Bike ride exploring Rangiroa

My bike at the end of the dock across the pass in Rangiroa, looking into the lagoon which is too large to even see the other side.
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Had a nice sleep in the large king bed, and though the AC didn’t cool the whole place, the bedroom was nice overnight. Plan to Shoot the Pass today (a SCUBA drift dive with tidal water rushing into the center of the atoll for a thrilling ride). Our hot tub in front looked hideous, tea like, it had rained the night before, the tub was poorly positioned to take the run off from the grass roof and a guy came by and dumped some chlorine powder in making it look worse with stuff floating on top and piles of powder in the bottom.

Some locals on the dock with a shark
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It’s nice view from the porch looking out over the lagoon, and enjoyed some tea out there in the morning. Enjoyed the great shower and large bathroom. We rented bicycles and rode down to the nearby pass, then took a water taxi across with our bikes, and rode around the village on the other side. It was a nice more Polynesian looking community, with friendly smiles and waves. Some guys hauled a large shark up onto the dock with rope around the tail. It was another slow peaceful village, with many broken down looking dwelling and some complete house ruins. Still saw a little trash on the pass coral beach here, but still nothing like Bora Bora, or as pristine and well kept as Huahine. It’s all pretty much flat here, but lots of coconut palm trees, and saw a guy with dreadlocks and a long lance easily dropping some to the ground.

Taking the ferry across the pass with our bikes

Kia Ora Infinity Pool
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I had talked to the dive shop here the day before about any jeopardy of the Pass drift dive being canceled, explaining this was a major highlight of our entire trip, and our dive in Huahini had been canceled. They said no problem, it would not be canceled, and could not come up with any reason for it to be canceled. So I made arrangements to head out to the more remote Kia Ora Sauvage sister resort an hr boat ride away, on it’s own motu, with a max of only 10 guests for our last 2 days here.

I was paranoid all day about something screwing up our afternoon drift dive, and as we headed out to the pass all suited up, I thought, it looks like nothing going to stop us now. Then as we got to the pass, the divemaster said, it’s too rough to shoot the pass, and we must do a regular dive. SHIT! ! !

It helps get out some of my angst writing this up afterwards. When we returned I called a bunch of dive shops and tried to get something together before we departed at 9A in the morning, but to no avail.

At least the dive we did was NICE. Beautiful deep blue deep water, with super clarity – other divers 30ft away were clear as just next to you. As the featureless ridge came into view far below, my heart rose, it was completely coated with live coral! What a wonderful sight! Saw several turtles, and the dive master actually hand fed one some coral he picked up which the turtle loved going after it like a dog ripping at a bone. Saw some Napoleon Wrass (Hugh 4ft bump head fish), though not as large as those we saw at the Barrier reef. Otherwise not a tremendous amount of fish, or much topology on the massive curved coral ridge that rose from the depths, and as it neared the pass, it became more and more damaged – looked like decades of anchors being dropped and crushing the coral.

Tried to get the in room internet service they advertised, and after messing around finally they said it was not high speed, and looked like another case of saying they had internet when it was just dialing through the phone to an ISP at an astronomical cost ($1.60 a minute). Hence it will be a long time for these logs, and many of the previous days to hit the wire. For all my criticism and disappointed expectations above, it is nice sitting out on the porch here, and we are having a great time. Not getting any bother from mosquitoes or sand flies in Rangiroa. Amazingly have never gotten sick yet on the whole trip, even with my notoriously tender tummy and trying new foods without bounds. I heard from another traveler that less than 2% of Americans who visit French Polynesia ever return (And they are already very much in the minority), probably due to the high cost, limited English speaking, heat & humidity, lower standard of infrastructure, insects, and some of the other elements I discuss in the blog. But it does have some beautiful unique landscape and some great Polynesian people, you just need to try a little harder and have a thick skin. Got another visit from the security guard we nicknamed “Barney Fife” again tonight, telling us to put our snorkel gear inside before we went in, as I typed up this blog and Cheryl burned through another book on the porch.

As I wrap up this entry, an alarm started going off loudly blasting, for about 5-10min now, appears from a ship slightly off shore inside the atoll, or maybe from the dock. Very loud and attention getting! We are starting to think about tsunami warning, and what should we do on this atoll, barely above sea level that was whipped out hundreds of years ago by one. There is no high ground. We can easily hear the waves thrashing the ocean side of the shore, though we face the peaceful inner part of the atoll. The ribbon atoll averages about 300yrds wide. What floats or would make the best raft, where to go? A whole new set of priorities from my observations of unvarnished railings and expenses! The resort is dark and empty, and we find and ask the security guard who seems unconcerned, and eventually the alarm stops.