Hi All!
I returned from Fiji on the 20th of December, after about 6 weeks of diving and island hopping. All in all, it was great. I wasn't quite sure where to go for the best diving, so I went looking for it! If you haven't been to Fiji, the best thing about it is the people -- they are some of the friendliest folks I've ever met. Even if you don't dive much, it's a fantastic cultural experience just to go to meet the Fijians. I highly recommend visiting some of the outer islands and villages away from the urban areas.
This trip report is long, so if you're not going to Fiji anytime soon you may wish to just skip through it. Having said that, here's my experiences. Your mileage may vary...
November through about March is a bit rainier and windier than other times of the year, so the visibility wasn't as good as I would have liked, typically 30-60ft (10-20m) on most dives. It's supposed to be nicer at other times of the year, often exceeding 100ft (30m) or more. The water temps were somewhat cool, 78-81F (26-28C). I wore a full 3mm wetsuit and would have liked a hood or beanie too. Other people dove in shorties; some came out cold but others seemed to do okay. The currents can chill you faster than expected.
Although some of the dive shops had good rental gear -- especially Aqua-Trek -- others did not. In fact I saw some rental gear fail during dives. Yikes! Unless you plan on diving with upscale dive shops and resorts, I would suggest bringing your own gear. Be sure to take spare parts, extra log book pages, fish ID books, etc., because most places won't have much, if anything. A reef hook and gloves are also a good idea, as the currents can be brisk and you may need to hang on to the anchor line or the reef. Also, almost every dive operation had some problems with their boats. Twice we had to be towed back to the dock. With the drop in tourism, it seems that boat maintenance is where the corners are being cut.
Most places do only two dives a day because the wind picks up in the afternoons, making conditions rough. This can be frustrating if you wanted a 3-4 dive/day trip. Although many outfits say they will do a third afternoon dive, I never saw one actually offered. Night dives can also be scarce; it takes a critical mass of interested divers to make one happen. Still, most people are pretty wiped out after just the two morning dives. I'm a die-hard diving fanatic, but I found myself content to do just two a day and spend the rest of the afternoon reading books and sipping foo-foo drinks with little umbrellas in them.
If you're flexible about dates, times and where to stay, you can save buckets of money by booking things on-the-fly, especially in November/December (lowish season). Many of the resorts I saw were deserted, and most would give a special price if you made the reservation yourself. Just give them a call and ask if they have a walk-in special; I did this, traveling sort of "al la carte", making hotel and island-hopper airline reservations even on the day I wanted to travel, and rarely had any problem. Most places were delighted to have my business, especially following the cancellation storm after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The larger, swanky resorts have suffered the most; places catering to backpackers and independent travelers seem to be hanging on better, as those types of people aren't deterred as much by international events. Don't deal with the travel agents at Nadi airport: they don't know where the good diving is, and will only try to sell you accommodations and packages that make them the highest commission.
Virtually all of the diving is by boat, follow-the-divemaster style, and most operations set depth and time limits. These limits are generally for the divers without computers; I dove with a computer and followed my own profile, which was usually no problem. Where I knew the diving would be cut short because other divers would run out of air sooner, I made a point of being in the water and submerged before the heavy breathers and loitering around the coral heads until I was last out, thus extending my dives by 10-15 minutes each. Even so, I often came up with lots of air left. There ought to be more latitude for experienced divers.
Locations visited (please read beyond my initial bad experience in Savusavu)...
SAVUSAVU. Stayed at the Hot Springs Hotel, which was clean and comfy, with good food and a friendly staff. I was one of only three people staying there. The diving conditions were rough, and the sites had a lot of dead coral. Eco-Divers was economical and they dive the same sites as the fancy Costeau resort down the road, but they gave me an aluminum 80 tank for the first dive and a 72 for the second dive each day. When I pointed this out and asked for an 80 on the second dive, the DM shrugged and gave me one. It was a short fill, naturally, 2000psi. This begrudging air allotment was especially puzzling because I was their only customer. I had planned on 5-7 days of diving there, but after two days of abuse I left for Taveuni where I had a much better time.
