FAKARAVA
THE ATOLL OF FAKARAVA
Fakarava is the second greatest atoll of all French Polynesia, next to Rangiroa. Located at 16°19’60 latitude south and 145°37’ longitude in the Tuamotu archipelago, the most elongated of archipelagos, Fakarava is an hour flight from Tahiti and a 35 minute flight from Rangiroa. Shaped as a rectangle, 60 km long and 25 km wide, its reef crown is composed of several little islands.
Fakarava has main villages : Rotoava, in the North where the airport is located and near the great pass Garuae. The second village of Fakarava, Tetamanu is located south of the atoll near Tumakohua pass. It was the main village in the early 1900’s. Idyllic, this site where Tetamanu Village and Tetamanu Savage are implanted, offers magnificent beaches with pink sands islands. Several remains can be found at Tetamanu such as the first Tuamotu church made out of coral, built in 1874, which testifies of a rich past.
The flagship product of the island is scuba diving, wich reserves its lot of thrills. The sites are almost virgin and a great concentration of lagoon wildlife and pelagics, such as groupers, barracudas, rays and the unforgettable grey and hammerhead sharks can be observed.
The southern pass, Tumakohua at Tetamanu, is filled with fish, and is accessible to all levels of diving. The dive center Tetamanu Dive proposes drift dives along the pass. This protected atoll forms part, along with its six neighboring islands, of which initially taiaro, of a biosphere reserve indexed by Unesco, which testifies of the wealth of the ecosystem of its atolls : a wildlife and flora particularly rare, with kingfisher hunter, Tuamotu palm tree, and, in lagoons, specimens of crustaceans such as squillls or coconut tree crabs.
The flagship product of the island is scuba diving, wich reserves its lot of thrills. The sites are almost virgin and a great concentration of lagoon wildlife and pelagics, such as groupers, barracudas, rays and the unforgettable grey and hammerhead sharks can be observed.
The southern pass, Tumakohua at Tetamanu, is filled with fish, and is accessible to all levels of diving. The dive center Tetamanu Dive proposes drift dives along the pass. This protected atoll forms part, along with its six neighboring islands, of which initially taiaro, of a biosphere reserve indexed by Unesco, which testifies of the wealth of the ecosystem of its atolls : a wildlife and flora particularly rare, with kingfisher hunter, Tuamotu palm tree, and, in lagoons, specimens of crustaceans such as squillls or coconut tree crabs.