Travel Guide Amaru

Rimatara is a tiny round island 4 km in diameter, lost in the middle of the ocean, 550 km southwest of Tahiti and 150 km west of Rurutu. For the approximately 1,000 inhabitants who live there in blissful isolation, Rimatara is a quiet and joyful refuge. Surrounded by a coral reef encircling a shallow lagoon, a single narrow pass allows only pirogues to pass. This means that the island is away from any tourist route (sailing boats are rare).T'Sterstevens described it this way: "All round with bumps: a potato. Low hills, very gentle. The reef stuck to the shore. No pass. We disembark on the coral, in front of Amaru, near the cemetery made of giant aitos... The interior of the island is only an undulating plateau, the westernmost of the landscapes. "There's not even a harbor. Until very recently, only the Tuhaapae II connected Rimatara to the outside world, three times a month, unloading passengers and goods with whaleboats, frail boats that jumped over the reef when a wave came up to a small concrete dock. Not even having a wharf, the whaling ships would then dock directly on the beach of Amaru, the capital of Rimatara. Since then, an airport has been inaugurated, heralding a new, more touristic era.