TAVEUNI. Planned on 7 nights, but stayed for 11 at the Garden Island Resort, diving with Aqua-Trek, and it was great. The food was yummy; the only complaint I heard was from the people on the all-you-want meal plan who were overeating. Standard, comfortable hotel rooms with everything except televisions, thankfully. The Somosomo straits can have currents that are rippin', but I saw beginning divers do just fine. If your buoyancy control is good and you are in fairly decent physical shape, don't worry about it. The currents feed a nice selection of soft corals, and some hard corals -- although the attraction here is the soft ones. Lots of pretty tropical fish, and the occasional white-tip shark, lionfish, turtles, humphead wrasse and beautiful banded sea snakes. Aqua-Trek has a nice, fast boat, and surface intervals are taken on a white sandy beach. Often flat water in the straits, making it easy to get back on the boat. Music and kava every night. Overall, a fun place for divers on a beautiful island.
KADAVU (pronounced "kan-da-vu"). 11 nights at Matava, The Astrolabe Hideaway. I would have chosen to go here on my own, without any input from anyone, because of its proximity to the Astrolabe reef. When three different friends independently recommended it to me, just for the ambiance, then it became a "must go". I admit, when I first arrived there I had my doubts. The resort is remote and rustic. Access is only via a one hour boat ride, through sometimes rough and wet conditions in an open boat. Accommodations are in traditional Fijian bures (thatched huts). Mosquito nets over the beds, oil lamps for light. If you read Conde Nast and fly connoisseur class, don't come here. But if you are an independent traveler, looking for adventure and some diving on the wild side, you'll love it. Communal meals with western and traditional Fijian foods, sitting at tables with people from around the world.
The dive locker is basic, with adequate rental gear, but the boats are open Boston whaler style about 18ft (6m) long. The diving conditions can be rough, and getting back into the boat is often difficult. But the diving... Untouched hard corals, many so delicate and fragile they wouldn't survive the fin kicks in a heavily trampled area. Steep walls and pelagics, sharks, eagle rays, turtles and barracuda. Some dives you don't see anything. Dive the same site again and you might see everything. The big draw, however, is the manta dive. There is a small patch reef that is a cleaning station for mantas, and they can be seen there maybe 9 out of 10 dives. It's a long boat ride to get there, and access is highly dependent on weather conditions. When I dove it, we saw as many as 7 mantas at one time, each 4-5 meters in wing span. It was one of the most beautiful and amazing dives I have ever done.
BEQA (pronounced "ben-ga") LAGOON. A bit of everything: hard corals, soft corals, canyons and swim-throughs. Choppy surface conditions, and some current. I preferred Taveuni diving, with one extreme exception: the shark feeding dive. Several of the dive operators do this, especially Aqua-Trek Beqa that currently organizes trips on Fridays and Sundays. If you're in the area, don't miss it! We saw seven species of sharks on one dive, including nurse sharks, white tips, black tips, gray reef, 9ft (3m) bull sharks, a lemon shark, and an 11ft (3-4m) tiger shark! Not to mention spotted eagle rays, dozens of 3-4ft (1m) trevelli jacks, and even a turtle getting in on the action.
You can dive Beqa Lagoon from either Marlin Bay Resort on Beqa Island (think: expensive), or coming in from the town of Pacific Harbor on the main island of Veti Levu. I stayed in Pacific Harbor at the Pacific Safari Club (679-450498), which ostensibly caters to backpackers but is wonderfully clean and modern. Every room has a kitchenette, TV, ceiling fans (AC for extra cost), and hot water. It's a bit noisy, but at F$35 a night (US$17!) it's gotta be the best deal in Fiji. Unadvertised Bonus: when you dive with either Aqua-Trek or Dive Connections and tell them you're staying at a backpacker hotel -- like Pacific Safari Club -- they'll give you the F$40 backpacker discount on diving, making your accommodations essentially free. If you go with Dive Connections, which is substantially cheaper and more disorganized than Aqua-Trek, you'll pay F$60 (US$30) a day for 2-tank boat diving with a light lunch. My only misgivings about Dive Connections were that I couldn't find any recent hydro marks on the tanks, but then I don't know what Fiji's standards are for tank inspections and testing. Also, don't use their rental gear. If you want efficiency, good rental gear or pampering, go with Aqua-Trek at the Centra resort, with the backpacker rate of F$120. If you just want tanks, weights and boat transport to the dive sites, Dive Connections does a fine job, but they don't do the shark feeding dive.
