Comprised of five archipelagos, the Austral, Gambier, Marquesas, Society and Tuamotu Islands, the 35 islands and 83 atolls of French Polynesia are certainly the most famous, and arguably the most beautiful exotic destination on the planet. Officially part of France, the islands offer the traveller a rare mix of exotic paradise with French sophistication. The island groups themselves offer widely differing experiences. The Society Islands which include Moorea and Bora Bora are probably the most famous and certainly the most sophisticated with wonderful hotels offering every luxury to the visitor. At the other end of the spectrum are the Tuamotu Islands which are 78 tiny, remote atolls offering a true Polynesian experience with frontier style diving.
Each Island group in French Polynesia has one or more particular scuba traits or special things that make it different from the rest... Moorea has the shark feeding, humpback whales and turtles... Bora bora has the fantastic lagoon drift dives and Manta Rays. Raiatea has the wrecks, deep lagoon, and octopus dives, etc, etc. In the case of the Tuamotu Islands, not only is the entire chain of atolls the perfect combination of many interesting diving features, but each atoll also has additional attributes all to themselves!
Located over 200 miles north of French Polynesia's Society Islands, the Tuamotu islands is the largest chain of atolls in the world. Geologically speaking, polynesian atolls are the tops of ancient collapsed volcanoes, now consisting of various sized motus (or small islands) surrounded by magnificent rings of coral built up over the centuries. Rangiroa is the largest atoll of the chain. Rangiroa is the place where drift diving or shooting the pass is a daily occurrence. The steady 5 knot current offers an exhilarating dive and the regular scheduled dives are run on a 12 hour cycle so as to get the slack water. Rangiroa dive sites include Napoleon Manta Point, Motu Fara Pass, Mahuta, The Avatoru, Tiputa Aquariums and Tiputa Shark Cave. All the Tuamotu atolls are surrounded by steep drop offs and cliffs overlooking vast expanses of remote and tropical South Pacific Ocean waters. At the centre of every atoll is a large, relatively calm lagoon fed by just a few passes from the open ocean. Most of the diving action occurs in or near these passes, as these are the spots with an almost continuous water flow resulting from 2 daily tides rushing in and out of the lagoons. These tides are affected by various factors including not only the moon and gravitational pulls of the earth but also the weather and swells of the open ocean just outside the coral fringes. Typical depths within the lagoons average around 20-30 meters, but can be as deep as 100 meters in some places. In terms of diving, all this means deep and clean ocean waters outside and large quantities of fish of innumerable species in the lagoons. As for visibility, the open ocean is best with clear and clean waters giving superb visibility of hundreds of feet all day long. Within the lagoons, the situation is completely different and constantly changing due to daily plankton build-up and tidal changes. In fact, it can be next to zero in certain places at certain times, with the passes being the only reliable places for non-local divers.
