Any tips for scuba in Tahiti?

[corbes]

I'm booked on the Windstar for a week in Nov to cruise around Tahiti. Would love to hear from anyone with any tips on which dives to do, which to skip, any good/bad operators? Will probably do my dives through the boat unless anyone could advise otherwise? Many Thanks!

[stingraynz]

Lucky you!! The best I have ever done has been on my Tahiti cruise. I'm not sure what islands you are going to but here is where I went.

 

Tahiti - did not dive here. we did do an excellent all day 4x4 trek through the mountain range.

 

Moorea - excellent shark dives. we used Bathy's club at the beachcomber hotel. You can e-mail them and reserve your dive they come pick you up at the tender dock. Then we did the dolphin quest at the same hotel in the afternoon. All in all a fantastic day. Bathy's does the shark dives daily and they have been doing them for ten years. The dive site was called the 'shark's dining room' and there were tons of sharks, reef sharks, grey sharks and one big lemon shark. But he kept to the depths he must have been at a depth over 100 ft because we went to 95 feet. A real adrenaline rush.

 

Bora Bora - we used Top Dive. reserved with them through the internet as well. Top dive is also on Moorea but we wanted to do the shark dive so we went with Bathy's Club. Top dive on Bora Bora has the most comfortable dive boat I had ever been on, huge area for suiting up, big platform for getting in/out of water. There is a site for seeing Mantas, and the day we went they asked right away, did we have to see the mantas because the conditions weren't right for them. We made them take us there and we saw nothing not even other fish. So if they don't seem keen on going to specific sites let them choose. They know best and they want to see and show you good stuff. we should have listened to them. We just wanted to see the Mantas so bad - hopefully they are around on your day. They are very common to that area. The second dive was at a site called tapua motu (I think). This area around that motu was teeming with sharks, tropical fish, tons of moray eels (8 eels peaking out of the same hole) we even saw a Napoleon fish the size of a calf. Excellent dive! Because our ship docked overnight in Bora we also did a night dive with Top Dive. We saw good stuff then as well, lionfish, shrimp, stingrays.

 

Huahine - this Island was the most pleasant surprise! We dive op I think was called 'Pacific Blue Divers' or something like that. The owners name was Didier Forget and it was a very small shop, not fancy like Top Dive but Didier showed us a great dives. Again, I guess not so well traveled that the dive sites were teeming with life. We went to this pass where the currents meet and there was tons of schooling fish and schooling barracuda - probably 150+, there was just a wall of barracuda. One of the best sites I have ever seen. The current was really heavy! we had to grab with all your strenght onto coral or anything you could or else you would get swept away. thank god on the swim back we were with the current. But the animals made up for it. We also saw many sharks and and a pair of eagle rays. of course tropical fish everywhere.

 

Raiatea - a waiter we met on board who was a diver, told us that Raiatea is the best port for dives. of course this was the only port we didn't arrange any ahead of time. we tried to get a dive there and couldn't. so you may want to make sure you look into it if you are going to Raiatea.

 

The islands in that area all seem to offer great dives and lots of good animals. I also forgot there are hundreds of giant clams as well and they are all these wild colors inside from purple to fushia to orange. As you can see I am still completely taken with these ports and it's one of those places you must return to.

 

Enjoy your dives!!