#82223 - 08/31/09 11:36 AM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: Old Wife]
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Peter 2
Member
Registered: 03/12/05
Posts: 164
Loc: Hong Kong, Hong Kong
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wow... 7 drift snorkels. I'm jealous! lol Unfortunately the weather had been pretty bad on the first 4 nights until the last 2 days it finally became sunny. The sea was very choppy on the first 4 nights, the current was very strong and the wind was blowing so hard, so I only did 1 drift snorkel and 4 dives during the 6 nights stay. You are right, right after Fakarava, I don't know where else to go in Tahiti. Maybe Tikehau? Please let me know after you figure out. I will follow you. lol
By the way, the owner of Tetamanu Village told us that Bill Gates was at the south pass for diving couple days before we arrived, and a helicopter took him back right after he finished diving. I don't know if it is true since I have never heard that Bill Gates is into diving. One thing I am pretty sure is Paris Hilton stayed a week at Bora Bora Nui Hilton in August. I was surprsied to hear that she had to take Air Tahiti to Bora Bora and wondered if she had her own private jet like the other celebrities. Couple of royal families went to Tahiti with their private jets. One jet was out of order and they had to charter a plane from Air Tahiti.
Edited by Peter 2 (08/31/09 02:41 PM)
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#82227 - 08/31/09 12:09 PM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: Peter 2]
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Old Wife
Expert Advisor
Registered: 02/21/03
Posts: 2302
Loc: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
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LOL, Peter, about your jet being out of order. Isn't it amazing how the other 1% live?
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#82230 - 08/31/09 02:18 PM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: Old Wife]
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Peter 2
Member
Registered: 03/12/05
Posts: 164
Loc: Hong Kong, Hong Kong
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lol, oh I wish I had my own private jet :-) I forgot to mention that the royal families are from Middle East, not Hong Kong though. :-(
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#82232 - 08/31/09 03:15 PM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: Peter 2]
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Gary & Cath
Expert Advisor
Registered: 04/01/06
Posts: 1243
Loc: Wollongong, Australia
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Thanks for the video links, Peter. Don't you just love the Napolean's? I'll post some when we get back from Tikehau and Manihi in December. My camera is good for 40m (about 130ft) so I'm hoping to get some photos or video of some Hammerheads. As for the private jet - can we borrow yours so we can check into Le Taha'a early?
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Is there anything better than a sipping a Tahitian Mai Tai on an Overwater Bungalow in FP?
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#82233 - 08/31/09 04:05 PM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: Gary & Cath]
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Poehere
Expert Advisor
Registered: 08/18/07
Posts: 2340
Loc: FP
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Hi Peter, Paris Hilton "inaugurated" the new presidential suites at the BBNui, the Emir of Quatar chartered the government's AirOscar one (those days AirFLosse one) an ATR plane as his own can't land in BB...
Hmmmmm you know Makemo is rather nice too a bit out of the way or I had some good dives at Hao, really out of the way but one of the most dangerous passes around filled up to the brim with sharks and a current that is worse than Magic Mountain
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#82270 - 09/04/09 06:01 PM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: Poehere]
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Peter 2
Member
Registered: 03/12/05
Posts: 164
Loc: Hong Kong, Hong Kong
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Gary & Cath, I love the Napoleons a lot. They look like they are a kind of intelligent although they are not mammal like dolphin, especially when they roll their ping-pong eyeballs around at different angles like chameleon. They had great curiosity and always tried to check me out by swimming closely to see what I was doing when I was snorkeling. One time when I was paying so much attention to photo some fishes in about 3 meter deep (free dive), one huge adult napoleon suddenly appeared right behind me in less than 4 feet to see what I was doing. I was a kind of shock to see it getting so close! I always looked at my back from time to time when taking underwater photo to make sure no sharks were swimming too close to me, but I didn’t expect the huge napoleon! The owner of Tetamanu, Annabelle told me that if the napoleons got used to having me around, it will eventually let me pat. However, it still didn't happen after 6 days even though I tried so hard not to aggressively approach them (I only let them approach me). Maybe 6 days wasn't enough. :p Although I went to so many diving spots in Maldives, Palau, Malaysia, Philippine, Indonesia, etc, I have never seem a single hammerhead in wildlife. Hope you can get some nice video and share with us.
