Wantonmien
Contributor
Philippines had been our regular destination for dive holidays for a few years, with last trip report posted here - http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ph...ogod-bay-some-words-pics-may-june-2013-a.html - but moving to Australia in 2012 and with the lack of dive centres within reach of our Queensland coastal work base to get out to the Barrier Reef, we decided we'd explore new locations - with Fiji our first target.
A bit of a delay with posting a report, but early September 2013 - we flew Fiji airlines landing us in Nadi with a domestic flight to hop across to Nausori (Suva) – with initial destination Naigani island resort (off East coast), it seeming a pretty good deal with transfers/villa/food/set amount of boat dives & unlimited free lagoon diving booked as an 'all in' package.
So here we go, FIJI - Naigani, Wakaya, Pacific Harbour - in case it helps anyone
Arrival and Transfers
Dawn landing and a short hop on a domestic flight, resort arranged taxi awaited us and off we set for an hour or so drive to get our prearranged boat to island - arrived at jetty, but no pre booked boat awaited. Weather was foul, windy and drizzle - but we are on holiday and these things happen, though half an hour later with no transfer boat in view across the rough grey choppy waters, patience was wearing thin, island resort insisted the boat for the supposed 30 minute journey had left island 30 minutes back (it should have been waiting for us !) - and after 30 minutes or so of twiddling thumbs, I had pretty much agreed a price with taxi to take us back to Suva and we'd go and stay elsewhere ! .
And then a little speck appeared in the waves. eventually an hour or more late our little boat arrived. I'm a pretty good swimmer, but seeing the little boat size against the obvious rough seas meant even I was sceptical about making the journey to the island - but we did, the boat rolled, we got wet, we wondered how long it would be until the boat flipped over. Not a boat ride for the faint hearted, in fact not a boat trip I’d like to take again in that weather. Being late was one thing, being in a boat far too small to be classed as safe was another – and on arrival at island, resort boss wasn't really bothered, and said she had sent the smaller boat as the larger one had taken out a dive group …. Such is life.
Resort.
With blue skies, sunshine and flat blue seas it would have been idyllic, but with grey skies, drizzle, wind, rough churned up water in the lagoon - not what we expected. Villa itself was roomy, had seen better days but could have been an awful lot worse, shower room in the villa though - yeuch, screaming out for a good clean, disinfectant and bleach - ok, ok we were on a little island, tired and a bit annoyed with the journey - but the bathroom, no excuses, simply put it was disgusting. The water in taps not for drinking – as it is stored in an open pool in the forest and shared with the wildlife. Meanwhile outside, palm trees swinging, coconuts dropping, hammocks on the beach, nice pool, a pool side bar - all the right ingredients - if the weather was better. While there we also made the customary tour of the Fijian village across the island and it was worth it, local customs, local food, local Kava (a mild natural narcotic), local dancing and a snapshot of how customs are still remembered.
I read on Facebook a couple of days back (Jan 2014) that the resort has new management and are sprucing the place up ?
Resort Food.
Had to pre book lunch and dinner choice at earlier meals, but in all fairness overall food quality was not bad at all, some things a bit basic but as there is just the one resort/restaurant on the island, and it was all pre paid it was fine, pretty good actually. Cost of drinks or a bottle of wine with dinner - ouch, not cheap, in fact not cheap at all - more expensive than Australia !
Diving from Naigani
Resort dive centre pretty basic, some gear to rent if needed (albeit we took most of our own gear), air in the tanks seemed fine, European dive guide fine, small and large dive boats staffed by Fijians, but alas during our stay the weather remained grotty. The churned up rough waters and drizzly grey skies destroyed the idea we'd be diving in crystal clear blue water, and the visibility was around 8 metres at best - also the unlimited free diving in the lagoon never happened as the conditions just weren't good enough. We did though make several prepaid dives from the boat at a few sites close to the resort, where there were some nice fan and other healthy corals, there were fish we were not used to seeing, we saw glances of small sharks every dive, saw some turtles and with still waters and good visibility we might have been impressed, but have to say we were disappointed. :depressed:
Wanting to believe we could beat the rotten weather, we did agree to a pricey long boat trip to Wakaya Wall - to see reportedly the best diving around Fiji. Boat trip was long - very long, weather was rough as hell, the feeling of 'was this wise' to be out at sea in a small rolling boat was there - but we reached the destination, and by some miracle on arrival a round shiny hot thing appeared in the sky - the sun came out. We heard on route about what we could reportedly expect to see, hammerheads, mantas and plenty of life so we were looking forward to our dives on Wakaya.
