A work of art? No, a doorway in Rangiroa

Wayne summed up my feelings exactly when he said "We live in a postcard." 

What do you think? It looks like a beautiful painting hung on the wall, but in reality it is just an open doorway in the dive shop. The dive shop is right on the beach in Rangiroa, facing the lagoon. I've seen a lot of beautiful ocean colors around the world but I dare any of them to be prettier than here. If you like closely, you can see our ship, our home, anchored in the lagoon. Here's another view: 

Wayne and Donna are our main dive buddies. From Georgia and Florida, they both retired young and bought a cabin on the Villa Vie Odyssey just like we did. 

On Jan 12, we all signed up to go diving in Rangiroa. This is an atoll in French Polynesia, the remnants of a giant volcano. Here's how Gemini describes it: 

Imagine standing on a thin strip of land where, on one side, the wild, deep-blue waves of the Pacific Ocean crash against a rugged coral wall, and on the other, a calm, turquoise lagoon stretches so far that it actually has its own horizon.

​That is Rangiroa. Located in the Tuamotu Archipelago of French Polynesia, it is one of the largest atolls in the world—so vast that the entire island of Tahiti could fit inside its central lagoon.

​The Anatomy of an Atoll

​To understand Rangiroa, you have to look at its history as a "ghost" of a volcano. Millions of years ago, a volcanic island rose from the seafloor. As the volcano slowly went extinct and began to sink back into the ocean (a process called subsidence), a ring of coral continued to grow upward toward the sunlight, maintaining its position at the surface.

We signed up for 2 dives. One in the morning drifting/flying on the incoming tide thru the Tiputa pass and one in the afternoon with the outgoing tide hanging out on the coral reef at the corner of the pass and the ocean.
The first dive started out very relaxed. We were in wide open spaces with a gently sloping coral wall that went down to infinity. At one point we looked below us and saw nothing but sharks, at least one hundred of them!
Then we entered the pass and the current started ripping. Wheee! It was fun at first, then I saw our dive guide head toward the right edge out of the main stream. I kicked as hard as I could to follow her, but it didn't feel like I was getting anywhere. I kicked harder, I breathed harder, I just couldn't do either heard enough. Images of being swept to oblivion goes thru my head - and that panic sure didn't help my breathing! I kept looking at my air gauge thinking I must be sucking this tank dry.
I'm case you're wondering I did make it. 🤔
The afternoon dive was much calmer. But the boat ride out there was quite a roller coaster! I swear I saw 12 foot swells. Our little zodiac went up up up, then dooowwn these mini mountains of water. The surf hitting the shore could rival any championship surfing sites in Hawaii. But once we were in the water, it was back to the meditative experience I so enjoy about diving. We were disappointed that we did not see any of the famous bottle-nose dolphin that often play with divers here. Other boats had better luck.

Here's the video: