The Islands of French Polynesia
also known as Tahiti

Tahiti is an easy 7 1/2 hour direct flight from Los Angeles and just south of the equator, midway between Australia and South America. It is in the same time zone as Hawaii, but because it is in the Southern Hemisphere, the seasons are reversed.

Faaa, the international airport of Tahiti, is regularly served by frequent jet connections, linking Tahiti with the west coasts of the United States, New York, Japan and South America as well as with the Australasian region. The airport is a pleasant 10 minute drive from Papeete, the capital city.

Tahiti is only one link in a gleaming chain of five archipelagos with 118 islands scattered like jewels over an area the size of Europe. The total land area of these island and atolls adds up to only 1,544 sq. miles, and consists of five archipelagoes:

- the Society Islands,
- the Tuamotu atolls
- the Austral Islands,
- the Marquesas Islands, and the Gambier Islands.

The Society Archipelago is itself divided up in 2 parts:

- the "Windward Islands", consisting of 4 high islands including Tahiti or "Love Island" ( itself divided into 2 islands,Tahiti Nui the large one, and Tahiti Iti, the small one), Moorea and Tetiaora.

- the "Leeward Islands", 200 km from Tahiti, include Huahine , Bora Bora , Raiatea /Tahaa and Maupiti.

The Tuamotu Archipelago to the east of Society archipelago is the largest of all with a surface of 600 sq. miles. It consists of 80 atolls which are ring shaped coral islands surrounding a lagoon. Rangiroa is the widest atoll of this archipelago and those of Manihi , Fakarava, and Tikehau are the main ones.

The Austral Archipelago consist of 5 high islands south of Tahiti with a distance of 160 to 230 km separating them. These high islands with a sharp mountainous relief are surrounded by a coral reef either at the coast level itself (fringing reef) or at the ocean level (barrier reef). The farthest island from Tahiti, Rapa is 1500 km from Papeete.

The Marquesas Archipelago is located 1500 km north-east from Tahiti and consists of 9 islands with hilly relief and no lagoon.

The Gambier Archipelago extends towards the southwest of the Tuamotu archipelago and has about ten small high islands.

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