The ocean was blue, the drop off from the reef could be seen, and within five minutes of getting in and descending down a wall in good viz 20 metres or more, my partner (she was at the back of group) gave me a "go up and look" pointed signal, so to the top of the reef I went and there just 3 or 4 metres in front of me was a manta, hovering majestically in the current and gradually turning full circle in front of me before gently flapping her wings and casually swimming away past my partner -- awesome. But in the next 40 minutes or so of that dive and the next dive that was all we really saw that made us think "wow". Yes we saw a few white tips hunting (nice pic below), a few turtles, a few areas of beautiful coral and thick shoals of small colourful fish but otherwise … we'd expected more, and if it was really the best diving in Fiji - it didn't strike us as anything amazing – maybe just unlucky, maybe not. lain:
Back at resort, a bit deflated with the still poor weather and mediocre diving, we decided to cut short our stay on Naigani, goggled to find a hotel near Suva, and it was back to the mainland next morning. Again if the weather was better and the water blue, we probably would have enjoyed Naigani a whole lot more – as the ingredients are there for a laid back holiday and I'd love to have seen what the lagoon held, but it wasn't to be. After 4 nights we headed back to mainland - destination "Uprising hotel" on the Pacific Bay Coast.
Uprising Beach Resort, West of Suva - a five star, perfect villa, perfect restaurant, on the beach - beautiful place - but it poured with rain – torrential - so beer o'clock lasted a long time, but not to be beaten, we found Aquatrek number, and managed to get booked for next morning to join them on their Beqa lagoon shark dives.
Beqa Lagoon / Aquatrek
Picked up on time at the hotel by Aquatrek, paid, got our gear on and off we set to their own Beqa lagoon dive site, the bistro. Given a good rundown before entering water that we would see sharks, that we should keep low, keep our hands in, don't hold cameras out in front of as a shark might think it was food, and thinking yeh, yeh, yeh - in we went and down we went, with Remoras everywhere, and along to a small dead coral wall to rest behind.
Releasing food into the water (from a bin), a wild flurry of small fish – and along with them giant Groupers, a dozen or more Nurse sharks, Silver tips, White tips, Grey reef sharks, a huge Bull shark or was it two, and though I wasn't too keen before to see a 'feeding shark' show as I'd imagined it would be a bit like a circus, we were in 20 + metres of water, we were way offshore in a lagoon and no one was in control of the sharks, they were free and not like a circus - these sharks were all wild, and having a bull shark swim within a hands reach and to see so many sharks in one place at one time, I have to say was totally awesome.
We made the second dive there soon after, and the time seeing the sharks dart around seemed to fly past - with bottom times to avoid deco’s controlled to the minute by guide. Not sure I would fancy the Aquatrek guide job of holding up fish heads by hand and looking 360 degrees to see where a shark would rush in from to take it from his hand, but all carried out nicely, all hands remaining with their owners - and quite honestly it made up for the diving we had seen elsewhere in our Fiji trip. If going to Fiji again, I wouldn't hesitate to pre book ourselves on the shark dives again, the previous day they had a Tiger shark turn up to eat - so maybe next time we go we'll be lucky enough to see a Tiger. The Aquatrek guides, and shark diving event - 10/10 glad we didn't miss it - and just wish there weren't so many small fish darting around so we could have got a few better pictures.
And back at the surface - torrential rain came down, and pretty much stayed with us for the rest of the day - so the Uprising Beach Resort bar made a profit as we relived sharks !
