Puna'auia, Tahiti - Marina and Casa Bianca

Marina Taina in Punaauia - We rented a car for a couple of days to explore the island.  Our first stop was at a nice marina just a few miles south of the Intercontinental Hotel in Faaa.  We enjoyed a great lunch at Casa Bianca with views of "dream" yachts and many other cool boats.  One boat - however - really caught our attention - we loved the fact it had room for all the important toys!!  We chatted with the group and they were going scuba diving with the same group we had been with earlier in the day!  We warned them to watch out for the sharks!

 Tahiti is all about life on the water!

Shark Valley Dive in Tahiti - The big boys are coming out to play!

As a new diver - I was really excited about diving in Tahiti. The dive master provided the instructions in both French and English. As he was difficult to understand - I heard the part about we would see sharks. We had seen sharks in Australia on the Great Barrier Reef. They were small and supposedly harmless.

The story became completely clear when sitting on the bottom of the ocean floor at about 40 feet deep and I see one of the Top Dive divers connect a cage with a line from the boat. Then the sharks started appearing! Lots and lots of sharks!

 

I was really calm - it was a little late to do anything else.  The really scary part was that we had to swim up to the boat through all the sharks!  This experience has to rate near the top for adventure for me!!

 

Shark Valley Scuba Dive - Tahiti

  Lots and lots of sharks!

Setting the "bait"

 

Top Dive - located within the Intercontinental Resort managed our dive.   Shark Valley is known for its stunning coral reef featuring antler and boulder coral.  But the main attraction is the numerous sharks! Grays and black tips are the most common sharks seen.

 

Shark Valley is known for its stunning coral reef. As one might expect from its name, we saw lots of sharks in this antler and boulder coral, including grays and black-tips. 

Discover Shark diving with Top Dive:     

The Best Shark Diving in the South Pacific

The Polynesian waters play host to many different species of sharks. With our experienced divemasters at TOPDIVE, we can assure the safest possible conditions in order for you to observe and marvel at the beauty of this mysterious creature.

At the Tahiti and Moorea TOPDIVE centers, we use a method called "baiting". Employing all safety precautions during the dive, we entice the shark to take a piece of bait in the purpose of better observing it. This stimulation technique is performed within all safety boundaries, respecting the animals' environment and feeding habits. Rest assured, the sharks that frequent these baiting site are "regulars", and exhibit calm and relaxed behavior.


TOPDIVE Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Rangiroa and Fakarava dive centers offer a PADI specialty course called, Polynesian Shark Diver (PSD) experience. Its purpose is to allow any certified PADI Open Water diver(certified of at least 10 dives) the opportunity to identify, recognize and describe at least 3 shark species in relaxed and secure conditions.



The standard dive rule-of-thumb for observation of these species is usually to be slightly negatively buoyant as to adhere close to the sea floor, and not to attract too much attention.


Main species in French Polynesia:

• The White tip lagoon shark

(Triaenodon obesus, Ma'o mamaru)
Adult size: 5.57 to 6.6 feet.
This shark can be distinguished by its white trimmed dorsal and caudal fins. It is a shark that can be observed in schools, during the day usually resting on the bottom, in caves or on rocky overhangs. The white tip lagoon shark is found in coastal habitats, territory it shares with the black tips and lemon sharks. It becomes active mainly at night feeding on fish that it ferrets out of holes and crevices.

• The Grey reef shark

(Carcharinus amblyrhynchos, Ma'o raira)
Adult size: maximum 8.20 feet.
It is distinguished by its perfectly grey skin, white belly and its black edged caudal fin. This shark has a lively and bold behavioral pattern notably observed in the presence of stimuli. The Grey shark is described to have the vivacity of the Black tip and the strength of the Lemon shark. For this reason it is both feared and respected.
Schools of a few hundred specimens are seen during the day in the Tuamotu Archipelago. However, they split up at night, the period in which they are most active.
Somewhat curious, this shark will not hesitate to curiously approach divers a few feet away only to scurry away shortly thereafter. They usually are found in the northern coast of Moorea at Tiki point, with the peculiarity of only female citings. They are also found mostly in the vicinity of the reef walls and outside in the passes, from the surface to 100 meters in depth.

