French Polynesia: Moorea and Rangiroa

Dear Fellow Diver,

Before my first dive in Rangiroa, our guide, Manu, told us: "Do not go into deco. Let me know when you are down to 800 PSI. You can touch the dolphin if it touches you first. Sometimes, they are a bother, and you want them to go away. If you are rubbing a dolphin and it starts to sink, drop the dolphin." It seems that dolphins relax so much they begin sinking, so divers must be careful not to sink with them. "It's OK," he said, "they will come back to you."

French Polynesia diving is full of surprises, and that certainly would be one. I was first drawn to the remote Fakarava atoll by a video showing huge numbers of sharks, clear water, and healthy corals.

The beautiful volcanic islands of Moorea had plenty of lemon sharks, and Rangiroa promised dolphins and mantas. These two islands featured modern conveniences, but Fakarava had hard-to-book air-conditioned digs in the north, with air conditioning in south Fakarava unheard of. As a Floridian, I've had enough hot and humid weather, so I was hesitant. And when I learned that hotel meals included a Polynesian staple, raw fish, I wrinkled my nose. But if I wanted to sample that diving, I'd just have to get out of my air-conditioned shell, cowgirl up, drop my first-world attitude, and tough it out. I'll take three weeks and dive them all.

From Los Angeles, French Polynesia, which is only two time zones earlier, is an easy 9-hour flight with no jetlag. I began booking the four destinations, which required island hoppers, ground transportation, and places to stay, and it was daunting. So I called eTahiti Travel (www.eTahitiTravel.com) in Papeete, and they packaged everything to the smallest detail, including early check-ins, late checkouts, and even the diving, saving me hours, for less money than I would have spent had I done it myself.

After landing at 6 a.m. and spending the first day decompressing at the Te Moana Tahiti Resort, the next morning, my partner and I took a 30-minute ferry ride to Moorea, where knife-edged cliffs make their own misty clouds. Our van drove us to the 16-room Niu Beach Hotel, backed by mountains cloaked in green tropical forests and views of the pale aqua sea dropping into cerulean blue. After registering in their small lobby, we were led to our luxurious bungalow with a sofa, separate bedroom and bathroom, a full kitchen, and a roomy front deck with large chairs. Though we were in the second row of bungalows, if I opened the window to our covered lanai, we had beautiful views from every room; I was in paradise.

Niu Beach Hotel only serves breakfast in its viewless small dining area: fresh tropical fruits, cereal, lunch meat, cheese, scrambled eggs, potatoes, sausage, beverages, fresh croissants, and banana and coconut breads. It was not crowded for breakfast, and few people were on the beach. The star of the show was their beach on the lagoon.

After our first breakfast, Nemo'z Diving picked us up for a short ride to their well-equipped dive shop and dock, where they checked our C-cards. We brought our dive gear, but it's easy to travel light to French Polynesia since most shops include good gear in their price, along with 15L Nitrox tanks. I wondered if I was doing it all wrong, dragging all my gear with me.

I left my concerns behind once I backrolled into the crystal-clear water and began following my dive guide and captain, Franc, who exuded confidence when handling the loaded boat Sadly, the corals looked like they had recently died; their skeletons were intact, but everything was brown -- acres and acres of brown coral skeletons. Up top, Franc said they recently had an infestation of crown-of-thorn starfish, and a diver I met on another island confirmed that a couple of years ago, the live coral was covered with the hungry predators. Franc claimed the reefs farther out were healthy, but the water was too rough to dive. The truth? Or is it just a way to avoid burning a lot of gas? I'll never know.

While the first day, the lemon sharks I came to see didn't come to see me, the next two days a couple of 9-foot sharks appeared soon after we began our dive in a sandy canyon 50 feet deep. After wowing me with several passes, they disappeared. After a short reef tour, we would return to a gully near our boat, and voila, they reappeared. On our last shark dive, Franc sent the other divers back to the boat while we marveled at these animals. Franc stuck some fish pieces in a coral head to keep them around, and my buddy and I got excellent up-close photos and videos.

Nemo'z packed their only small boat with 12 divers, two guides, and 28 tanks. Fortunately, it was but a 10-minute ride to the fringing reef. All the divers used nitrox (sometimes short of the promised 34 percent), whether certified or not. When we dived, they tied the boat to a secured mooring ball, leaving no one up top (like the old days in the Caribbean). I'm sure that this was a bit discomfiting for one diver completing his certification with his first open-ocean dive and maybe others.

