Maupiti

Maupiti looks like a miniature Bora Bora with a green basalt peak inside a ring of motu and a lagoon of improbable colour, and the difference is that nobody built resorts on it. The island has deliberately kept development to family pensions, and the result is an island of a thousand or so residents with one road around it, no hotels and no traffic to speak of. Mount Teurafaatiu can be climbed in an hour or so for a view straight down onto the lagoon and the reef ring. Manta rays visit a cleaning station in the lagoon and are snorkelled with from small boats. The pass into the lagoon is narrow and shallow, which is why cruise ships do not come.

History

Polynesian artefacts on Maupiti date from at least AD 850, and a burial site excavated in 1962 suggested early cultural links with New Zealand. The first European to arrive was the Dutchman Jakob Roggeveen in 1722, and the island has long had strong cultural ties with Bora Bora (Wikipedia, Maupiti).

Highlights

• Mount Teurafaatiu - a short steep climb to a view over the whole lagoon.
• The manta cleaning station - snorkelling with rays in the shallow lagoon.
• Motu Auira and Tereia - sandbanks you can wade to across the shallows.
• The single island road - cycled or walked in a couple of hours.

When to go

May to October for the dry season and calmest crossings. Manta sightings are year-round but not guaranteed. The island is small enough that a few days is plenty.

Before you go

Accommodation is family pensions only, mostly with shared facilities and half-board because there are almost no restaurants; book ahead since capacity is genuinely tiny. Flights are small and the pass can be too rough for the boat transfer, which occasionally strands people. Bring cash: card facilities are minimal and there is effectively no shopping.

Nearby

Bora Bora is a short flight or a long boat crossing east; Raiatea lies southeast.

Key facts