Diving Trip Nets Underwater Bounty : DIVE: Full-Scale Underwater Vacation

RANGIROA, French Polynesia —  Gauguin could have painted the colorful picture that came into focus through the faceplate of my snorkeling mask in these aquamarine waters of the South Pacific.

A coral sculpture shaped like the head of a tiki god had a golden glow. Small fish created a rainbow of colors around it.

My wife and I were snorkeling in the lagoon shaped by the atoll of Rangiroa in the Tuoamotu archipelago about 200 miles northeast of Tahiti, where Gauguin arrived from Paris near the end of the 19th Century to begin his greatest paintings.

The lagoon is a sea within a sea. It could contain the entire island of Tahiti within its stretch of 42 miles by 16 miles, surrounded by the rim of Rangiroa atoll that rises with its lush tropical foliage and two Polynesian villages above the submerged crater of an ancient volcano.

Two passes through the rim, with tidal currents between the open sea and the lagoon, help to make these waters one of the great destinations on this planet for the adventurous traveler who enjoys snorkeling and diving.

All of the Tuamotus were once barrier reefs that surrounded volcanic islands. As eons passed, the inner islands subsided, leaving only the rims and coral reefs.

Underwater Life

Here on Rangiroa, in the heart of the world’s largest collection of coral atolls, you can view a fabulous variety of underwater life by inflating your life vest and riding the currents to and from the open sea.

This adventure has to be carefully coordinated with a pickup by the inflatable boat or outrigger canoe that provides your base for snorkeling or diving near the reefs.

If you are renting your own outrigger or small boat, check in advance for the timing of the current so that you don’t end up too far out to sea or into the lagoon when the tide changes. This flushing of the tidal currents keeps the aquamarine waters of the lagoon crystal clear.

We arrived in the Rangiroa lagoon aboard the Wind Song sail cruiser with 120 adventure-minded fellow passengers, including 19 certified scuba divers and at least twice that many snorkelers.

Capt. Dag Dvergastein, our Norwegian skipper, and the pilot brought the Wind Song between the reefs of the tidal pass into the lagoon.

From the anchorage, slipping or jumping over the rim of the inflatable took us instantly into a coral underworld with more fish than we could possibly identify or name.

Diving Excursions

If you arrive in the lagoon with your own sailboat, or aboard the passenger-carrying freighter or one of the smaller cargo carriers serving the islands of French Polynesia, you can arrange for snorkeling and diving excursions from the villages of Taputa and Avatora.

Scuba diving centers are based at Kia Ora Village Hotel across the pass from Taputa, and at the Raie Manta Club in Avatora.

There are also daily flights between Tahiti-Faaa Airport and Rangiroa. The 46-passenger Air Tahiti planes make the flight in about an hour. One-way fare is about $100 U.S.

All of Rangiroa has scarcely 1,400 inhabitants, most of them in or around the two villages.

For longer stays than a Wind Song or cargo vessel stopover, there are three hotels and nine pensions and private homes with accommodations for guests.

Kia Ora Village, the largest of the hotel complexes, has only 25 thatched-roof bungalows in a coconut grove beside the beach. Amenities include a restaurant and bar with tables on the beach-front deck, where guests or visitors from the beach and the reefs can relax after snorkeling and diving.

When we had finished our underwater adventure along the reef, we tendered from the anchored Wind Song to the Kia Ora and went snorkeling from the beach into another coral world alive with multicolored fish. Some of them came close enough to look right into our faceplates.

Rates for a twosome at a Kia Ora Village beach bungalow are about $270 U.S. a night, including breakfast and dinner. Among free activities for guests are snorkeling, sailing, bicycling, windsurfing and fishing. One of the optional activities is scuba diving with a qualified instructor.

A plaque at the Kia Ora reads: “Welcome to Kia Ora Village--first hotel of the atolls, founded in 1972 by three lovers of the Tuamotu Islands--Serge Arnoux, Robin Angely and Laris Kindynis. . . .”

Carnoux and Angely had wandered to the Tuamotus from France; Kindynis from Greece.

Pension and private home accommodations start at about $30. For information in helping to plan a Rangiroa underwater adventure, check with your travel agent and contact the Tahiti Tourist Board, 12233 W. Olympic Blvd., Suite 110, Los Angeles 90064, (213) 649-2884.

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New underwater adventure tours:

Tropical Adventures of Seattle, worldwide dive tour specialists since 1973, now represent the Aggressor Fleet of six 110-foot aluminum live-aboard boats for divers and underwater photographers.

Each boat houses a maximum of 18, with comfortable cabins, meal service and a photo center for daily film processing.

Four regular tours in Caribbean waters include dive destinations off Bonaire and Curacao, Belize and the Cayman Islands.

Belize dive sites offer such famed underwater destinations as Half Moon Wall, Long Cay Drop-Off, Southwest Cut, Terminator Wall, the Elbow, Silver Caves and the Blue Hole.

The package price of $1,195 includes accommodations aboard and all meals for eight days and seven nights. You make your own flight arrangements.

Another new Tropical adventure combines a dive photograph expedition to Tanzania with a photo safari in Kenya.

“This coast,” points out Lynn Goddess, co-owner of Tropical Adventures, “is 340 miles long, entirely protected by an immense coral barrier reef, and offers one of the finest collections of marine life in the world--whale sharks, huge grouper, manta rays, moray eels and an amazing potpouri of colorful reef fish.”

The Tanzania & Kenya Coast Dive-Photo Safari offers accommodations, meals and all related expenses, including round-trip air fare from New York, at $4,195 per person.

Contact Tropical Adventures at 170 Denny Way, Seattle, Wash. 98109, toll-free (800) 247-3483.