Dive trip Raiatea and Taha'a Islands

Stay, Diving holidays in Polynesia, on Raiatea and Taha'a Islands

Raiatea is an island you don't hear much about before organizing your diving trip in Polynesia.On landing, when you see the immense intense blue lagoon that surrounds it with Taha'a, the neighboring island, you fall in love with these two Leeward Islands, belonging to the Society Archipelago, located 201 km from Tahiti.On the mountainside, Raiatea is of wild and unspoiled beauty with its lush vegetation and its navigable river the Faroa'a, where you can take excursions by pirogue, and which flows into the very enclosed bay of the same name.On the seaside, the white sandy beaches with coconut palms can be found on the motus that stretch into the lagoon that Raiatea shares with Tahaa, 4.5 km away.There is a boat taxi service to reach them from the airport unless the hotel or pension takes care of your transfer.

Raiatea and Taha'a are also popular for exceptional sea trips when humpback whales are passing through Polynesian waters.During the boat trips, it is possible to see these whales probing, with their tails emerging from the water.Underwater, while diving, one can sometimes hear the males singing as they communicate with each other to call the females.Whether one is a diver or not, everyone is amazed by these observations of cetaceans in their natural environment.Whale sharks can also sometimes be seen.

It is a real pleasure to start diving in such an environment, with tropical temperatures, superb corals and colorful fauna, in the heart of the South Pacific Ocean.Diving vacations in Raiatea and Taha'a also allow you to program explorations in the passes and on the outer slope of the barrier reef with caves, where the pelagic fauna including sharks, barracudas, and jacks pass through. Initiations, training, and specializations can also be carried out in local diving schools.

Marine species in the area

Dive sites

Your playground as a diver is vast here! On the west coast of Raiatea, for example, Miri miri has beautiful clear waters with a concentration of fish including blacktip sharks, schools of paddlefish and woodcock, as well as napoleons.
At Raoto Nui Pass, on the west coast, there is a large school of barracudas, quite sedentary, with occasional passage of leopard rays.
On the east coast of Raiatea, The Roses is a truly spectacular dive site. After a beautiful descent into the blue, imagine a splendid carpet of large coral volutes, rolled up like flower petals, crossed by squadrons of big tuna and sometimes with hammerhead sharks in the blue.
We cross the Teavapiti Pass from one side to the other, on the east coast, depending on the tidal current.Expect a real festival of napoleons, white tip sharks, blacktip sharks and grey sharks with schools of jacks and barracudas. Sometimes beautiful manta rays appear in the blue.

The east coast of Raiatea is also famous for its grey sharks often present on The Rairas.The Nordby Raiatea is a splendid three-masted ship, 60 m long, which sank on 22 August 1900. The rigging, with two masts on the three initial ones, as well as the hull, are in good condition.It is possible to enter it, according to the prerogatives of each level, through the gutted wooden deck in the middle of schools of surgeonfish, coachmen and bighead jacks.
The superstructures are well colonized with black corals, encrusting sponges of all colors and spondyles.Shrimp hides in the dark corners and many varieties of nudibranchs crawl over the remains. Beautiful night dives are to be expected here, in perspective, within the light of lamp, Pterois, stonefish and angelfish couples.

On the east side of Taha'a, drift through Cera Pass, a very fishy pass with barracudas, surgeons, and jacks, with its rocky pinnacle covered with yellow coral.
The Octopus Hole is the entrance to a cave, full of stalactites, 24 m deep, on the lagoon side. According to local mythology, the history of Polynesia would have begun here.
On the northern slope of Taha'a, far from the two passes, the Tao-Tao site, presents very beautiful coral in very clear water with a visibility of 50 meters. The atmosphere is wild with schools of perch, paddlefish, and barracudas. Sometimes lemon sharks patrol here.
On the west side of Taha'a, at Tiva Pass, we make a beautiful drift along a drop-off, crossed by napoleons, barracudas, barnacles, rays and grey sharks...

Very nice snorkeling trips are made from the dive boat, on the sites, drifting on the edges of the passes.
From Raiatea and Taha'a, we go to the south of Bora Bora, less than an hour away by boat, for 2 dives at Tupitipiti, a superb drop off covered with gorgonians and overflown by leopard rays.In your calendar, don't forget to note the passage of humpback whales in Raiatea, from the end of August to the end of November.After 3 months of a long migration over a distance of 6,000 km, they come here to reproduce and give birth.You will be touched by the superb spectacle of newborn calves, weighing 1 ton and 4 meters tall. It's all in the excessiveness since they ingest 500 liters of milk per day while standing close to their mothers who themselves weigh 25 tons and are 12 meters long!