Fakarava Island

Known in the old days by Tahitians as Havai’i, Havaiki or Faroa.
Fakarava lies about 400 km ENE of Tahiti and is the second largest atoll in the archipelago after Rangiroa. Its rectangular shape, about 65 km long and 24km broad, encloses more than 80 motu (islets). Ngarue pass, on the Northern side is the best of the three entrances into the lagoon.

The village of Rotoava stands at the NE extremity of the atoll. It consists of a long avenue bordered by a post office, two shops, a restaurant and a bakery. Most of the population of 700 lives there. Another village, Tetamanu, diagonally opposite across the lagoon, is almost deserted. It was formerly the administrative centre of the Tuamotu. We can still see the main road and the fist church built with coral in 1874.

Fakarava is usually said to have been discovered by the Russian navigator Bellinghausen in 1820 who named it Wittgenstein. Robert Louis Stevenson who visited the island in 1888 published a vibrant account of his sojourn in his book “In the South Seas”. Later, in 1930, Henri Matisse the painter spent some unforgettable days there and raved about the “exquisite shades” of the lagoon. Fakarava has been classified by the UNESCO as a biosphere reserve.