Dive Review of Six Passengers/Blue Velvet/Kia Ora Resort in
French Polynesia/Rangiroa

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Six Passengers/Blue Velvet/Kia Ora Resort: "Diving the Tiputa Pass", Apr, 2024, by Michael Fritz, NJ, US ( Sr. Reviewer 8 reports with 12 Helpful votes). Report 12925 has 2 Helpful votes.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Kia Ora resort was fabulous and by far the best place on this tiny atoll. Very quiet and everyday a beautiful sunset. There is a bar over the water and you can see sharks and fish through the glass floor while sipping a cocktail. The food is very good also, but we thought the Polynesian night and buffet (held twice a week) was overpriced and not as good as the a la carte menu. We got a pool villa and were very happy with our choice. The beachfront bungalows were not as nice and the overwater bungalows were overpriced in my opinion. We had a private deck, outside shower and loungers, small pool and sitting area and plenty of privacy and space. The resort arranged a day tour for our last day to The Blue Lagoon which I highly recommend. It's off the charts beautiful. We had an island barbeque lunch and swam with baby reef sharks. On the way back we stopped for some great snorkeling at some nice reefs before returning to the dock at the resort. We dove with Six Passengers/Blue Velvet which was very well run. It was very confusing but I finally figured out that they are the same operation under 2 names. Blue Velvet is just the name for the small place they have at the resort. They picked us up at the resort dock and took us to their main place nearby to gear up and get briefed. We only did one day of 2 dives because we lost a day due to delayed flights. The diving is all at Tiputa Pass where you either get a fast drift through the pass on incoming or a more relaxed dive along the outer reef on outgoing tide. We got one of each and they were both great. We got a visit from the local friendly dolphins on our outer reef dive! Fish life is great and lots of bigger pelagics and sharks. The coral is in great shape along the outer reef, but not great inside the pass. The pass dive is not for beginners since you fly along pretty fast in the current and the depth changes throughout. There are a few ledges to duck behind and see what cruises by but otherwise you can't stop and need to stay together as a group. Six Passengers did a good job of keeping our group small and we had just 3-4 divers to a divemaster. My only complaint was the boat is not that big and there were many groups all in one boat. It got pretty tight with 15+ divers (some with rebreathers) and gear. Each group would back roll in together and quickly descend. We also surface together as a group with a SMB. It was crazy how far apart each group came up, but the driver collected everyone as quickly as possible. We did our surface interval back at the dive shop where they have a great lunch place with reasonable prices. Lots of comfy chairs to hang out and wait for the next dive and change out your gear. French is the language here, but we got our dive briefing in English and everyone was very friendly and helpful. I think 3 days of diving here (2-3/day) is all I would want to do since there's really only one dive site. It's a good one though and every dive could produce something new.
Websites	Six Passengers/Blue Velvet Kia Ora Resort
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Hawaii, Most of Caribbean, Mexico, Fiji, Palau, Solomons, Indonesia, GBR, Galapagos, Philippines, Malaysia
Closest Airport		Getting There	Several Daily flights from the main international airport in Papeete
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny	Seas	currents
Water Temp	81-82°F / 27-28°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Stay with group and surface together as we were drift diving a pass. Depth limits strictly enforced (90' for Advanced Open Water) according to certification level
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	No real accommodation for cameras on the boat. You had to try and find a safe place to set it and they would just hand it to you after you rolled in. Less than 10 minute ride, but it can be choppy in the pass. There was a dedicated rinse tank at the dive shop.

Report currently has 2 Helpful votes

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Dive Review of Six Passengers/Blue Velvet/Kia Ora Resort in French Polynesia/Rangiroa

Six Passengers/Blue Velvet/Kia Ora Resort: "Diving the Tiputa Pass", Apr, 2024,

Photos Submitted with this Report

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Six Passengers/Blue Velvet/Kia Ora Resort in
French Polynesia/Rangiroa