NANANU-I RA. Looking at a map of Fiji, the island of Nananu-i Ra is at the very northern tip of the big island of Viti Levu. You can either stay at the posh Wananavu resort on the main island, or any number of backpacker places on Nananu-i Ra itself. Wananavu gave me a really good walk-in deal, so I stayed there. It was nice, almost too nice for a scruffian like myself; I think I might have felt more at home at one of the backpacker places on Nananu-i Ra. Another friend who went there around the same time pointed out that Wananvu doesn't have that rough-and-tumble, dedicated dive resort atmosphere that a lot of hard core divers like. Maybe it's just us. I had a good time regardless, and enjoyed talking with the staff and owners.
Crystal Divers, an expensive (for Fiji) and somewhat vaunted dive operation, was closed the week I was there, so I dove with economical Ra Divers instead, based at Wananavu. As it turns out, that was probably for the best: Crystal divers has a large fast boat, and they use it to get to some remote dive sites, taking up to an hour to get there. That doesn't necessarily mean the sites are any better than the ones close in! The sites around Nananu-i Ra, 15-20 minutes away, seemed to have a pleasant mix of everything: hard and soft corals, lots of colors and little critters, sharks, barracudas, and swim-throughs, arches and caves everywhere. If I was an underwater photographer coming to Fiji, this is where I would want to go. Ra Divers did a fine job; divemasters Knox and Steve were good natured and relaxed.
Happy diving!
g2
I returned from Fiji on the 20th of December, after about 6 weeks of diving and island hopping. All in all, it was great. I wasn't quite sure where to go for the best diving, so I went looking for it! If you haven't been to Fiji, the best thing about it is the people -- they are some of the friendliest folks I've ever met. Even if you don't dive much, it's a fantastic cultural experience just to go to meet the Fijians. I highly recommend visiting some of the outer islands and villages away from the urban areas.
This trip report is long, so if you're not going to Fiji anytime soon you may wish to just skip through it. Having said that, here's my experiences. Your mileage may vary...
November through about March is a bit rainier and windier than other times of the year, so the visibility wasn't as good as I would have liked, typically 30-60ft (10-20m) on most dives. It's supposed to be nicer at other times of the year, often exceeding 100ft (30m) or more. The water temps were somewhat cool, 78-81F (26-28C). I wore a full 3mm wetsuit and would have liked a hood or beanie too. Other people dove in shorties; some came out cold but others seemed to do okay. The currents can chill you faster than expected.
Although some of the dive shops had good rental gear -- especially Aqua-Trek -- others did not. In fact I saw some rental gear fail during dives. Yikes! Unless you plan on diving with upscale dive shops and resorts, I would suggest bringing your own gear. Be sure to take spare parts, extra log book pages, fish ID books, etc., because most places won't have much, if anything. A reef hook and gloves are also a good idea, as the currents can be brisk and you may need to hang on to the anchor line or the reef. Also, almost every dive operation had some problems with their boats. Twice we had to be towed back to the dock. With the drop in tourism, it seems that boat maintenance is where the corners are being cut.
Most places do only two dives a day because the wind picks up in the afternoons, making conditions rough. This can be frustrating if you wanted a 3-4 dive/day trip. Although many outfits say they will do a third afternoon dive, I never saw one actually offered. Night dives can also be scarce; it takes a critical mass of interested divers to make one happen. Still, most people are pretty wiped out after just the two morning dives. I'm a die-hard diving fanatic, but I found myself content to do just two a day and spend the rest of the afternoon reading books and sipping foo-foo drinks with little umbrellas in them.