• Blacktip reef shark

(Carcharinus melanopterus, Ma'o Mauri)
Size: maximum 6.5 feet.
This is probably the most common shark in Polynesia. It is distinguished easily by the black tips on the edge of each fin.
This shark is quite fearful and considered quite harmless. Although this does not keep them from coming close to divers just to satisfy their curiosity. Feeding patterns are nocturnal, mostly on sleeping fish they likely have trouble catching in the day.

• Lemon shark

(Negaprion Brevirostris, Ma'o Arava)
Size: Maximum 11.5 feet.
The Lemon shark has a massive body of a yellowish brown color, easy to recognize because of its large dorsal fins of the same size, its visible set of smooth, sharp teeth and its little yellow eye in the form of a lemon, hence its name.
It is the lord of the reef, given its size and weight. Reacts actively to stimuli during a dive and is considered to be one of the most imposing figures one can come across at the dive sites. It is often found resting on the bottom, close to the coast from the surface down to a depth of 90 meters.
It is an active hunter of fish, shellfish, sea birds and small rays.
During the course of your dives, you may encounter other shark species like the Silvertip shark, the Silky shark, the oceanic whitetip shark, the Tiger shark and even the Whale shark.

Tahiti Bay Dive - dolphins and coral

 

Watching the dolphins play as our dive boat heads out in the straight between Tahiti and Moorea in the French Polynesian Islands!  The coral was not as vibrant along the Shark Valley as it was inside the atoll. 

 

 

Our home in Tahiti - An Over the Water Bungalow at The Intercontentinal!

Intercontinental Resort, Faa'a Tahiti

 

 

We really enjoyed stepping off our balcony into the ocean for swimming and snorkeling!

Paradise!  Pure luxury!  Our home in Tahiti for 3 nights is an Over the Water Bungalow at The Intercontential in Faaa (Papette), Tahiti!   We disembarked the Oceania and took a cab to the West Coast of Tahiti.  Amazing views of the Island of Moorea.  We were greeted by views of the infinity pool spilling into the ocean and a beautiful tropical landscape.

Bali Hai - Land of "South Pacific"

Bali Hai - made famous in the play South Pacific is said to be based on the mountain of Moua Roa in Moorea. The mountain looms large from the harbor. The ship is anchored in Cook's Bay - but the bay is actually mis-named because it is not the bay that Cook anchored.

Captain Cook, the first main European influence of much of Polynesia, spent only a week in Moorea. Surprisingly, he anchored in Opunohu Bay and didn't even visit the one for which he is the namesake! This visit probably tainted the natives' view of Europeans, as
he destroyed many canoes and houses when the islanders refused to return a stolen goat. At the time, Polynesians didn't have the western concept of 'ownership' (which would be an interesting way to live...).

Regardless - Moorea is breathtaking!  Views from our ship Oceania Regatta!

View from the "Belvedere" of Cook's Bay and the Island of Moorea

Hang on for dear life!  It was a very steep ride up the side of the mountain to arrive at The Belvedere" for panoramic

views of Cook's Bay, Opunohu Bay and the atoll.  Not that the ride wasn't bad enough - it was a hike straight up to the viewing spot - so much for being afraid of heights!  These bays were the scenes from the movie "Return of the Bounty"

Moorea Island Tour - tropical gardens

I took an Circle Island tour with Albert Safari - riding in the back of a four wheel drive open bed truck.  The island of Moorea is truly a tropical paradise!  The lush forrests, pineapple farms, and tropical gardens were beautiful!

Polynesian Temples - island tour of Moorea, French Polynesia

We are greeted by locals in traditional Polynesian dress as we disembark the tender in Moorea, French Polynesia.  We are doing a half day island tour then the ship is repositioning to Papette, Tahiti later in the afternoon.

 

Elaine and Patricia

Our driver/guide for the day explains the ruins of a polynesian village found on the side of the mountain.  Marae Ahu o Mahine on Moorea. No one knows the original name as it is lost in history but local tradition names it after the great Chief Mahine who ruled the area at the time of Captain Cook's voyages. Marae were open air sanctuaries that were used as social, political, and commercial gathering points for the Polynesians. New maraes were built around the stones of older marae or stones carried in from
other marae.