Fiji Trip Report October 2006 Part 2

[kneptoon]

The second week of our trip was spent at Wananavu Resort diving the Bligh Waters with Kai Viti divers. Wananavu was more of the ethnic Fiji type resort with very nicely done bures. The grounds are immaculate and the experience grander than Garden Island Resort, with a rotation of weddings and honeymooners. This is also a finely managed resort, with more of the resort type amenities. These resorts are quite different and I preferred some aspects of each to the other. Kai Viti divers are also an on site dive operation. The Fijians are great to dive with. Georgie and his crew were always professsional and accomodating. Or diving took place during (at that time) 2 months windy weather. Everyday, wind. The trip to the Bligh Waters is an hour boat ride, and it was a rough ride. The dives are worth the ride. Once on the reef we did 3 tank dives a day. The dives consisted of diving large coral bommies that rose from around 100ft to just below the surface. Each bommie seemed to have a prolific amount of a color of soft coral, and they are named accordingly. Purple Haze is covered with white/purple soft coral, Mellow Yellow with yellow. These are 2 of my all time favorite dives. The diving was spectacular. We saw many schooling fish and large pelagics, sharks, turtles, wahoo, tuna and mackerel. Again these dives were current dependent. No current, no plankton, ..... Unfortunately, due to the constant wind, visibility was at best 70-80ft for our 2 weeks, . The inside reef dives nearer to Wananavu were at best 40ft. I also could have used more than my 3mm suit. Though, of course there were divers just in swimming suits. Many divers augmented with hoods or vests and said it really helped. The Bligh Waters were really worth the trip out but they are weather dependent. There are days when it is too rough to make the trip. (once while we were there) That leaves the inside reefs to dive and these did not compare to Rainbow Reef. I felt we were lucky to get 25 dives in 11 days. I would still like to see it all again with pristine visibility

[ycyc1999]

I am going to the same destinations (Garden Island Resort and Wananavu Resort) in a week. I am staying for a shorter time period though, only 10 days including all the flying around. :-(

It's so great to read your report to get some assurance that I made the right choices. Since you just returned, could you elaborate a bit on the weather condition and the political situation? Thanks. Jill

[kneptoon]

There were rumors of a coup. My girlfriend was there during the 2000 "coup". It had zero impact on her travel. I would not hesitate going because of a coup, or rumors. The weater changes quickly. It was mostly overcast and windy 13 of 14 days. We were not detered from diving. The diving was not ideal, but it was great.

[Ms. Ann Thrope]

I think I'm jealous! I was diving with Kai Viti probably the week before you were, and every day it was too windy to take us to the Bligh Waters. The sites were still pretty, but the visability was mediocre and the fish life wasn't exactly abundant. I agree that Kai Viti was a good op, though (and the hot chocolate was a nice touch between dives, because with the howling wind, we were cold). I left Nananu-i-ra (across from Wananavu) after four days because it didn't look like it was going to get any better. I ended up trying my luck in Levuka and didn't have any there, either. If I had only gone for diving, I think I would have been disappointed.

I'll add that I was in Suva for a few days, and even though all the papers were talking about the possible coup, there didn't seem to be much tension on the street. There were a lot of paramilitary-looking police walking around, but I don't think they were even packing much heat. People that I talked to didn't seem all that concerned--a taxi driver said that during the last coup, there were evening curfews, but ordinary citizens weren't much affected beyond that. The U.S. embassy had much more visible security (big gates, bomb swabbing for all cars) than did the Fiji parliament building, which I found sort of interesting.

[swingorchid]

Can any one tell me if diving in Tavuni is too hard for beginners? We read in the forum that the currents are strong.

[kneptoon]

My dive partner had only 20 dives before diving in Taveuni. She didn't find the currents that difficult. She commented that the Cozumel currents seemed stronger. We dove 11 dives in Taveuni, none that we felt that the current was a problem. Photographers did have some problems. I think you would be fine diving there as a beginner. Keep an eye on your depth gauge, as there are some down drafting currents.