After 3 nights in Rangiroa, we were off to the tiny airport for our 45 minute flight over to Fakarava. This was such a tiny airport when we got off the plane, they ushered us out to the street to wait for departing passengers to load plane and then our bags came off. Then we walked across the street to board our speed boat and continue another 90 minute by boat to the south part of Fakarava island.
This is the island I was most excited for. From the air, you could see the skinny island wrap around almost like the letter “L” with the wouth being at the top of the “L” and the north being in the bottom.
There is supposed to be epic diving in the south with the highlight being the Shark Highway were there could easily be 300-400 sharks swimming by in the channel at any given time. Getting there was long and accommodations were said to be rustic, so you hope the diving will make it all worth it (and it did!). We were told accommodations had little water (they gather rain water for showering and it could be a trickle – so we didn’t expect a real shower for a few days), no wifi and and power generated on limited hours. So you dive, read, eat and that’s about it. Knowing all this, brings serious divers and we were rewarded with a great 4 dives in the 2 days.
Fakarava South:
The scuba diving was outstanding as there was so much life everywhere. So many colorful fish and corals and then the sharks and man…so many beautiful sharks. The sharks were everywhere and so fun to watch. We had whitetips, blacktips, gray reef, French sharks and long nose sharks and I’m sure a few more. It was just like watching TV underwater as where ever you looked…it was awesome.
Here’s a video from the Shark Highway in the south
In addition to the sharks, the corals were so colorful and alive and the amount of bright fish were quite plentiful. You could tell there was so much life here with few visitors to destroy it. I could have stayed for longer as it was amazing diving.
In between our dives, we were able to visit the Pink Sand Beach and it was so pretty.
We even had two blacktip sharks that swam around our dining area at the pension.
Two blacktip sharks cruising by our lunch spot
Fakarava North:
We headed back up north for our final two nights. We planned to stay in the nicest place with a beach bungalow to enjoy the water, island life and one more day of diving and this was a great decision. Our lodge was amazing (with A/C) and delicious food. I could have stayed here for a week easily. We had our last two dives at the Garuae Pass and they were great. Hundreds of sharks, a manta ray out of the blue and huge schools of glass eyed fish. A perfect end to the first week of diving for me (and end of trip for John as he goes home now). Here’s a few of the photos from the last day.
Beautiful Shark directly overhead of me
Peacock Flounder
Moray Eel with a red banded shrimp above
Puffer Fish
Manta Ray:
Giant Manta Ray
Giant Schools of yellow tails
Octopus Encounter and Mating Session!
Probably one of the coolest experiences ever was coming across two octopus out in the open. They were big, proud and posing for pictures. Then I realized there were doing a mating dance and then swam to each other to mate. It was the coolest thing and the pictures and videos don’t do justice but did create a memory to keep. The two octopuses kept changing colors from white to green to deep purple. They swam towards each other, embraced all 8 tentacles around each other then sprayed bodies wide open in giant circle shape and were going at it…plus a few fish were peeping toms and kept looking at them going at it. The current was really strong so I was trying to stabilize myself, find some dead coral to hold onto with my left hand while shooting my camera with my right. Crazy…but so glad I got these as it was such a once in a lifetime Octopus encounter.
2 (one hiding on left and big one in middle)
Gives a scope of how close we were as John was just watching across from me
Videos of the Octopus Mating:
Here’s a video of the sharks from the Garuae pass in the north:
On our second dive, we had even more sharks and giant schools of glassy eyed fish. They would just allow us to swim into them and surround us. It was so cool!
Three different schools all coming together. Black tails going one way, glass eye clear tails and yellow tails. They were all a trip!
Loved these glassy eyed fish
White Tip Shark checking out the glassy eye fish, but never tried to attack…just swam through
So two amazing dives in Fakarava north and such a relaxing bungalow. I could have stayed for a week here. The diving in both Fakarava South and North may have been some of the best I’ve done in the world…I really would love to come back here again.
The beach front location at the Haviki Lodge in the north was so pretty.
Enjoyed some drinks watching the sunset from our water table
Black Pearl Farm
Resident Gray shark that would swim around and right up the the water table above while we were drinking beers!
Local French Polynesia Beer – Hinano Beer in Fakarava North
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Logistics:
Fakarava South – Moto Aito – This is the better of the two pensions in the south. We had a private bungalow with outdoor shower area and platform to watch the sunset. Simple room with mosquito nets and all our meals were provided with some of the most delicious local cuisine.
This guesthouse has a dog named Bounty (the boat captain named it after his favorite candy bar…Bounty). All snuggles
Fakarava North – Haviki Lodge – This was the nicest place on the island and we opted for a beach front bungalow with A/C and breakfast and dinner included which was helpful. Beautiful location that I could have stayed at for a whole week.
We even had a guard kitty that sat on our front deck a
nd kept us entertained.
