Forget large-scale resorts. With nine bungalows and an in-house shark nursery, a newly reopened private island reveals a quieter, wilder side of French Polynesia

By Amy Synnott

On my first day at Vahine Private Island, in French Polynesia’s Society Islands, 20 miles from Bora-Bora, I saw more blacktip reef sharks than guests.

“Are you sure it’s safe to snorkel in here?,” I asked Raymonde Tinirauarri Ganivet, the general manager, who was showing us around. Among the property’s authentic Polynesian touches, it turned out, was a “small nursery” for suspiciously docile sharks.

“Don’t worry, they won’t hurt you,” she said.

“They’re vegetarians,” my friend Marett joked.

We had arrived that morning by boat from Raiatea, the second largest of the Society Islands. Bleary with jet lag, we READ ON