Great to see that the Fijian’s have recognised that sharks = tourists = money = numerous signs around at fishing jetties etc that catching and landing sharks is not permitted. If you want to see several shark species on one dive – Fiji is the location.
Suva
Last day headed to Suva and stayed overnight, got told by a local within a minute of walking down the main street to hold tight to my camera as it would likely get ripped off my shoulder - but wandered around taking in the sights, with seemingly a huge difference between people with and without money - costs in the shopping malls high, yet steps away locals selling flowers/fish/veg in the markets for cents. Must admit we didn't feel at ease in Suva city, but end of the day, ate and slept well before our dawn departure back from domestic airport, to Nadi and on the big metal bird back to Brisbane.
Would we go again ?
Naigani resort, with hot sunny weather and a blue lagoon would have been idyllic (if keeping out of the villa bathroom) and the prices - well transfers/room/food/per booked dive costs were very good - but our costs of drinks and extra dive boat trips pushing up the costs, with the 'extra's' pretty much equaling the cost of one of our four night ‘all in’ packages. Quality of diving around Naigani, well with rotten visibility and rotten weather we weren't impressed, and Wakaya - a long way to go to see a solitary manta, couple of white tips and turtles, and if that really is the best in Fiji, disappointing. (Note - On last trip to Lady Elliot Island in Australia, on last 15 minutes of a dive we saw 2 mantas, 5 species of sharks, 3 species of turtle and 2 Giant groupers – so maybe we have been spoiled ?).
The shark dives over in Pacific Harbour made up for it, so with guaranteed hot weather and blue skies, yes we would give a Fiji holiday another try - even if just for those shark dives, but for us overall we came away thinking 'been there, done that' - and in fact three days after return booked ahead our next dive holiday for December 2013 - back to Philippines !
Enjoy the pics - I love the one of the two white tips, chuffed with that perfect pose, at Wakaya.
Can't say the coral wasn't beautiful atop Wakaya wall
Down into the "Bistro" in Beqa lagoon ...
No zoom -
Giant groupers I'd say approaching 2 m length
Ever tried to get a picture through the mass of fish ...
A Bull comes in to feed
Now, without so many small fish I might have got a decent picture or two
A bit of a delay with posting a report, but early September 2013 - we flew Fiji airlines landing us in Nadi with a domestic flight to hop across to Nausori (Suva) – with initial destination Naigani island resort (off East coast), it seeming a pretty good deal with transfers/villa/food/set amount of boat dives & unlimited free lagoon diving booked as an 'all in' package.
So here we go, FIJI - Naigani, Wakaya, Pacific Harbour - in case it helps anyone
Arrival and Transfers
Dawn landing and a short hop on a domestic flight, resort arranged taxi awaited us and off we set for an hour or so drive to get our prearranged boat to island - arrived at jetty, but no pre booked boat awaited. Weather was foul, windy and drizzle - but we are on holiday and these things happen, though half an hour later with no transfer boat in view across the rough grey choppy waters, patience was wearing thin, island resort insisted the boat for the supposed 30 minute journey had left island 30 minutes back (it should have been waiting for us !) - and after 30 minutes or so of twiddling thumbs, I had pretty much agreed a price with taxi to take us back to Suva and we'd go and stay elsewhere ! .
And then a little speck appeared in the waves. eventually an hour or more late our little boat arrived. I'm a pretty good swimmer, but seeing the little boat size against the obvious rough seas meant even I was sceptical about making the journey to the island - but we did, the boat rolled, we got wet, we wondered how long it would be until the boat flipped over. Not a boat ride for the faint hearted, in fact not a boat trip I’d like to take again in that weather. Being late was one thing, being in a boat far too small to be classed as safe was another – and on arrival at island, resort boss wasn't really bothered, and said she had sent the smaller boat as the larger one had taken out a dive group …. Such is life.
Resort.
