one week in the year, where the grey sharks are mating in the channels in the pass, so we managed two dives there. One had a pretty strong string current, so having a reef hook was a bonus. WOW!! The sharks were speeding around us, looking to mate. Was pretty fascinating behaviour to watch. We saw lots of dolphins on our dives, mum with baby, males to protect her, they come up close and personal which was amazing. We saw a giant hammerhead (awesome!!), sailfish (sail up!), hundreds of black tips, spawning surgeon fish, spawning parrot fish, big schools of barracuda, eagle rays, manta ray, many schools of fish and when we were lucky we ended the dives really shallow in the corals with big schools of fish and a lemon shark nursery. The end of part of these dives was spectacular, a sight never to be forgotten. The reefs are really healthy, lots and lots of juvenile fish, lots of interesting species I've not seen before - loved the slingjaw wrasse and the orange parrot fish (can't remember the name)
We had fantastic viz, 29-30°C water and sunny blue skies. Top Dive were a good company, we liked the dive guides - we enjoyed diving with Rapha and Hiti most as they took care that we got as long a dive as possible despite some less experienced divers running out of air early. We felt Top Dive could have done more to consider the groups based on air consumption. In the end, we asked to be in groups with specific people who could complete a 60-minute dive. We brought our own gear with us, but the rental gear looked very good and no-one had any problems with their gear.
Next stop: Fakarava North. We moved over here with a big group of people who had been in the Mai Tai and diving with Top Dive, so it was a fun group. We all stayed at the Havaiki Pearl. The resort has a gorgeous beach, with lots of baby black tips and nurse sharks scooting round the pier and the shallows. Totally gorgeous. The beach rooms are far better than the garden rooms, as they have air con, fridges and are directly on the beach. The garden rooms are fine but more rustic. The place offers half board. We liked the breakfast more than Mai Tai. We made big sandwiches for our lunch at the buffet, which was also good. Dinners were OK though there is no choice available. Two people got sick from some fish, but generally the food was fine. The service was really pretty bad, the staff did not go out of their way at all to be helpful or useful. Though the beach kind of made up for that!
The diving here was in the Garuae pass and on the outer wall. If you manage the incoming tides and get into Ali Baba that is absolutely awesome. So many sharks, so much to watch -- quite spectacular. The outer wall is great if you do it a few times, but not if you do it multiple times over a few days. It has beautiful coral, lots of juvenile fish, schools of reef fish, barracuda etc. You get cruise ships in Fakarava north, so suddenly the place is super busy and there are lots of divers, therefore you should make sure you have booked in advance to ensure your space. Unfortunately, as the guides don't know these divers you may end up doing the wall again, rather than a drift in strong currents.
We had the same great viz and water temperatures, the guides were fine, though some did struggle with English. Again, we insisted on diving in the group from Rangiroa to make sure we got a group that as good on air. That’s difficult when you get cruise ship divers for a day. Top Dive did try to accommodate for this but considering how much money we had spent with them in total, I wouldn't say you get a warm fuzzy feeling from their customer service.
Next Stop: Fakarava South. we stayed at Tetamanu Village. The water bungalows are very very basic, but the location and the views are so spectacular that that is the real luxury of the place. The beds are quite comfy, the showers are basically a kitchen tap, no hot water. Lots of mosquitos, so make sure you bring spray. The rooms have balconies over the lagoon and huge napoleons swim below you begging for food! By the restaurant there is a black tip nursery, so you have to smile as you go to breakfast and see all the babies swimming around looking for food. You get all three meals included in the price. Breakfast is very basic, toasted baguette, pancakes and jam with a little fruit. I thought it was fine, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Lunch and dinner were a feast of local delicacies and while the food is not too much to look at it was delicious and plentiful. You can buy WIFI codes at reception, they work in the restaurant area.
The diving here was absolutely spectacular. Among the best I’ve ever done. Around 700 grey sharks in the pass, black tips, white tips, silver tips, eagle rays and even a giant hammerhead. You start diving over a stretch called the ski pistes, which is white sand among the corals, great for fin surfing, larking around taking silly videos of running races, etc. Then you go through the pass and drift through so many sharks, it’s quite breath-taking. You surface in a variety of areas, but when you come up at the restaurant / dive shop you shoot first through a channel like superman, which is so much fun! Sometimes you dive further into the lagoon over beautiful corals and so many fish.
We did a night dive here, which was by far the most exhilarating and memorable night dive I have ever done or will possibly aver do. We were in a kind of valley where so many sharks were hunting, it was like a big bowl of spaghetti. Sharks shooting up out of the melee with a parrot fish between its jaws and the others rushing after him in case he dropped it. At a guess there must have been around 300 sharks around that area, and it was like watching a national geographic movie. We had to surface in the pitch black on the line so that the sharks didn't follow us, as they loved our lights a bit too much! It was just WOW!!
