Tuamotus Itinerary

Sorry – no pictures this time but wanted to cover our plan for the Tuamtous. We arrived in Fakarava and had roughly 6 days before our son, George, and his girlfriend arrived. We decided to use the time to scope out a number of islands so that we could put together a good itinerary for them after their arrival.

We liked Fakarava but did not have time to go to the South Pass which is reputed to be remote and lovely. While we liked the town of Rotoava, it was not generally something we would have sought out but Deb had a good time and made lots of friends and we had a great meal at Havaiki.

It was then off in short order to Taou. Our nickname was Terrible Taou – something Steelers fans will get. The pass was miserable with breaking seas up to 2 miles offshore. The inside wasn’t much better and we talked to a megayacht Carry Ali who was anchored there as well. Their experience was as bad as ours. We watched the pass for 24 hours and it never got any better. We finally took our beating and left. Since Taou had been recommended, we were at a loss until someone told us that there is a false pass that does not connect with the lagoon that offers great snorkeling and a safe, but high current anchorage. Wish we had known about it but would not make an effort to go there based on our experience.

Next was Apataki where we had a good experience but the town and pass by the town are to be avoided. Safe entry is on the north end of the island and their are some wonderful beaches in this area but they are only tenable in light winds and not the SE trades. The highlight is Assam’s place and I will do a separate post on that.

From there it was back to Fakarave to meet son George. At that point, our plan of attack was Fakarave, Apataki, Rangiroa and Tikeau.

Frankly, Apataki was OK. Rangiroa was horrible – bad weather, bad anchorages and lots of wind. While other islands had much of the same, we wouldn’t go back to Rainyroa again (our nickname). As far as Tikehau, we never got there. Might be nice but we lost so much time to bad water in Rainyroa, the plans changed to head back to Fakarava.

Good move. Even better when we went to the South Pass in settled weather. Will be doing a lot more posts on this, but if I were doing FP again with just 90 days allowed on our visa, I would follow Steve Dashew’s advice to me – pick one or two spots in the Tuamotus and stay there. I agree in spades and Fakarava is our unanimous choice.

Cheers