With blue skies, sunshine and flat blue seas it would have been idyllic, but with grey skies, drizzle, wind, rough churned up water in the lagoon - not what we expected. Villa itself was roomy, had seen better days but could have been an awful lot worse, shower room in the villa though - yeuch, screaming out for a good clean, disinfectant and bleach - ok, ok we were on a little island, tired and a bit annoyed with the journey - but the bathroom, no excuses, simply put it was disgusting. The water in taps not for drinking – as it is stored in an open pool in the forest and shared with the wildlife. Meanwhile outside, palm trees swinging, coconuts dropping, hammocks on the beach, nice pool, a pool side bar - all the right ingredients - if the weather was better. While there we also made the customary tour of the Fijian village across the island and it was worth it, local customs, local food, local Kava (a mild natural narcotic), local dancing and a snapshot of how customs are still remembered.
I read on Facebook a couple of days back (Jan 2014) that the resort has new management and are sprucing the place up ?
Resort Food.
Had to pre book lunch and dinner choice at earlier meals, but in all fairness overall food quality was not bad at all, some things a bit basic but as there is just the one resort/restaurant on the island, and it was all pre paid it was fine, pretty good actually. Cost of drinks or a bottle of wine with dinner - ouch, not cheap, in fact not cheap at all - more expensive than Australia !
Diving from Naigani
Resort dive centre pretty basic, some gear to rent if needed (albeit we took most of our own gear), air in the tanks seemed fine, European dive guide fine, small and large dive boats staffed by Fijians, but alas during our stay the weather remained grotty. The churned up rough waters and drizzly grey skies destroyed the idea we'd be diving in crystal clear blue water, and the visibility was around 8 metres at best - also the unlimited free diving in the lagoon never happened as the conditions just weren't good enough. We did though make several prepaid dives from the boat at a few sites close to the resort, where there were some nice fan and other healthy corals, there were fish we were not used to seeing, we saw glances of small sharks every dive, saw some turtles and with still waters and good visibility we might have been impressed, but have to say we were disappointed. :depressed:
Wanting to believe we could beat the rotten weather, we did agree to a pricey long boat trip to Wakaya Wall - to see reportedly the best diving around Fiji. Boat trip was long - very long, weather was rough as hell, the feeling of 'was this wise' to be out at sea in a small rolling boat was there - but we reached the destination, and by some miracle on arrival a round shiny hot thing appeared in the sky - the sun came out. We heard on route about what we could reportedly expect to see, hammerheads, mantas and plenty of life so we were looking forward to our dives on Wakaya.
The ocean was blue, the drop off from the reef could be seen, and within five minutes of getting in and descending down a wall in good viz 20 metres or more, my partner (she was at the back of group) gave me a "go up and look" pointed signal, so to the top of the reef I went and there just 3 or 4 metres in front of me was a manta, hovering majestically in the current and gradually turning full circle in front of me before gently flapping her wings and casually swimming away past my partner -- awesome. But in the next 40 minutes or so of that dive and the next dive that was all we really saw that made us think "wow". Yes we saw a few white tips hunting (nice pic below), a few turtles, a few areas of beautiful coral and thick shoals of small colourful fish but otherwise … we'd expected more, and if it was really the best diving in Fiji - it didn't strike us as anything amazing – maybe just unlucky, maybe not. lain:
Back at resort, a bit deflated with the still poor weather and mediocre diving, we decided to cut short our stay on Naigani, goggled to find a hotel near Suva, and it was back to the mainland next morning. Again if the weather was better and the water blue, we probably would have enjoyed Naigani a whole lot more – as the ingredients are there for a laid back holiday and I'd love to have seen what the lagoon held, but it wasn't to be. After 4 nights we headed back to mainland - destination "Uprising hotel" on the Pacific Bay Coast.
Uprising Beach Resort, West of Suva - a five star, perfect villa, perfect restaurant, on the beach - beautiful place - but it poured with rain – torrential - so beer o'clock lasted a long time, but not to be beaten, we found Aquatrek number, and managed to get booked for next morning to join them on their Beqa lagoon shark dives.
