Port 13 Rangiroa, French Polynesia

by Ed · Published February 8, 2022 · Updated August 22, 2022

Ia orana! (Hello in Tahitian! It is pronounced “yo-rah-nah”)

One more day at sea to reach Rangiroa, French Polynesia. We arrive at Rangiroa on Jan 27th, 2022. Rangiroa is an atoll northeast of Tahiti, so it doesn’t have the spectacular rock faces and mountain peaks of the other volcanic islands. We enter the lagoon at an opening in the atoll at Tiputa. The portion of the atoll between Tiputa and Rangiroa on the map below is where we visit and is also where the airport is located. The lagoon itself is so large the entire island of Tahiti will fit inside of it.

Rangiroa is an atoll northeast of Tahiti-nui

Surprisingly, we enter the narrow opening at nearly full speed! The opening is narrow but must be deep for the pilot to have that level of confidence! People watch us coming in from a party deck at the entrance.

We are greeted by a few people at the mouth of the atoll entrance

As we enter the lagoon the sun begins painting the eastern sky. You can clearly see how flat the atoll is! And you can see how narrow the entrance to the lagoon is, on the left.

The sun starts to color the eastern horizon as we enter the lagoon

We set anchor as the sky lightens up, and we can see the atoll stretching miles to the north.

The Rangiroa atoll

We tender in to the island. I like this view of the ship’s name!

Tender’s crewman looks out at Insignia

The island is simple. No large hotels or commercial stores. No waterfront restaurants or Margaritaville bars. Nice and quiet, except for an occasional motor scooter or the “beep beep beep” of a truck backing up from the pier.

We don’t have an excursion planned, but ask if we can be added to the “Discover Tahitian Black Pearls” tour. We are asked to come back in a half hour to see if someone would drop out. So we take a walk down this road to the “other side” of the island. It’s a very short walk from the lagoon to the Pacific Ocean!

Rangiroa’s port “town”

On the way to the “other side” we spot this lovely driveway to a local resort hotel.

Resort entrance

Reaching the Pacific Ocean we find a slightly rugged beach – not crystalline sand, but sand and rock. This lone tree catches my eye!

Solitary tree faces the Pacific Ocean

We take this opportunity to document that Luli’s Law is on the go in Rangiroa!

Luli’s Law visits Rangiroa! And, yes, we wear masks everywhere.

At the appointed time we return to the pier and are told they can fit us on the tour! Two vans from Gauguin’s Pearl Farm are ready to take us to the shop.

Our tour is to visit Gauguin’s Pearl Farm

Po’ima is our tour guide. She opens a “sacrificed” oyster to demonstrate the process used to cultivate black pearls. The black-lipped oyster is the choice for its ability to create a multitude of colors. The black mantle inside the oyster and around the main oyster body is responsible for creating the colors on the pearl. What was most interesting is that the seed “nucleus” used to start a pearl is derived from a Mississippi molusk that belongs to the abalone family. I’ll bet you never thought a Tahitian pearl has a US component!

An oyster is sacrificed for the explanation of how Tahitian pearls are made

Oysters are started when an oyster produces baby larvae. These seek places to hide in the ocean. Collector nets like the one on the far left are placed near adult oysters to give the baby oysters a place to hide. After a year the babies are harvested – removed from the collector nets – and placed in grow boxes as seen in the second from left. After another year they are moved to a rope to continue growing as seen in the center. One more year later the oyster is ready to receive its first nucleus implant. This is at the three-year point. Once the nucleus is implanted the oyster is placed back on a rope in cage or in pouches where they will work on creating the pearls for the next two years. Creating pearls is a lengthy process!

Oysters go through several stages in life

Once an oyster produces a pearl, if the pearl is of good quality the oyster can be reseeded with another nucleus the same size as the removed pearl. In another 2 years a larger pearl is formed. This can be repeated a third time in a good quality (and healthy) oyster. This is how we get from a normal 8 mm diameter 1st pearl to potentially an 18 mm diameter (or larger) third pearl! They only allow an oyster to produce three pearls before retiring it.

Oysters are carefully opened to plant the nucleus, or to remove the pearl and must be returned to the water within 2 hours

Gauguin’s Pearls have over 200 acres of ocean waters to cultivate over 400,000 oysters!

Workers tend the oyster beds

This map is inside the gift shop at Gauguin’s Pearls. It shows there is a decent community of shops and restaurants on this portion of the atoll. Rangiroa is isolated, but it is not desolate!