Reset search
Spring 2025 Trip
  • Mark E
  • Janine Westlund
  • Mark E
  • Janine Westlund

Spring 2025 Trip

LA, Hawaii, Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand Read more
+1
FollowInsightsInsightsCalendarCalendarPhotosPhotosShareShareBucket list
InsightsCalendarPhotos
  • Spring 2025 Trip
    1Arriving at the airport (silly windy!!!)Local beer (vodka- & tequila-flavored. Meh.)Kayaks were available to hotel guests.2View of the property (Le Maitai Rangiroa) from the pier.More view from the pier.Location of our hotel along the atoll.

    Rangiroa (pron: ran GEE roa)

    January 26, 2025 in French Polynesia ⋅ ⛅ 84 °F

    Goodby cruise ship, Hello Rangiroa!
    Rangiroa is an atoll made up of 240-415 islets (exact number varies by source). It is considered one atoll, is the largest in French Polynesia (approx. 20 miles x 50 miles), and the second largest in the world (behind Kwajalein in the Marshall Islands). Its highest elevation is only 39 feet!
    Rangiroa is known to divers as 'God's Aquarium'. Janine & I are scheduled for 3 2-tank dives over the next three days while lodging at Le Maitai Rangiroa.    Read more

  • Spring 2025 Trip
    We dove this area all 3 days. Red are entry points, green markers are exit points
    Another beautiful sunset

    Rangiroa Day 4 - Day dive 3

    January 29, 2025 in French Polynesia ⋅ 🌬 82 °F

    Last day diving. Forgot my GoPro, so no pictures. Had two dives with a lots of schools of fish. During the second dive a single dophin played with us for about 5 minutes :)

  • Spring 2025 Trip
    Arrived in FijiCountryside on our 2 hours drive to the resortStandard local housingLocal stores have lots of securityExcellent accommodations with a wonderful viewLove the viewThis is the resorts layoutDinner area

    Long travel day to Fiji via New Zealand

    Jan 31–Feb 1, 2025 in French Polynesia ⋅ ⛅ 79 °F

    Crazy day of travel.
    We left Rangiroa ~5p Thurs Jan 30th landed in Papeete, Tahiti on time Thurs eve. Chris & Linda headed to their hotel in Papeete for a few days. We had dinner with Nick and Shawn at the airport. Nick and Shawn left ~11 p.m heading home (Colorado). We remained in the airport for the next leg of our journey. Our next stop is Fiji, but it required a 5-hour trip to New Zealand followed by a 3 hour flight to Fiji with a 1.5 hour layover. The NZ leg was delayed from a 3:45a departure to a 5:05a departure; this jeopardized our connecting flight. Lucky for us, there were 11 folks with the same itinerary, so the airline held our connecting flight for us. Odd feeling when the flight attendant asks everyone on board to remain in their seats so we 11 could disembark. Now it's gets interesting. We left NZ at 5:05 am. on Jan 30th, but landed 5 hours later, 10 am Feb 1st, and skipped 17 hours of Jan 31st.
    We effectively skipped over Jan 31. Crazy.    Read more

  • Spring 2025 Trip
    Even on a rainy morning, the view is still pretty beautiful.To get to our dive site, it was a 40 minute boat ride out to open water.

    Fiji Day 3 Dive 1

    February 4, 2025, South Pacific Ocean ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    Dive called Instant Replay should be renamed Hold on Tight, because the tide on the edge of the reef was an amusement ride, no swimming required with awesome views

    Left the resort in rain, but the day ended up sunnyRead more

  • Spring 2025 Trip
    1

    Fiji Day 4 Dive 2

    February 5, 2025 in Fiji ⋅ ☁️ 81 °F

    Our 2nd dive was called Dream Maker; and indeed it was. The water was clear, and there a lot of fan corals as we swam thru a number of narrow passages. I quess they trust that we won't damage the corals as they are very fragile.

    Later that day back at the resort j9 and I went kayaking    Read more

  • Spring 2025 Trip

    Fiji Day 5 - Bird Island

    February 6, 2025 in Fiji ⋅ 🌬 81 °F

    A small little island near the reefs is called Bird Island. Our dive captain was gracious enough to stop at the island for a short time to check out a place where birds have no predators and eggs are just laying on the sand.Read more

  • Spring 2025 Trip
    HELP ME
    Approaching the CastAway IslandLeaving the CastAway IslandView of the surrounding area

    Fiji Cruise Day 1 - Modriki Island

    February 7, 2025 in Fiji ⋅ ☁️ 84 °F

    Friday - 1st Night:

    We boarded Blue Lagoon Cruises! Set sail on M.V.Fiji Princess from Port Denarau for outer Mamanucas.

    Our first stop was secluded location at Modriki, which was the location for the Tom Hanks movie CastAway. J9 and I attempted to reach the west side of the island for the sunset, but couldn't reach it by foot. Walking back to the boat we found we were the remaining few folks on the island, so we're happy they had a list of everyone that left the boat. Regretfully I didn't get a chance to go for a swim.

    The Captain's Welcome Dinner was a bust since the AC on the boat was not working :(

    Seems the scheduled entertainment also didn't happen, but we talked the bartender to into including the local rum into the free drinks for the night. Happy days :)

    Regarding the AC, they were on their game as a boat with a mechanic arrived that evening to fix the AC. Must admit, had my doubts the AC was going to be fixed and was making plans to sleep on the deck.    Read more

  • 2026© FindPenguins
  • Home
  • About us
  • Group Tracking
  • Press
  • Terms
  • Privacy Policy & Cookies
  • Help Center
  • Legal notice