On to the Tuamotus

On to the Toumotus – Rangiroa. These islands, or what were once islands, are now just circular atolls. No mountains, just Robinson Crusoe palm studded sand spits. Plan to do some drift diving, and shoot the pass – shooting through one of the small channels of the atoll as the tide comes in, and the water in the center rushes in.

Heading out early at 7AM, it was a long flight going back through Tahiti yet again, but we arrived at the supposedly luxurious Kia Ora Hotel in Rangiroa around Noon. It appeared a nice place set in a coconut grove, but our room was very tiny, and no place to put our luggage we kept tripping over. The AC would not cool even this small room, and worst of all, the place smelled like pee. There was a sweet kitty who greeted us at the hut. This prompted us to upgrade our room from the Garden to Beach Bungalow, to a beach hut which was much larger, nicer, and the AC worked better, and no pee smell. The places were probably very nice in their day, but all still in need of maintenance (rotting wood, doors that wouldn’t latch or close properly, missing tiles in the pool, cracks in the tub, wood in need of treatment and paint). Much of the huts had been very nicely crafted of natural materials, and were still quite nice.

Beautiful turquios lagoon shallows

The ocean here was a big disappointment and troubling. The beach had been largely washed away, there was no where we could find to walk barefoot for even 3 strides without foot wear. I almost punctured my foot trying to do so. So no barefoot beach walks or water entries. But I don’t mind no beach, it often means coral. Unfortunately once submerged, we saw the typical devastation we saw on other islands. A complete wasteland near the hotel, a little further out about 80% destruction. But there were still some very large fish. Saw more Titan trigger fish, and the largest parrot fish I had ever seen (Almost as big as the Titan). Saw some rays also, and a few of the usual assortment.

So sad to see the devastation, I hear there are many causes – from El Niño to pollution, there were clear signs of manmade destruction, when you see the tops of coral heads near the hotel worn from people standing on them, and heads broken by anchorage. This hotel looks like it has seen better days and will probably soon meet the fate of the Sofitel that we saw abandoned in Huahine, probably for the same reasons (Beach gone, and coral destroyed). I heard the beaches in Rangiroa that were renowned for huge magnificent sandy regions have largely been destroyed because of an unusual amount of high surges recently. Beaches also naturally move, and come and go. We see some boats shipping sand on other islands, and they can probably temporarily reconstitute the area, but over time gets washed away, and likely contributes to the deterioration of the Coral.

I’ve been snorkeling and diving many places around the world, and sadly this seems the fate most everywhere. More underwater preserves like John Pennycamp in FL need to be created, or very soon there will be no wonderful coral gardens anywhere. Hawaii has been quietly destroyed long ago, the Red Sea is showing significant signs of destruction near the resorts, and even the Great Barrier Reef displaying massive dead zones. For years perhaps people didn’t see or understand the impacts or mechanisms, but now there’s no excuse, and island development projects that rip up the earth allowing rain runoff to silt and destroy the reefs and waste disposal must be better mediated. It’s already too late, most everywhere has been terribly damaged around the world, and it takes hundred and thousands of years to rebuild these natural wonders. And we are yet to understand the complete impact of destroying this fundamental building block in the food chain. Most folks never will miss the underwater beauty, but the Ciguatera which apparently doesn’t affect the fish, but affects people is perhaps one fitting impact.

After our snorkel, a Polynesian security guy who worked for the hotel and needed sensitivity training came to our beach hut porch we were relaxing on, and demanded we must remove the snorkel gear from the porch when we leave the porch, we always do this, and had just arrived at the hut. After we agreed and said yes sure, he continued on, pointing to the fins with his grimace AND THOSE TOO, we said yes fine smiling, and he continued pointing to one of the masks –AND THOSE TOO, yes, yes - ok, ok, and after some more grunting walked on. His boss must have given him a hard time about people leaving unsightly towels on the porch or something.

There was another kitty, not as small and pretty as the other who seemed to hang out at this hut. Later in the day, I saw the nice kitty from the other hut come up, and was pleased to see her, as she got onto the deck, I heard a blood curdling screech and hair raising screams, a lengthy intense cat fight ensued (I guess each cat has it’s own turf), and we never saw the nice cat again, hopefully the small kitty was not seriously injured in the terrible sounds I heard coming from the beach fight.

We finished the day with another fine meal, something that consistently comes through no matter where we travel in FP. We walked through the lounge on the way back which had a large screen TV playing some movie, and almost got sucked into sitting there the rest of the night. It’s been a long time with no TV, we haven’t missed it, but see what an engaging force it is.