Poehere, I guess Paris Hilton was a kind of unlucky like us since we were at BB at about the same time but different hotels and the weather was so bad during our stay. Never again I will go to Tahiti in August! I guess April-May and Sept-Nov are the better months to go, less crowded, better weather and not too cold to do some water sports. Every time after at least 3 hours snorkeling, I was shivering a lot! (no, not kidding, I stayed in water nonstop 3-4 hrs every time and twice daily.) Annabelle told me that she had never seen a guy as crazy as me 15 years at Tetamanu Village) I'm a true fish freak ;-)
I'm going to check out Makemo! When you talk about "danger", I have a long story to tell:
When we landed on Fakarava airport on that day, it was a kind of late because of flight delays from Bora Bora and Rangiroa. We didn't get on the Tetamanu boat till around 5:15pm after another 15-20 mins ride by a pick-up truck to the private pier from the airport. The boat ride to Tetamanu Village was very horrifying! We went through a serious storm area in the middle of the ocean (actually lagoon, but doesn’t make much difference since the lagoon is huge like ocean) couple of times with strong wave, wind and heavy rain. The worse thing was it was totally dark (we could barely see anything), the boat driver could hardly speak any English (no communications with the guests at all) and the tall wave was hitting the boat so hard. Although the boat has a cover, my whole body was all wet. The fragile looking wooden boat does NOT have a windshield wiper, not even any lighting system to light up the path on the sea. The driver had to stick his whole head out of the 2 x 2 feet square hole on the roof above his seat to see the path. I was sitting right behind the driver; the waves smashed hard against the front of the boat and seawater went through all the way on top of the roof, rushed into the square hole and poured all over me from head to toe! The 2 and a half hour boat ride was like a torture! I could sometimes feel that my butt was in the air when the boat was bumping up and down like roller coaster even though my both hands were grabbing the bench so hard and tight. The other couple from Argentina was so frightened and was asking the driver to go back to the airport after 1 and a 1/2 hour in the middle of the ocean. I told the husband to sit down first, clam himself down and tried to comfort his wife, and also told him it was very dangerous for him to stand up as the boat was very shaky and his elbow already hit me couple of times accidentally right on my head when he tried to balance himself. I explained to him that we were in the middle of the ocean for about 1 and a half hour already and there was no way we could return. It would be even more dangerous to go through the storm area again if we returned. I could see the driver was paying 100% attention on the sea and I didn’t want him to be disturbed by the Argentina guy. We were so scared that the boat would hit on something like reef, big rocks or animals like whales (it could happen although rarely), and then we would definitely die! It was the very first time ever in my life I felt my life was being threatened. I thought I was going to die in the middle of the ocean! If the boat really sank, there was no way we could be alive even with life jacket!!! The boat driver looks young and inexperienced, and doesn’t speak English at all. He didn’t tell us to put on a life jacket and raincoat although they are somewhere in the boat and didn’t even say a single word in the whole journey until we asked him how much longer we would get to Tetamanu Village. Our life was totally on a young, inexperienced-looking stranger’s hand. Thank God my wife wasn’t there; we actually went to Tahiti together with the other couple from HK (my diving buddy friend and his wife) as well. My wife returned back to Hong Kong with my friend’s wife after 2 nights at Moorea and 5 nights at Bora Bora since the 2 spoiled girls were not into the rustic places like Tetamanu Village. At that moment on the boat, I felt so regretted to make a wrong decision to come to Fakarava, and even tried to apologize to my friend on the boat for putting him into a very life threatening situation.
If it wasn’t because of the total darkness, the language barrier with the driver and the irritated movement by the Argentina guy, we probably wouldn’t be that frightened, Anyway, we finally arrived safely after the 2 and a half hour torture. Annabelle greeted us warmly with his husband Sane. We wanted to blame them for not putting us in the pension near the airport for 1 night even though they knew the weather situation and the time was not suitable for the boat ride, but we decided not to. The first thing we wanted was some hot drink and to change our clothes as we were all cold and wet although the dinner was ready with food spreading on the table….. Two days later Annabelle told me that the guests at Raimiti who arrived from the same flight and same evening as we did got very angry with the owner of the Raimiti since the boat at Raimiti doesn’t even have a roof or cover like the boat at Tetamanu Village. The guests at Raimiti also didn’t stay at the main island near the airport and arrived Raimiti but 1 hour later than we did even though Raimiti is a shorter journey (Tetamanu is further south). I don’t know if it is true or she tried to tell us something like we were not in the worst situation compared with the guests at Raimiti. Can anyone confirm if the boat at Riamiti has a roof/cover? If it really doesn’t have a cover, then I really have sympathy for them! ............................