If you're flexible about dates, times and where to stay, you can save buckets of money by booking things on-the-fly, especially in November/December (lowish season). Many of the resorts I saw were deserted, and most would give a special price if you made the reservation yourself. Just give them a call and ask if they have a walk-in special; I did this, traveling sort of "al la carte", making hotel and island-hopper airline reservations even on the day I wanted to travel, and rarely had any problem. Most places were delighted to have my business, especially following the cancellation storm after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. The larger, swanky resorts have suffered the most; places catering to backpackers and independent travelers seem to be hanging on better, as those types of people aren't deterred as much by international events. Don't deal with the travel agents at Nadi airport: they don't know where the good diving is, and will only try to sell you accommodations and packages that make them the highest commission.
Virtually all of the diving is by boat, follow-the-divemaster style, and most operations set depth and time limits. These limits are generally for the divers without computers; I dove with a computer and followed my own profile, which was usually no problem. Where I knew the diving would be cut short because other divers would run out of air sooner, I made a point of being in the water and submerged before the heavy breathers and loitering around the coral heads until I was last out, thus extending my dives by 10-15 minutes each. Even so, I often came up with lots of air left. There ought to be more latitude for experienced divers.
Locations visited (please read beyond my initial bad experience in Savusavu)...
SAVUSAVU. Stayed at the Hot Springs Hotel, which was clean and comfy, with good food and a friendly staff. I was one of only three people staying there. The diving conditions were rough, and the sites had a lot of dead coral. Eco-Divers was economical and they dive the same sites as the fancy Costeau resort down the road, but they gave me an aluminum 80 tank for the first dive and a 72 for the second dive each day. When I pointed this out and asked for an 80 on the second dive, the DM shrugged and gave me one. It was a short fill, naturally, 2000psi. This begrudging air allotment was especially puzzling because I was their only customer. I had planned on 5-7 days of diving there, but after two days of abuse I left for Taveuni where I had a much better time.
TAVEUNI. Planned on 7 nights, but stayed for 11 at the Garden Island Resort, diving with Aqua-Trek, and it was great. The food was yummy; the only complaint I heard was from the people on the all-you-want meal plan who were overeating. Standard, comfortable hotel rooms with everything except televisions, thankfully. The Somosomo straits can have currents that are rippin', but I saw beginning divers do just fine. If your buoyancy control is good and you are in fairly decent physical shape, don't worry about it. The currents feed a nice selection of soft corals, and some hard corals -- although the attraction here is the soft ones. Lots of pretty tropical fish, and the occasional white-tip shark, lionfish, turtles, humphead wrasse and beautiful banded sea snakes. Aqua-Trek has a nice, fast boat, and surface intervals are taken on a white sandy beach. Often flat water in the straits, making it easy to get back on the boat. Music and kava every night. Overall, a fun place for divers on a beautiful island.
KADAVU (pronounced "kan-da-vu"). 11 nights at Matava, The Astrolabe Hideaway. I would have chosen to go here on my own, without any input from anyone, because of its proximity to the Astrolabe reef. When three different friends independently recommended it to me, just for the ambiance, then it became a "must go". I admit, when I first arrived there I had my doubts. The resort is remote and rustic. Access is only via a one hour boat ride, through sometimes rough and wet conditions in an open boat. Accommodations are in traditional Fijian bures (thatched huts). Mosquito nets over the beds, oil lamps for light. If you read Conde Nast and fly connoisseur class, don't come here. But if you are an independent traveler, looking for adventure and some diving on the wild side, you'll love it. Communal meals with western and traditional Fijian foods, sitting at tables with people from around the world.