Even with dead coral, I saw plenty of fish and over a dozen green sea turtles resting on a reef and getting cleaned. Colorful reef fish were abundant. An endemic yellowtail dascyllus and pretty blue Whitley's boxfish kept my camera busy. With fish scraps, Franc attracted colorful humpback snappers and knew precisely where to find a lonely orangefin anemonefish and a colorful leaf scorpionfish. I hung back while other divers surrounded the small coral head. Finally, the last diver wanted me to see it, so he waved me over and shined his bright light on it, of course frightening the little fish who retreated into the coral head (thanks, but no thanks). Heading up the sloping coral reef, I heard music! I signaled to my buddy. "Do you hear the whales?" He stopped breathing, cocked his head, and his grin answered my question. Indeed, on every dive, I heard humpbacks singing. From mid-August to mid-October, they offer humpback snorkeling trips; I met divers who had snorkeled with young humpbacks while their mothers slept. That would be a great reason to return.

Dives were 45 minutes long, but Franc, who probably had been diving most of his 40-some years, let us be first to enter and last to leave, stretching our dives to an hour; I remained comfortable in the 81°F water in my 3mm wetsuit and hooded vest. At the end of our dives, I handed up my dive gear; it was challenging to climb the ladder, with rungs too far apart and me with a bad knee. The boat was not camera-friendly (no boat I dived on during my three weeks was). The best I could do was ask someone to hand me my camera after I backrolled in.

For lunch and dinner, I prepared several meals in our fully equipped kitchen based on what was available in nearby stores, so it was sauteed teriyaki chicken one evening and a warmed-up quiche another. For lunch, it was baguettes with ham and cheese and chips. We had one dinner out, and the main courses ran from $20 to $30; with two cocktails, we paid $63. Our grocery bill, with a few beers, was $40.

Surprisingly, the healthiest corals I saw at Moorea were in the hotel lagoon. It was shallow, and I was afraid to use one of their paddle boards; if I fell off, I might damage the corals and myself. So, my partner and I spent our afternoons snorkeling in the lagoon. Typically, they offer two morning dives. If you have four divers, you may arrange two afternoon dives a day as well as drift dives. No shore dives are offered.

And then it was off to Rangiroa, the largest atoll in French Polynesia, known for exhilarating diving in the swift currents of Tiputa Pass with plenty of pelagics. Our journey to Rangiroa was almost as exciting, involving three vans, a ferry, and a plane.

After we arrived at the 24-room Hotel Maitai Rangiroa, our host showed us our traditional-style air-conditioned bungalow with a thatched roof and seagrass-covered walls. It sported a king bed, twin day bed, desk, small refrigerator, and a deck with views of the lagoon between the other huts. There was no beach, and high winds drove pounding waves against the stone sea wall. In calmer weather, I could see myself climbing down their dock ladder to snorkel. We headed to the bar for a drink and to enjoy the pool overlooking the lagoon.

Dinner, part of our package, at the open-air restaurant began with a five-page menu. The foie gras appetizer was so good we ordered it almost every night. Other favorites: the fresh salad with bacon and tomatoes, duck breast, pearl oyster muscles -- reminded me of chewy squid (I needed a baguette to soak up the rich cheese sauce) -- an apple tart with ice cream, accompanied by a good French wine, as you might expect. The breakfast buffet included baguettes, eggs to order, fruits, and cold cuts. We split a sizeable $18 panini for lunch with a pile of French fries. Beer was $6, and cocktails averaged $13.

We dived with Top Dive for three days as part of our 20-dive inter-island package, to which we could add more dives (they offer up to five a day, with a four-person minimum for some, including nights). Each morning, they picked us up and took us to their spacious facility (good rental gear is included in their packages). Our guide, Manu, introduced himself to us and to a couple from Germany, Axel and Magrit, who had been diving since 1991, as had we. Manu, a French Polynesian, had a great sense of humor and loved his work. After we assembled our gear on their dock and analyzed the 15L nitrox tanks, he briefed us: maximum depth was 40 meters, but we probably wouldn't go that deep; stay at the same level as the guide because a few feet could mean a significant difference in currents. He pointed at his map to show where currents would strengthen and where to drop into a canyon to slow down and enjoy the fish.