Next Stop: Tahiti. We stayed in the Tahiti Pearl resort but wouldn't recommend it if you are diving with top dive as it is miles away and Top Dive will pick you up from some places but not from there. It was nice enough, but I would rather have been closer to town. Top Dive is located at the Inter-Continental.
We specifically wanted to dive on the Vallee Blanche site to see tiger sharks. We didn't see any, but we had 5 huge lemon sharks, black tips, white tips, reef sharks and so many fish. The guides were feeding the fish rice or something to attract them, which brought in the sharks. It was quite spectacular, as there was so much sunlight, you were not too deep and the viz was good. I think you can find some dive shops / dive guides who are more specialised in finding the tigers, so I would do that next time. Many of the corals were very bleached out here, possibly due to pollution fromm boats, as well as warm temperatures. However, we loved that site. The other site we did was very forgettable.
So, all in all FP was one of my top trips ever. Absolutely loved it. Would love to go again and see Maupiti, Tikehau and Huahine as well as maybe the Marquesas. Loved the diving, loved the views and all the blue colours you see, enjoyed the food, met great people and had a blast! The diving is in currents, some are quite strong, but generally as they are drift dives that shouldn't be too much of an issue for most divers. The max depth we did was around 30m. Quite a bit of diving is in the blue, so you should feel comfortable with this, although you can almost always see the reef or the bottom. I expected the diving to be more challenging to be honest, so I would think most confident divers will be fine there. We wore 3mm suits, but a rash guard and board shorts would also be fine as the water is really warm. Can highly recommend it!
We flew into Tahiti from Europe via LA with Air New Zealand / Air Tahiti Nui. We bought an inter-island flight pass, which gives you +5kg allowance if you show your diving certs. Very handy!
We booked all our accommodation and diving quite a long time in advance (we booked in Oct and went in April) to ensure we could get rooms where we wanted. We dived with Top Dive, bought a package and paid in advance to get a discounted rate.
First stop: Rangiroa. Stayed at the Mai Tai. We really liked the hotel, even though it doesn't really have a beach. There is a pool overlooking the lagoon, which is nice, but doesn't catch the evening sun. You can swim / snorkel off a pontoon in front of the hotel. The rooms were nice, had hot water, air-con, fridge etc. The restaurant / bar was nice. The prices are like in any major city, so don't expect a bargain. The staff was friendly and accommodating. Top Dive picked us up here and took us to the shop every day.
We had booked 3 dives a day, as we usually do 4 on a LOB. However, in retrospect 2 per day would have been ample as you are always diving the same site and you are dependent on tides. Also, in retrospect we wished we had saved a day to go visit the blue lagoon and look round the island a bit more.
We dived both Tiputa Pass and Avoratu Pass. Avoratu is much wider, therefore more hit or miss for seeing stuff. Tiputa pass did not disappoint. We were lucky as we were there for the one week in the year, where the grey sharks are mating in the channels in the pass, so we managed two dives there. One had a pretty strong string current, so having a reef hook was a bonus. WOW!! The sharks were speeding around us, looking to mate. Was pretty fascinating behaviour to watch. We saw lots of dolphins on our dives, mum with baby, males to protect her, they come up close and personal which was amazing. We saw a giant hammerhead (awesome!!), sailfish (sail up!), hundreds of black tips, spawning surgeon fish, spawning parrot fish, big schools of barracuda, eagle rays, manta ray, many schools of fish and when we were lucky we ended the dives really shallow in the corals with big schools of fish and a lemon shark nursery. The end of part of these dives was spectacular, a sight never to be forgotten. The reefs are really healthy, lots and lots of juvenile fish, lots of interesting species I've not seen before - loved the slingjaw wrasse and the orange parrot fish (can't remember the name)
We had fantastic viz, 29-30°C water and sunny blue skies. Top Dive were a good company, we liked the dive guides - we enjoyed diving with Rapha and Hiti most as they took care that we got as long a dive as possible despite some less experienced divers running out of air early. We felt Top Dive could have done more to consider the groups based on air consumption. In the end, we asked to be in groups with specific people who could complete a 60-minute dive. We brought our own gear with us, but the rental gear looked very good and no-one had any problems with their gear.
Next stop: Fakarava North. We moved over here with a big group of people who had been in the Mai Tai and diving with Top Dive, so it was a fun group. We all stayed at the Havaiki Pearl. The resort has a gorgeous beach, with lots of baby black tips and nurse sharks scooting round the pier and the shallows. Totally gorgeous. The beach rooms are far better than the garden rooms, as they have air con, fridges and are directly on the beach. The garden rooms are fine but more rustic. The place offers half board. We liked the breakfast more than Mai Tai. We made big sandwiches for our lunch at the buffet, which was also good. Dinners were OK though there is no choice available. Two people got sick from some fish, but generally the food was fine. The service was really pretty bad, the staff did not go out of their way at all to be helpful or useful. Though the beach kind of made up for that!