The dive locker is basic, with adequate rental gear, but the boats are open Boston whaler style about 18ft (6m) long. The diving conditions can be rough, and getting back into the boat is often difficult. But the diving... Untouched hard corals, many so delicate and fragile they wouldn't survive the fin kicks in a heavily trampled area. Steep walls and pelagics, sharks, eagle rays, turtles and barracuda. Some dives you don't see anything. Dive the same site again and you might see everything. The big draw, however, is the manta dive. There is a small patch reef that is a cleaning station for mantas, and they can be seen there maybe 9 out of 10 dives. It's a long boat ride to get there, and access is highly dependent on weather conditions. When I dove it, we saw as many as 7 mantas at one time, each 4-5 meters in wing span. It was one of the most beautiful and amazing dives I have ever done.
BEQA (pronounced "ben-ga") LAGOON. A bit of everything: hard corals, soft corals, canyons and swim-throughs. Choppy surface conditions, and some current. I preferred Taveuni diving, with one extreme exception: the shark feeding dive. Several of the dive operators do this, especially Aqua-Trek Beqa that currently organizes trips on Fridays and Sundays. If you're in the area, don't miss it! We saw seven species of sharks on one dive, including nurse sharks, white tips, black tips, gray reef, 9ft (3m) bull sharks, a lemon shark, and an 11ft (3-4m) tiger shark! Not to mention spotted eagle rays, dozens of 3-4ft (1m) trevelli jacks, and even a turtle getting in on the action.
You can dive Beqa Lagoon from either Marlin Bay Resort on Beqa Island (think: expensive), or coming in from the town of Pacific Harbor on the main island of Veti Levu. I stayed in Pacific Harbor at the Pacific Safari Club (679-450498), which ostensibly caters to backpackers but is wonderfully clean and modern. Every room has a kitchenette, TV, ceiling fans (AC for extra cost), and hot water. It's a bit noisy, but at F$35 a night (US$17!) it's gotta be the best deal in Fiji. Unadvertised Bonus: when you dive with either Aqua-Trek or Dive Connections and tell them you're staying at a backpacker hotel -- like Pacific Safari Club -- they'll give you the F$40 backpacker discount on diving, making your accommodations essentially free. If you go with Dive Connections, which is substantially cheaper and more disorganized than Aqua-Trek, you'll pay F$60 (US$30) a day for 2-tank boat diving with a light lunch. My only misgivings about Dive Connections were that I couldn't find any recent hydro marks on the tanks, but then I don't know what Fiji's standards are for tank inspections and testing. Also, don't use their rental gear. If you want efficiency, good rental gear or pampering, go with Aqua-Trek at the Centra resort, with the backpacker rate of F$120. If you just want tanks, weights and boat transport to the dive sites, Dive Connections does a fine job, but they don't do the shark feeding dive.
NANANU-I RA. Looking at a map of Fiji, the island of Nananu-i Ra is at the very northern tip of the big island of Viti Levu. You can either stay at the posh Wananavu resort on the main island, or any number of backpacker places on Nananu-i Ra itself. Wananavu gave me a really good walk-in deal, so I stayed there. It was nice, almost too nice for a scruffian like myself; I think I might have felt more at home at one of the backpacker places on Nananu-i Ra. Another friend who went there around the same time pointed out that Wananvu doesn't have that rough-and-tumble, dedicated dive resort atmosphere that a lot of hard core divers like. Maybe it's just us. I had a good time regardless, and enjoyed talking with the staff and owners.
Crystal Divers, an expensive (for Fiji) and somewhat vaunted dive operation, was closed the week I was there, so I dove with economical Ra Divers instead, based at Wananavu. As it turns out, that was probably for the best: Crystal divers has a large fast boat, and they use it to get to some remote dive sites, taking up to an hour to get there. That doesn't necessarily mean the sites are any better than the ones close in! The sites around Nananu-i Ra, 15-20 minutes away, seemed to have a pleasant mix of everything: hard and soft corals, lots of colors and little critters, sharks, barracudas, and swim-throughs, arches and caves everywhere. If I was an underwater photographer coming to Fiji, this is where I would want to go. Ra Divers did a fine job; divemasters Knox and Steve were good natured and relaxed.
Happy diving!
g2