The South Pass

Here we are, at the entrance to the South pass of Fakarava atoll. The main village of Fakarava, together with the airport, is at the North end, but the South pass is home to a few resorts and dive outfits. This is apparently THE place for diving in the Tuamotus. Why is that? We are about to find out.

We had so many marvellous days of snorkelling at Kauehi, so fabulous that I personally rated one of the coral heads as one of the top ten best ever snorkels. The abundance and variety of fish was amazing. We saw black tip reef sharks, gastropods such as cowries and conch, lots of stony corals and the first time I have seen mushroom corals, an amazingly large crown of thorns starfish, hundreds of bivalves including the very colourful giant clams, nudibranches, a huge moray eel and tons of reef fish; many I had never seen before. It was an underwater wonderland.

We organised our diving yesterday and will head out to the pass tomorrow afternoon to follow the incoming tide. It will be a drift dive, meaning no swimming required as we will simply drift in with the current. Matthias, our dive master, has been diving here for more than two years. He promises us an excellent dive.

What makes this area such a good place for diving is that the incoming tide brings with it a lot of the large ocean fish looking for food (which hopefully we are not on their menu). The coral along the edges of the pass attracts the reef fish and is also a good place for spawning, egg laying and for juvenile fish to hide out in.

We did a pre-dive recon in the dinghy and jumped in with our snorkelling gear just before the breaking waves at the entrance to the pass. Jens tied the dinghy to his arm and we did a drift snorkel riding on the incoming tide. How fun was that! It was better than any amusement park ride I have been on that's for sure. There were areas where the current was quite strong so it was really like flying under water. What a feeling. What incredible sights we saw. My new all time favourite fish is the majestic Napoleon fish. OMG!!! They are incredible. Literally brought tears to my eyes to see these large beauties so close up and just as curious about us as we were of them. The Napoleon also known as the Humphead Wrass are the largest in the wrass family and grow to be as big as 230cm long (7'6") weighing up to 200kg (440lbs). At this point I am not sure how the dive tomorrow will exceed our experiences so far.