Little Lolly's Small Adventures: Anchored, Avatoru, Rangiroa, French Polynesia. Scuba Diving

A day in paradise again. Rangiroa is one of the largest coral atolls with one of the main villages being Avatoru. We dropped anchor ⚓ not too far away in the calm waters surrounded by the coral reef. Wonderful.

There was a dive for certified divers advertised in the tour brochure but not one for beginners. So Paul made enquiries with Shore Ex. who in turn kindly spoke to the company concerned and their staff were happy for us to come along. Although Paul has a licence to dive – he didn’t have his paperwork with him so he opted to do the beginner’s session with me.

We took a tender to the pier where we were met by someone from Top Dive and taken by van 🚗 to their beach office a few kilometers away. There we were kitted up with a short wetsuit, flippers and masks. Unfortunately my feet were waaay too small for a pair of flippers I was given – supposedly the next size up from my usual size. When we got into the rubber duck hard bottomed boat that a smaller pair of flippers was found – the correct size. Unfortunately they were also too loose so in the end I was given a pair of kiddies ones with an adjustable heel strap.

We sped out into the blue of the lagoon to a small island/sandbank where there were quite a few people snorkeling or diving – a perfect place to see parts of the coral reef. A guide took 3 guests, who were certified divers, on an underwater tour. That left me, Paul and his work colleague with a dive trainer and his girlfriend. The girlfriend went snorkeling in the reef as did Paul and I whilst the dive trainer took Paul’s colleague out for his first ever dive. I had problems with the facemask I was given – it kept filling up. In between emptying them I was able to see through the water down onto the reef and see colourful fish 🐠 swimming. A shoal of fish hid underneath the shadow of our rubber duck! In the end I ditched the facemask. I think it was too big for my face. When the dive trainer and Paul’s colleague got back from their dive Paul and I were kitted out with weights and a tank, and I borrowed the dive trainer’s girlfriend’s facemask which fitted a bit better. We rolled backwards overboard to get back into the water, and we headed off. Paul was allowed to dive freely but the instructor held my arm 99% of the time, due to diving regulations. We saw a parrot fish eating the coral ‘sand’ on the bottom; a couple of times it wallowed in the sand in order to have a good scratch and possibly get rid of algae from its scales. There were various sea anemones within the coral, some disappearing down coral tubes as they felt a change in water pressure as we swam by. Paul’s colleague had seen a few sand sharks during his dive but we didn’t see any. I found being under water so peaceful, a totally different ‘world’. Our dive came to an end and it was time to head back to shore. The dive company dropped us directly at the pier from which the ship’s tenders departed.

Paul and I had a bit of a wander around the few stalls that were near the pier and then took a local boat ride/tender ⛵ back to the ship. Being open air, yet under cover, the local boat/tender was better than taking the ship’s enclosed tender. The sea breeze was lovely and cool.

After a shower Paul had to get back to work, as did his colleague. I think it was probably hard for them to get back into working mode after a lovely few hours off the ship.

Leaving the Avatorua, Rangiroa

The ship’s horn has blown to say goodbye to the islanders and the Maasdam is now on its way to the next port of call, Taiohae (Nuku Hiva)🌴, with a day of sailing before we get there.