16.08.2016 Rangiroa # Time to relax

After the quite exhausting, because packed, last days it was finally time to bring some peace. What could be better for it than a small atoll in the middle of the South Pacific? No idea, so let's take that.

After Beni from Fare Suisse brought us to the airport and also provided us with interesting insights into the lifestyle of Tahitians, we experienced probably the fastest check-in of all times. From entering the building to receiving the boarding passes it took less than 3 minutes. So prebooking paid off.

We then flew to Rangiroa with an ATR 72 of Air Tahiti, which looked like it could accommodate at most a model airplane from the air after a 50-minute flight. The atoll measures only a few hundred meters at its widest point. So you can hear the surf from one side roaring on the other side. Although that also makes quite a noise.

We are now staying for six days with Alain at Pension Bounty. Since I had contacted our host by phone in the morning, the pick-up worked smoothly and the destination was reached after a short drive. The bungalows are quite cozy and equipped for self-catering. Since we only booked accommodation with breakfast, we were more than happy with that. Although you can also have dinner with Alain, which costs more than €30 per person. But as we are not sure how far our budget will go, from the second evening onwards we decided on the cheaper option and cook ourselves. With the free bicycles from the pension, shopping in the nearby shop, which is 5 minutes away, is completely problem-free.

On the island itself, not much is happening, partygoers are completely out of place here. There are a few hotels, restaurants and snack bars, souvenir and grocery stores as well as several diving bases and a pearl farm with an associated shop. That was also the only tourist highlight that we treated ourselves to.

If you don't go diving, you can explore the area wonderfully by bike. There is very little traffic and the risk of getting lost is relatively low, with only one road. Almost everyone greets you when passing by, friendly people. Otherwise, it's like Saturday afternoon in Brandenburg, pretty empty. I think we are currently the only Germans on the island. You meet many French people, logically, Italians and Americans. Oh, and Japanese, but they are everywhere anyway.

We completed our two diving days with two dives each at "Six passengers". All absolutely nice people who made it clear that they wanted to pass on their enjoyment of work to their customers. Here you mainly dive in a pass, i.e. at a point where the atoll is interrupted. Due to the constant tidal water exchange between the inner and outer reef, there is almost always a tremendous current there. This sometimes means quite rough rides in the dinghy to the dive site with waves up to 3m high, but it also attracts plenty of big fish.

During the first dive we were able to admire a school of dolphins that came without fear right up to the mask. These dolphins are territorial and if you don't dive, you can watch them playing in the high waves in the pass from the shore every day. There were also plenty of barracudas and sharks, especially white and black tips, but also large gray reef sharks and our first hammerhead shark. Unfortunately too far away to capture it with the GoPro. We were particularly happy about the encounters with eagle rays and mantas, you don't see that every day.

All in all, we could have gone diving much more often, but here too, it was important not to lose sight of the budget. We still have a few destinations ahead of us.

We spent most of our time cycling, swimming or just chilling out to the fullest. I think we haven't been so relaxed in a long time. It was probably a wise decision to just let our souls dangle.

Tomorrow it will be time to change quarters again. We fly to Fakarava, another atoll. Let's see what awaits us there.

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