Avatoru is the chief town of Rangiroa. It is located in the northwestern part of the atoll, and is home to the atoll's administration buildings, its post office and several churches. The atoll's black pearl industry is centered here as well. Its population is approximately 800.
A few taxis are available at the pier, but you will find a mini-bus that drives between Tiputa and Avatoru a few times a day without a set schedule (for $1.00 US). The taxi fare to and from just about everywhere on Rangiroa is $5. Water taxis are also available to take you to various swimming and snorkeling sites. There are many local companies on the pier offering tours and the pricing on is good if you are an independent traveller, if you are willing to wait until the afternoon the pricing is better - just ask. Time wise the best tour from the pier is the one hour snorkeling at the Aquarium Dive site only minutes away by boat. Two hours in the morning will run you anywhere from $35 - $50 USD, due to your limited time in the afternoon you can have the same experience for an hour for $20 - well worth it as an hour in the water under this intense sun is enough time to see this amazing snorkel / dive site.
Our day began as a walkabout around a good portion of this Motu. A hundred or so yards off the pier along "the road" we came across Les Relais de Josephine. This is a quiet resort of seven beautiful french style appointed independent bungalows, three at sea side. With a authentic french chef in the kitchen you can sit on an over the water deck, enjoying dolphins playing in the wave as you are savoring classic french cuisine. We stopped in for a look and a chat with the owners, we picked up a brochure as this could be a possible get away spot - magnific. We then continued walking along the island road to the Hotel Kia Ora (about a half hour walk) and walked through the beautiful reception area down to the restaurant, bar, incredible infinity pool and the white sandy beach, wow factor once again. We put on our snorkel stuff and headed into the water for a nice relaxing swim while looking at the multi coloured fish. We then strolled along the beachfront back to the tender port taking pictures and watching the manta rays as they gracefully glide through the water.
We were back at the tender dock for one o'clock because today was the day that I was doing my beginners scuba dive. All I can say is thank you to HAL for offering this and then a huge thank you to HAL for running the program with just one participant, me. Amazing. Thomas my dive master from Top Dive was excellent, we went through the orientation of about 20 minutes and then he told that for today all I had to worry about was to make sure that I was floating horizontally, face down in the water, breathe and look at all the fishes and coral that was down there, he was going to take care of the rest. Once he knew that I was comfortable he would let me go and all I had to do was follow him. So here I am thinking that I was going to start in a pool (safe spot), then maybe head out for a short, 10 minute dive. Well not to be Thomas took me to one of the best spots on the planet to go for my first dive, a place that I referred to earlier as The Aquarium, amazing - sorry no pictures, could not get ahold of an underwater camera. So here I am in the boat, weighted belt on, flippers on, mask on, Thomas tells me to jump in the water, he will put on my tank and vest on in the water, all good. I am in the water he puts on my vest and tank and gives me the regulator (the piece you put in your mouth - similar look and feel as a snorkel), tells me to start breathing, then tells me to go face down (during all this he inflates my vest), so I going along exactly like I am snorkeling, but as I am going along he starts to deflate my jacket and I feel like I am going down slowly (pressure build up in my ears), he comes around in front of me and indicates to me to release the pressure (part of my orientation), he checks everything else and we continue. Now for me this is amazing and I know why it is called The Aquarium, this is natures own aquarium that just goes on and on, we are seeing fish, many many fish all different shapes and sizes. We are seeing coral, coral and more coral, we are touching certain types of coral (the safe type). Once he is confident that I am okay (hey I am way beyond okay here, way beyond), he releases me and has me follow him and we going through coral gardens along the ocean floor with coral on both sides, again amazing. We stop at some locations where he shows me, by gesturing, the types of fish, fish eggs in this one cavernous spot, he shows me not what to touch and the fish you don't want to get close to. As we glide around a bend I see nothing but what looks like a huge shadow, he indicates to go quickly, we do and we separate and swim through what must have been a couple thousand fish (of a pretty decent size) - wow!!!. We do this a couple times with the different schools of fish that we come across. I am in awe. He gets me down to the ocean floor and picks up a huge sea cucumber (at least that what it looks like to me) and turns it over so I can see the underside, he then takes me over to see first one Moray eel, set in a cavern with its head protruding and mouth opening and closing so I can its many razor sharp teeth. Then we come upon another cavern where there a three of these eels all looking like something out of a greek mythology movie. BTW these guys can get up to six feet long, just incredible to see. At times I can't help myself but look up to really believe that I am down here in this amazing underwater world, so beautiful, so peaceful. Forty five minutes later we surface and I tell Thomas that I know he does this two, three, four times a day but for me and with this being my first time that this was truly a moment in my life that I will never forget and in thanking him he tells me that he also had a good time showing me because I was an easy student and that he had confidence in me that he could also show someone his underwater knowing it was my first time. He also let me know that I picked the best spot in the world to do this first dive, based on depth (about 20 feet) and the abundance of underwater life, both in coral and fish. I have a feeling that with any subsequence dive that I do I will always compare it to this dive here in Rangiroa.
Need I say that this was another bench mark amazing day. I will try to get some pictures from Jeff as he snorkeled in this spot earlier in the day. Perhaps in a couple of days during our six day transit back to LA.
Quote of the day. Remember that happiness is a way of travel ... not a destination. - Anon
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