Travel Guide Tuherahera

The main town of Tikehau is by extension considered the "main island" - the island is so small, it must be said, that there wouldn't really be room for a second one! In any case, its vast coconut groves, its fishy lagoon and its intimate atmosphere are sure to delight travelers. Most of the inhabitants are now concentrated in the village of Tuherahera, on the main island, which also hosts the airport, most of the guesthouses, and a dock for schooners. About forty years ago, however, another large motu located on the edge of the atoll had a village inhabited by copra fishermen, who spent six months there and then returned to Tuherahera for six months. Properties were set up there, and one could even drive on a road. Today, the site is abandoned and nature has taken over. The houses are closed and all decrepit, and the carriage road is reduced to a path that is difficult to find because of the invading nature. There are still a few old Peugeot 404s, with period registrations (779 P), and the atmosphere is truly mysterious... While its lagoon is superb, the atoll is also among the greenest in the Tuamotus: we have rarely seen so much vegetation on such strips of sand, lying between the burning sun and the salt of the ocean. The motus that dot the outline of Tikehau are all as beautiful as each other, made of white and pink sand, and sometimes topped by a solitary coconut tree that a local dropped off like that, during a crossing of the lagoon a few years ago.