During our recent stay in French Polynesia, we visited the Tuamotu Islands. Rangiroa is one of these islands and we spent 5 days at Hotel Kia Ora Resort & Spa. The island of Rangiroa is famous for its Blue Lagoon, which is an absolutely amazing place! Read on to see photos and read about our experience at Blue Lagoon – Rangiroa.
During our stay, we had decided to just relax, but in the end we booked an excursion through the hotel. We did a full day excursion to the Blue Lagoon with snorkelling and picnic/barbecue lunch included.
It takes approximately 1 ½ hour to go and over 2 to come back, and boats are the only way. When you arrive, the boat anchors a bit far from the shore, and you need to walk (with water that gets up to your knees) to the beach. Keep this in mind when deciding what to bring.
The weather was not the best and it also rained a bit in the morning. Luckily it became sunny after lunch. The Blue Lagoon is a spectacular place.
It is a remote area of the Rangiroa Lagoon with tiny islands and a couple of beach shacks used to prepare food.
The colour of the sea is hard to describe and the photos do not do it justice at all. You would need filters for the lens, it is that bright!
Look at the colour of the water!
The lagoon is famous for its birds – there are so many!
And for its baby sharks.
My kids were quite scared of sharks… living in Australia, we get our good share of shark attacks, so I can’t blame them, so it was great to see them slowly relax and enter the water to see them from close.
By the end of the day, they were not scared anymore… so much so, that they even touched one!
There were also lots of other funny animals to see.
The food was nice. There was fish (both grilled and raw marinated in coconut water), grilled chicken, coconut bread, 2 different kinds of rice. There was even coconut cake!
The people running the excursion played some traditional music.
They also taught us some local crafts, and we all had a good time.
Up until it was time to go back. Then the nightmare began. I am usually sea sick, so I have medication for it. I am talking about prescription medications, not the bland over the counter ones. Well, the sea was not choppy… it was tempestuous. The little boat (because, let’s face it… it was TINY – just for 12 people – for a 2 hour journey) was literally flying and then landing with big bangs and splashes on the water. I think a roller coaster would have been better. At one point, I thought I would even fly off the boat as there was barely room to hold on to. Well… both my eldest daughter and I got sick, and that AFTER taking my meds.
To be honest, we were given waterproof jackets to wear. They also have life jackets, but strangely enough we were not given any on the terrible ride back! Do insist on wearing one, it is no joke!
By the time we got back, we were all completely soaked and sick. The last snorkelling stop originally planned at the passe was skipped as the water was too choppy to even anchor and dive in, and we all just wanted to go back.
After that day, all excursions were suspended until the weather improved. Which did not happen during our stay. So, if you want to go on any excursion, book as soon as possible, otherwise you may not be able to go.
My suggestion is, if you suffer even slightly from sea sickness, only go when there’s not much wind, or be prepared for the worst!! Alternatively, insist on going on a bigger boat, the one we took was way too small and strangely enough, there were even smaller boats from other groups! I have no idea how they managed to get back.
I would have preferred the hotel staff to give us better advice about the excursion. I personally don’t think it was suitable for young kids with that weather (the staff knew about weather and wind conditions, but they did not tell us the sea would be THAT rough and we had specifically asked).
Would I do it again? Probably not. However, I am glad I did, as the Blue Lagoon was amazing.
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