Rangiroa, French Polynesia: a walk across an island and back

Rangiroa is actually an atoll, the largest in French Polynesia and the second largest globally. Other than tourism, its primary sources of revenue are being one of the greatest dive destinations and the breeding of pearl oysters, including legendary black pearls.

Since we do not dive and the only Black Pearl we are interested in is already owned by a certain Captain J. Sparrow, that left being tourists and doing a walk across the atoll. A note about walking and French Polynesia: it’s tropical and the weather is WARM. We found out later the area was experiencing an unusual heat wave. So even the locals claim it is HOT and HUMID. Being the intrepid travelers we are, a little heat wasn’t going to stop us. Once again, common sense was not top of the list.

The port is a single long concrete dock that we tendered to.

We shared the lagoon with another ship.

The Aranui 5, the other ship in the lagoon, is an interesting vessel. Built as a hybrid in 2015, it is half cruise ship, half freighter. It does 12-day cruises around French Polynesia and other islands while also delivering freight to a number of local ports.

Off we went, hiking across the atoll. Good News: hiking all the way across the atoll involved about a 25-minute stroll down a paved street. Bad News: did I mention it was very HOT and HUMID?