Beqa Lagoon / Aquatrek
Picked up on time at the hotel by Aquatrek, paid, got our gear on and off we set to their own Beqa lagoon dive site, the bistro. Given a good rundown before entering water that we would see sharks, that we should keep low, keep our hands in, don't hold cameras out in front of as a shark might think it was food, and thinking yeh, yeh, yeh - in we went and down we went, with Remoras everywhere, and along to a small dead coral wall to rest behind.
Releasing food into the water (from a bin), a wild flurry of small fish – and along with them giant Groupers, a dozen or more Nurse sharks, Silver tips, White tips, Grey reef sharks, a huge Bull shark or was it two, and though I wasn't too keen before to see a 'feeding shark' show as I'd imagined it would be a bit like a circus, we were in 20 + metres of water, we were way offshore in a lagoon and no one was in control of the sharks, they were free and not like a circus - these sharks were all wild, and having a bull shark swim within a hands reach and to see so many sharks in one place at one time, I have to say was totally awesome.
We made the second dive there soon after, and the time seeing the sharks dart around seemed to fly past - with bottom times to avoid deco’s controlled to the minute by guide. Not sure I would fancy the Aquatrek guide job of holding up fish heads by hand and looking 360 degrees to see where a shark would rush in from to take it from his hand, but all carried out nicely, all hands remaining with their owners - and quite honestly it made up for the diving we had seen elsewhere in our Fiji trip. If going to Fiji again, I wouldn't hesitate to pre book ourselves on the shark dives again, the previous day they had a Tiger shark turn up to eat - so maybe next time we go we'll be lucky enough to see a Tiger. The Aquatrek guides, and shark diving event - 10/10 glad we didn't miss it - and just wish there weren't so many small fish darting around so we could have got a few better pictures.
And back at the surface - torrential rain came down, and pretty much stayed with us for the rest of the day - so the Uprising Beach Resort bar made a profit as we relived sharks !
Great to see that the Fijian’s have recognised that sharks = tourists = money = numerous signs around at fishing jetties etc that catching and landing sharks is not permitted. If you want to see several shark species on one dive – Fiji is the location.
Suva
Last day headed to Suva and stayed overnight, got told by a local within a minute of walking down the main street to hold tight to my camera as it would likely get ripped off my shoulder - but wandered around taking in the sights, with seemingly a huge difference between people with and without money - costs in the shopping malls high, yet steps away locals selling flowers/fish/veg in the markets for cents. Must admit we didn't feel at ease in Suva city, but end of the day, ate and slept well before our dawn departure back from domestic airport, to Nadi and on the big metal bird back to Brisbane.
Would we go again ?
Naigani resort, with hot sunny weather and a blue lagoon would have been idyllic (if keeping out of the villa bathroom) and the prices - well transfers/room/food/per booked dive costs were very good - but our costs of drinks and extra dive boat trips pushing up the costs, with the 'extra's' pretty much equaling the cost of one of our four night ‘all in’ packages. Quality of diving around Naigani, well with rotten visibility and rotten weather we weren't impressed, and Wakaya - a long way to go to see a solitary manta, couple of white tips and turtles, and if that really is the best in Fiji, disappointing. (Note - On last trip to Lady Elliot Island in Australia, on last 15 minutes of a dive we saw 2 mantas, 5 species of sharks, 3 species of turtle and 2 Giant groupers – so maybe we have been spoiled ?).
The shark dives over in Pacific Harbour made up for it, so with guaranteed hot weather and blue skies, yes we would give a Fiji holiday another try - even if just for those shark dives, but for us overall we came away thinking 'been there, done that' - and in fact three days after return booked ahead our next dive holiday for December 2013 - back to Philippines !
Enjoy the pics - I love the one of the two white tips, chuffed with that perfect pose, at Wakaya.
Can't say the coral wasn't beautiful atop Wakaya wall
Down into the "Bistro" in Beqa lagoon ...
No zoom -
Giant groupers I'd say approaching 2 m length
Ever tried to get a picture through the mass of fish ...
A Bull comes in to feed
Now, without so many small fish I might have got a decent picture or two