The diving here was in the Garuae pass and on the outer wall. If you manage the incoming tides and get into Ali Baba that is absolutely awesome. So many sharks, so much to watch -- quite spectacular. The outer wall is great if you do it a few times, but not if you do it multiple times over a few days. It has beautiful coral, lots of juvenile fish, schools of reef fish, barracuda etc. You get cruise ships in Fakarava north, so suddenly the place is super busy and there are lots of divers, therefore you should make sure you have booked in advance to ensure your space. Unfortunately, as the guides don't know these divers you may end up doing the wall again, rather than a drift in strong currents.
We had the same great viz and water temperatures, the guides were fine, though some did struggle with English. Again, we insisted on diving in the group from Rangiroa to make sure we got a group that as good on air. That’s difficult when you get cruise ship divers for a day. Top Dive did try to accommodate for this but considering how much money we had spent with them in total, I wouldn't say you get a warm fuzzy feeling from their customer service.
Next Stop: Fakarava South. we stayed at Tetamanu Village. The water bungalows are very very basic, but the location and the views are so spectacular that that is the real luxury of the place. The beds are quite comfy, the showers are basically a kitchen tap, no hot water. Lots of mosquitos, so make sure you bring spray. The rooms have balconies over the lagoon and huge napoleons swim below you begging for food! By the restaurant there is a black tip nursery, so you have to smile as you go to breakfast and see all the babies swimming around looking for food. You get all three meals included in the price. Breakfast is very basic, toasted baguette, pancakes and jam with a little fruit. I thought it was fine, but it’s not everyone’s cup of tea. Lunch and dinner were a feast of local delicacies and while the food is not too much to look at it was delicious and plentiful. You can buy WIFI codes at reception, they work in the restaurant area.
The diving here was absolutely spectacular. Among the best I’ve ever done. Around 700 grey sharks in the pass, black tips, white tips, silver tips, eagle rays and even a giant hammerhead. You start diving over a stretch called the ski pistes, which is white sand among the corals, great for fin surfing, larking around taking silly videos of running races, etc. Then you go through the pass and drift through so many sharks, it’s quite breath-taking. You surface in a variety of areas, but when you come up at the restaurant / dive shop you shoot first through a channel like superman, which is so much fun! Sometimes you dive further into the lagoon over beautiful corals and so many fish.
We did a night dive here, which was by far the most exhilarating and memorable night dive I have ever done or will possibly aver do. We were in a kind of valley where so many sharks were hunting, it was like a big bowl of spaghetti. Sharks shooting up out of the melee with a parrot fish between its jaws and the others rushing after him in case he dropped it. At a guess there must have been around 300 sharks around that area, and it was like watching a national geographic movie. We had to surface in the pitch black on the line so that the sharks didn't follow us, as they loved our lights a bit too much! It was just WOW!!
Next Stop: Tahiti. We stayed in the Tahiti Pearl resort but wouldn't recommend it if you are diving with top dive as it is miles away and Top Dive will pick you up from some places but not from there. It was nice enough, but I would rather have been closer to town. Top Dive is located at the Inter-Continental.
We specifically wanted to dive on the Vallee Blanche site to see tiger sharks. We didn't see any, but we had 5 huge lemon sharks, black tips, white tips, reef sharks and so many fish. The guides were feeding the fish rice or something to attract them, which brought in the sharks. It was quite spectacular, as there was so much sunlight, you were not too deep and the viz was good. I think you can find some dive shops / dive guides who are more specialised in finding the tigers, so I would do that next time. Many of the corals were very bleached out here, possibly due to pollution fromm boats, as well as warm temperatures. However, we loved that site. The other site we did was very forgettable.
So, all in all FP was one of my top trips ever. Absolutely loved it. Would love to go again and see Maupiti, Tikehau and Huahine as well as maybe the Marquesas. Loved the diving, loved the views and all the blue colours you see, enjoyed the food, met great people and had a blast! The diving is in currents, some are quite strong, but generally as they are drift dives that shouldn't be too much of an issue for most divers. The max depth we did was around 30m. Quite a bit of diving is in the blue, so you should feel comfortable with this, although you can almost always see the reef or the bottom. I expected the diving to be more challenging to be honest, so I would think most confident divers will be fine there. We wore 3mm suits, but a rash guard and board shorts would also be fine as the water is really warm. Can highly recommend it!
