Coverage / French Polynesia
French Polynesia
Polynesia
A French overseas collectivity of 118 islands scattered across five archipelagos in the South Pacific, French Polynesia is famous for the turquoise lagoons and volcanic peaks of the Society Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora), the shark-filled coral passes of the Tuamotu atolls, and a living culture of black pearls, tattoo, himene song and outrigger canoe racing. Papeete on Tahiti is the capital and gateway, and each July the Heiva festival keeps Maohi dance and drumming at the centre of island life.
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What you can do in French Polynesia
Scuba Diving
- FakaravaMay Jun Jul Aug Sep OctFakarava is where you drift a coral pass inside a shark kingdom. The atoll is a UNESCO Man and Biosphere reserve, and its southern channel, Tumakohua, funnels the whole lagoon's tide through a narrow cut where hundreds of grey reef sharks hang in the current in what divers call the wall of sharks. Come the June and July full moons, thousands of camouflage grouper mass here to spawn and the sharks hunt them in a nightly frenzy that has drawn film crews from around the world. The northern Garuae pass, the biggest in the country, adds manta cleaning stations, big schooling fish and its own shark packs. You dive both passes on the incoming tide, carried over coral gardens that have never been commercially damaged, and between dives the village of Rotoava and the tiny hamlet of Tetamanu sit almost alone on the reef.
- RangiroaApr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct NovRangiroa is the classic Tuamotu pass dive, a giant atoll where the whole lagoon breathes through two narrow channels and pulls the big animals with it. On an incoming tide at the Tiputa pass you fly over the reef with the current while grey reef sharks, eagle rays and schools of barracuda hold station around you, and a resident pod of bottlenose dolphins comes to surf the flow and play with divers, one of the few places in the world where that happens reliably. In the cooler months great hammerheads and manta rays move through, and the outer walls fall away into deep blue. Between dives the lagoon itself is a draw, from the pink sand motu to the natural aquarium shallows, and the passes work again on the outgoing tide for a completely different dive.
Witness / Attend
- Hawaiki Nui Va'aBora BoraOct NovThe Hawaiki Nui Va'a finishes in the Bora Bora lagoon, and there is no better place to witness the biggest event in Polynesian sport. The va'a, the outrigger canoe, is the vessel that carried the first settlers across the Pacific, and this race is its modern proving ground: six-person crews paddle an 80-mile open-ocean course over three days, from Huahine to Raiatea, on to Tahaa and finally across to Bora Bora, battling swell, current and each other with no motor and no rest. The finish under the peak of Otemanu, as painted canoes sprint the last stretch into the lagoon and the crowds line the beach and the boats, is a raw, emotional spectacle that fills the island. Come for the finale and you also get Bora Bora itself, the postcard lagoon, the coral gardens and the drumming and dancing that welcome the paddlers home.
- Heiva i TahitiPapeeteJulHeiva i Tahiti is the beating heart of the Tahitian cultural year, and Papeete is where you witness it. Across two weeks each July, district troupes of hundreds of dancers and drummers compete at the open-air To'ata amphitheatre on the Papeete waterfront, staging the ori Tahiti dance forms, the layered himene choral singing and the thunder of the to'ere log drums, in costumes woven from plant fibre and shell. First held in 1881, Heiva began as a celebration tied to the July festivities and grew into a fiercely contested competition that has kept Maohi language, legend and dance alive through generations. Sitting in the crowd as a group tells an ancestral story through synchronised movement, judged on choreography, costume and chant, is the single best way to understand Polynesian culture from the inside. Around the main stage the festival spreads into sport, craft and canoe events across the city.
Best months at a glance
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