(DETAIL REPORT WITH PHOTOS WILL CONTINUE).
Tips: if you arrive late at Fakarava and the weather is bad, then you should insist to stay 1 night at the pension near Fakarava Airport. Don’t get on the boat. Tell them to pick you up again the next day during daytime otherwise you will be regretted.
Edited by Peter 2 (09/04/09 06:41 PM)
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#82271 - 09/04/09 09:59 PM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: Peter 2]
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holte
Expert Advisor
Registered: 11/19/04
Posts: 2365
Loc: Duluth, Minnesota
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Interesting report!
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#82272 - 09/05/09 05:46 AM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: holte]
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Old Wife
Expert Advisor
Registered: 02/21/03
Posts: 2302
Loc: Burlington, Ontario, Canada
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Peter, Raimiti has more than one boat. When they picked us up at the airport, they brought a large boat with a roof. They had told us they wouldn't drive the boat in the dark because it was too dangerous so I'm surprised they did. I guess it gets difficult if a plane ends up very late and they wait for it.
Your boat driver might have seemed young and inexperienced but remember these guys grow up around boats and start driving them at a very young age and have a ton of experience even though they look young (I know that's hard to realize when you're in such a dangerous situation). I'm glad you got there safely (even though very wet!).
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#82276 - 09/05/09 12:29 PM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: Old Wife]
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holte
Expert Advisor
Registered: 11/19/04
Posts: 2365
Loc: Duluth, Minnesota
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My friend and I were talking about how when we were growing up in Northern Minnesota, she would take a boat out on the lake at her parent's lake home when she was 7 years old and be gone for the day exploring. Nowadays, we would demand that those parents be investigated! Things have change so much over the years. So I agree with Old Wife that these young people know water like the back of their hands. However, that doesn't mean that they have the maturity to make the best decisions as research has shown that the brain does not mature until about age 25.
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#82297 - 09/08/09 03:30 PM
Re: Another nice accommodation in Fakarava
[Re: holte]
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Peter 2
Member
Registered: 03/12/05
Posts: 164
Loc: Hong Kong, Hong Kong
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Holte and old wife, I understand what you are talking about, but we were all very panic and were all scared by the outlook of the fragile looking, hand-made wooden boat even though we all can swim pretty well. No to mention if the boat could have hit on something in the ocean, we all even thought about what if the engine broke down in the middle of the journey, we could have died too! We didn't even dare to raise this issue until we safely got to Tetamanu Village. When I finally raised this question on dinner table, the Argentina couples and my diving buddy said they all did think about the same thing too!
Don’t get me wrong, although the boat ride was horrible, I still miss Tetamanu Village and the South pass a lot and would definitely go back there if I have a chance. But if you ask me if it is worth to put myself in this kind of unnecessary/unfortunate situation, the answer is “definitely NOT”!
During the horrifying boat journey, the Argentina guy told me that his wife had an urge to pee, and I answered him “Who care, we are all wet already, just tell her to piss. We don’t care at all!”, then he replied me immediately “She already did it!” LOL.. If it happened to be my honeymoon with my wife, I guess the first thing she would do to me when she got back was to get divorced. LOL… I guess all the pensions near the south pass are not very suitable for honeymoon as they are too far from the airport, and the places are really rustic. However, for me, this is exactly what I like about Tetamanu Village – THE RUSTIC CHARM, especially for a guy like me who brought up in a big city like Hong Kong full of skyscrapers.
If this is not what your wife / fiancée is looking for and if any of you have seasick easily, then it is better to stay at the more popular and convenience destinations like Moorea, Bora Bora or Rangiroa for honeymoon. Up to this moment, I still haven’t told my wife what I went through, I’m afraid she will ban me from going to Tahiti! LOL..
Sorry that I still don’t have enough time to upload the pics to shutterfly, but hopefully this coming weekend I will have more time to do so. Cheers!
Edited by Peter 2 (09/08/09 03:33 PM)
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