It was a five-minute bouncy ride in 20-to-30-knot winds, and I was grateful when we back-rolled from their 30-foot inflatable and slipped beneath the six-foot waves. Even in 100-foot visibility, no bottom was in sight. We swam to a sloping reef covered in healthy hard corals; below, a dolphin passed. Then, down to 100 feet, and even farther down. A carpet of gray reef sharks crisscrossed the bottom 40 feet below. Looking into the blue, I saw even more gray reef sharks, dogtooth tuna, and a funnel of great barracuda. I was impressed with all the pelagics I saw, though disappointed that they kept their distance. My disappointment soon became exhilaration as the current picked up and carried me into the channel. The adrenaline-pumping action had begun. As the bottom rose to 40 feet, all I could do in the stiff current was steer myself to avoid colliding with structures rising from the uneven channel bottom. I thrilled at playing Superwomen, my hands in front as I cruised over Gotham City, but I was relieved when our guide signaled to slip into a canyon, passing Titan triggerfish and humphead wrasses. I wedged myself in, caught my breath, and could hardly believe the massive schools of fish taking a break from the current along with us. In all my travels, I've never seen solid walls of humpback snappers and such enormous schools of Moorish idols. A lonely whitetip reef shark meandered back and forth along with dozens of unicornfish. Too soon, we exited the canyon, following Manu through a narrow maze of coral, ending on a shallow coral shelf, where I watched colorful fish darting in and out of coral during our safety stop.

Afterward and exhausted, we voted for a reef dive, while others returned to the channel. Manu briefed us on dolphin encounters. I was skeptical: would wild dolphins really interact with the divers?

After a short boat ride, we entered the 82°F water, where the coral reef dropped from 40 feet to nothingness. We spread out, the German couple on the reef's edge while my buddy and I stayed above, able to see everyone in excellent visibility. Thousands of humpback snappers, squadrons of raccoon butterflyfish, and yellowtail barracuda enthralled me. As I drifted, I heard Magrit squeal in delight. Five dolphins had arrived, and one invited her to give it a rubdown. Soon, a large bottlenose dolphin nudged me, then maneuvered itself to get rubbed from the pectoral fin to the tail, soon turning around to get rubbed again. And then, the most magical moment I've ever experienced diving: A four-foot youngster snuggled under my arm for a hug and stayed there, its head next to mine, looking at me with fawn-like innocence. I stroked and snuggled it for maybe five minutes until "Snuggles" joined the pod to depart. For the rest of the day, I couldn't quit smiling.

Unfortunately, our second day didn't go as well with another dive guide, Malika. The sharks were deep, and visibility was reduced to 80 feet. Malika had us kick across the channel, where we met an opposing current and couldn't get back into the current that would take us flying through the channel. After hopelessly kicking and waiting for divers who couldn't keep up, we followed Malika's signal to abort the dive. I mentioned the dive to Manu, who was quick to defend her, and I dropped the subject when I realized she was his girlfriend. After that disappointing dive, my buddy and I opted for more coral reef dives, where we were delighted to see spotted eagle rays, tuna, barracuda, and gray reef sharks, topped off with more amazing dolphin encounters.

Two small, friendly, cozy islands, good food, and remarkable diving. Now, it was time to move on to Fakarava, which I'll tell you about in the next issue.

-- F.L.

Our undercover diver's bio: "As a child, I poured over National Geographic underwater articles. I got certified in 1991 while stationed at Andersen AFB, Guam, and my first dive trips were to Palau and Truk. I have made more than 2,000 dives, mainly in Florida but also in the Philippines, Indonesia, the Revillagigedo Islands, the Sea of Cortez, and the Red Sea."

DIVER'S COMPASS: Price for one diver: Round-trip flight from LAX to Papeete, $1200 . . . Air Tahiti Pass Tuamoto (4 islands), $663 (www.airtahiti.com/en/airpass-fares) . . . Niu Beach Hotel Moorea with breakfast, 4 nights for $1500 (www.niubeachmoorea.com/en) . . . Maitai Rangiroa Lagoon Resort with half board for 4 nights, $1100, (www.rangiroa.hotelmaitai.com) . . . Top Dive 20 dive inter-island package, $1530, Scuba diving with TopDive (www.topdive.com) . . . Six dives with Nemo'z Diving, including everything, $415 (www.nemozdiving.com/en) . . . Four inclusive dives with Kaina Plongee, $232 (kainaplongee.com/en) . . . Three weeks total for two people, including ground transportation, excursion, and five nights half board at expensive luxury resorts: $12,553 plus airfare . . . Tipping is not expected but can be given for exceptional service, which we did when one of our prepaid van drivers returned to our hotel to retrieve a prescription mask behind . . . The only chamber is on the main island of Tahiti.