Fakarava

Our transfer by motorboat to Raiatea Airport took forty minutes and offered a good view of the coastline of Tahaa, an agricultural island with a small population. We got a kick out of arriving at a little dock that was just a few yards from the check-in area. What a contrast to the hectic curbside departure areas of our usual airport experience. We flew into Papeete to connect onward to the coral Tuamotu Archipelago and to our next stop for two nights on the island of Fakarava. The view from the plane was spectacular. The water is so clear, we could see straight drown to the bottom of the ocean, and the sand bar islands of the Tuamotus float just above the surface lost in a water rainbow of blues, greens and purples, this is what makes Fakarava a diver’s paradise.

At the airport we got a true sense of just how narrow the island is for if you look to your right you see one side and to your left the other and with no more than a few minutes walk from side to side at the widest points along the strip it is easy to explore. This also makes it an easy destination to explore by bicycle, as the island is only 30 miles in length and nothing higher than a speed bump in height and no need to worry about traffic with only 400 residents. Our bags were collected by a member of the resort staff, who drove them in his van, while we were transported to Le Maitai on the island’s Le Truck, a long boxy type vehicle with 2 benches along each window and a third bench down the middle. It was a great way to get a taste of the island life and not have to struggle with our bags at the same time.

The sun was just beginning to set behind the resorts pier as we arrived and it was the most spectacular of our entire visit. The second night was unsurpassed as well. The reception area is spacious with many large sofas and armchairs for several guests to enjoy, and the adjoining open-air lounge is equally comfortable with a terraced deck to the beach. Our beachfront bungalow was constructed of dark wood with wide sliding doors that opened to a covered deck, which framed the twilight light seascape beyond.

Simple things mean a lot when you are on a multiple island site inspection and the walk-in showers, which revived us several times a day, were the amenity we fixated on the most. A step down wrap around deck led to the spacious walk-in shower in the back of the bungalow it was large enough to have two separate sections of plants that were growing right inside the shower. A door inside the shower led to the beach. This makes a lot of sense to be able to walk straight into the tiled shower and not get sand all over the bungalow and to be able to rinse off the salt water. The roof was slotted at one end and this brought in the light for the plants and allowed for increased cross ventilation.

Sufficiently recovered from our two inter-island flight we headed over to the lounge for a pre-diner cocktail, of course we ordered Maitais, which we learned means all is well in Tahitian, and we are not sure if it is because the name of the drink is the same as the resort, but this is where we had our best Maitai on the trip. Our dinner was served on the outside terrace of the adjoining restaurant, while the gentle trade winds swept across the island. The tuamotus are less humid than the Societies with their lush vegetation and as the height of the summer season was upon us we welcomed the drier climate. The menu du jour offered two selections from each category of appetizer, entrée and desert The first evening we tried, salmon carpaccio, mille feuilles of vegetables, lamb cutlets with garlic cream sauce, grilled shark and pesto and crème brulèe for desert. Our last evening meal was roguefort and walnut salad, shrimp and pineapple salad, beef filet with mushroom sauce, sword fish anis oil and exotic mousse, a mixture of tropical fruits. An extensive list of French wines to accompany your meal was also available. While we did not order wine our neighboring diners were polishing off several bottles along with their meals and seemed very content as they collapsed on the sofas in the reception. This is a very relaxed and homey resort and if you want to take a nap in the reception no one will discourage you.

The following morning brought Ellen’s long awaited dive. The resort dive masters are a French couple who arrived on the island after a two-year sailing voyage they made on their own sailboat from France. Every large fish that Serge told Ellen they would see made an appearance and then some. I was so inspired by the multitudes of fish I saw while snorkeling just off the beach around the coral heads that I plan to learn how to dive in order to come back and plunge into the deeper waters. Ellen was just ecstatic when she returned from the deep morning dive and could hardly wait for the afternoon drift dive.

Highlight:
Being able to transfer to spectacular dive spots within a 10 minute transfer from the resort makes Fakarava a diving destination must. Plus there are no other dive companies competing for the same desired spots. In diver lingo this is considered virgin diving and the density of fish population insures remarkable sightings. Over one hundred years ago Robert Louis Stevenson wrote in his journal, In the South Seas, that he was in awe of the number of fish they observed while sailing through the Tamakokoua pass to the towns of Tetamanu and Rotoava. In order to retain this remarkable diversity and natural legacy, Fakarava is being considered as a UNESCO nature reserve for the preservation of rare species.