After visiting infers both, Rangi--its activities examines nickname--seemed like Paradise Found: a slow-paced haven for travelers who wonder what Polynesia was like before the hotel industry discovered it. The atoll, like its sister island Tahiti 200 miles southwest, is a French territory, and most of its 2,500 residents speak French or Tahitian. Rangi's residents always have depended on fishing for their livelihood. Tourism has begun to augment their incomes, but it's still small scale. Bora-Bora, less than half Rangiroa's size in area, has 1,000 hotel rooms. Rangi has about 160, with a range of accommodations from air-conditioned, over-the-water bungalows at $800 a night to guesthouses or rooms in private homes for about $100 daily. Most tourists arrive in summer, although the weather often is more pleasant in the fall, when hotel and airfare rates are lower. I stayed at a small inn, Les Relais de Josephine, paying $216 a night for an un-air-conditioned cottage with an extraordinary location overlooking Tiputa Pass and the twice-daily dolphin acrobatics show. The morning after my arrival, I boarded a skiff with about a dozen other tourists and spent more than an hour bouncing through choppy waters to Lagon Bleu, or Blue Lagoon. (No, not the one made famous by Brooke Shields in the 1980 film.
Blue Lagoons are as common on tropical islands as Main Streets are in the U. S. )The tour boat driver stopped about 50 yards from a picturesque islet crowned by swaying palms . The lagoon was so clear that I had no trouble spotting three black-tip sharks circling near the boat alba opera hotel . We would have to run a gantlet to get to the alluring white beach off the bow, but no one hesitated andrew webber phantom of the opera . I plowed ahead, wading through waist-deep water, keeping a wary eye on the three fins near me There were 13 sets of legs and only three sharks Not bad odds apartments . Besides, the sharks were small. Lagon Bleu, one of the most popular tourist excursions in Rangi, is a lagoon within a lagoon, a shallow turquoise pool carved into the reef on the northwestern edge of the main lagoon. It's ringed by motu, small islets, and offers myriad spots to snorkel. But most of us spent the morning crossing a sharp coral reef to l'ile des oiseaux, a bird sanctuary a couple of miles north where hundreds of gulls and other seabirds nest. The boat's crew used our absence to prepare a Polynesian-style lunch of grilled chicken and fish, rice, mango juice, corn and sweetbread cake.
It was a refreshing change from the French food served in most of Rangi's hotel restaurants . We ate at tables shaded by coconut palms, their fronds rustling in the breeze architecture opera house . Cumulus clouds drifted across a blue sky, and frigate birds coasted overhead on currents of air It was a perfect afternoon--almost area museums Winspear Opera House . The problem? Being on an uninhabited island with a dozen people I didn't know. Rangiroa is a honeymooner's dream art galleries Winspear Opera House - attpac . Winspear Opera House tickets It has miles of empty beaches and hundreds of deserted motu, where, if you have a boat, you can play Robinson Crusoe. Still, I got to know my tour companions a bit better during the day. And our chumminess ratcheted up tenfold as we departed the lagoon in the afternoon.
The crew had promised we'd see more sharks. About 200 yards offshore, the bold among us were told to go overboard if we wanted an intimate encounter with them. We clung together on a line near the boat while the crew tossed leftover food into the water 15 feet away art gallery . The sea in front of us erupted in a dizzying scene of fins and ripping teeth and flashing bodies as the sharks descended for an afternoon meal. I wished I had stayed onboard, but the frenzy was too compelling, and I had to look art museum . I counted more than two dozen sharks of varying sizes; most were black-tips, with some lemon sharks mixed in art museums Winspear Opera House - attpac . Both species have been known to attack humans, but they weren't interested in us with all that floating food. Later, back at Josephine's, the other guests and I swapped stories. My harrowing afternoon with the sharks didn't even place in the can-you-top-this competition.
Most had "shot the pass," a dive touted as "the world's greatest adrenaline rush," in which divers and snorkelers are carried through Tiputa Pass in the tidal surge between the ocean and lagoon . They're surrounded by a superhighway of marine life: white, gray and black-tipped sharks, manta rays, hammerheads, hawksbill turtles, barracudas, sailfish and the dolphins who make the pass their home bass opera house . The rip-current adventure is one reason Rangiroa ranks among the world's great dive destinations. The divers' stories were inspiring, but such adventures weren't for me baudelaire opera . I needed a land-based reprieve from the sun, so the next day I explored Rangi's two main villages: Tiputa, east of the main pass, and Avatoru, west of it. Although the towns are only about six miles apart, getting to them requires both boat and car bergere opera hotel . So I hitched a car ride into Avatoru and a boat ride into Tiputa Such travel is a fact of life for Rangi's residents. Because the atoll consists of so many islands, islets and sandbars--with about 100 narrow passages in the reef--travel is usually on water. "Most families own a boat, but not many own cars," said guide Estall, who grew up in Rangi. "If they don't have a car, they have a bicycle or a motor scooter . "Many islanders live in or near Avatoru, the larger village, which has a sprinkling of restaurants, churches, craft centers and tiny shops, such as Boutique Ikimasho, owned by Stephane and Shoko Froleau. A guest at the hotel had recommended the shop, which she said looked like a hot dog stand Indeed it did, but the setting was deceiving.
Stephane, an artist and jewelry designer, specializes in rare Polynesian black pearls . The pearls vary in hue from silver to dark gray, and they're pricey boheme . One of the finest necklaces in Stephane's shop was $8,353. Stephane is a Frenchman who found his way to Rangiroa via Australia seven years ago "It's a good place with an easy life," he said "There's no crime Everybody knows everybody The dolphins play every day in the current broadway . They like it as much as I do. " But he worries that the atoll will have more development "In 15 years it will be too late broadway plays . There will be too many hotels, too many tourists here. "My next stop was Tiputa, which I reached by hiring a water taxi for $20. The boatman let me out near the main dock, where a freighter was unloading and half a dozen boys were taking turns diving into the ocean The breeze had disappeared. The heat was stifling. I walked into the village, hoping to see some residents, but no one was in sight.
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