Sas
Contributor
I headed with five friends to Beqa Lagoon, Fiji in September this year. Beqa (pronounced 'Benga') Island is about 12 kilometres to the south of Viti Levu, the main island of Fiji. Between the mainland is a 68km barrier reef around the lagoon of Beqa and it is well known for its soft corals and shark dives. There is plenty of marine life as well including turtles, many kinds of sharks, nudibranches, pelagic fish, eels, triggerfish and tonnes of other kinds of tropical fish. May to October is considered the best time to dive as it is the dry season and even though the water is cooler, the visibility is much better.
Travel
To get to Fiji from Melbourne, Australia it was approximately 4.5 hours to Nadi Airport (and 5.5 hours return). We'd organised our transfers in advance and were met at the airport by someone from the resort. The trip to Pacific Harbour was about two hours long and we stopped in Sigatoka for a break during the trip. Sigatoka was a nice place to spend some time in as there is a big fresh produce market, supermarkets, souvenir shops and places to get hot food for lunch. If you want snacks such as crisps and chocolate for the island (as once you're on the island these are a bit more limited) stock up here. At Pacific Harbour we got on a boat to head out to Beqa Island. It was about 40mins long and quite comfortable on the boat, which is large, has sheltered areas as well as a toilet. A few people got seasick however (it was slightly choppy) so take some Kwells in advance if you are prone to this. On the island we were greeted by a group of Fijians singing a welcome song and we all got flower necklaces.
Accommodation
There are a few places to stay if you want to dive Beqa Lagoon and you can stay at places around the Pacific Harbour area if you don't want to leave the mainland. On the island itself there are four resorts and we stayed at Beqa Lagoon Resort. A lot of friends had recommended this place to me and I wasn't disappointed with the quality. The bures were lovely, very comfortable, clean, spacious and they all had a fan and air conditioning, protection from the mozzies, a safe, queen sized bed with an optional single bed if needed. The resort itself was quite pretty, with lots of coconut trees, nice gardens and around our room was a moat with lillies and lots of frogs. The dining area is open and there is a bar with beer, wine, cocktails, etc. The bugs weren't too much of a problem on most days but bug repellent is a good idea just in case.
Resort at sunset
Our package included meals and the food was delicious. There is a fairly standard buffet breakfast (cereal, fruit, juice + toast) and you can also order pancakes, french toast or omlettes. This was served at 7am for the divers until 9am. I think if I was not diving I would have preferred breakfast to run until 10am and the two non-divers in the group felt the same. Lunch is ready not long after the boat returns from diving (around 1-2pm) and dinner is at 7pm. If you have special meal requests these are catered for and lunch and dinner have three options - vegetarian, seafood, or meat, with dinner having an entree and a dessert. Anyway, there was plenty of food and it was very good quality. If you want snacks there is some from the bar or also at a convenience store (which also sells clothes, jewelry, toiletries and so on).
As far as activities go, there were cultural activities run each day after diving and included a waterfall walk, a visit to the local village (though it rained heavily that day so it got cancelled), fire-walking (Beqa is famous for its fire walkers), kava ceremony (didn't taste as bad as I was expecting but ask for 'low tide' servings unless you're happy to go quite numb!), visit to the local school, a coconut show and a cooking class. The coconut show and cooking class were lots of fun as the guy who ran them was hilarious! You can also snorkel, kayak, go deep sea fishing, surf, hike, swim in the pool, nap in hammocks or use the spa (massages, manicures, and all that stuff) and so on, if you don't wish to just dive.
The service was great and pretty much everything was done for us. The staff went out of their way to be helpful including surprising our group with birthday cakes (as we had two birthdays in our group) and even set up a wedding for two people who decided to get married during our stay.
The Diving
Shore Diving
One big reason why we went with Beqa Lagoon Resort is they include unlimited free shore dives for divers. A lot of the resorts I looked at either didn't allow diving off the shore, or they charged for it or they had a bunch of requirements you had to meet to be able to shore dive (such as having to have a DM on every dive to 'supervise'). We didn't want to just be restricted to two dives a day from the boat on a set schedule. The resort had the dive shop right near the shore so if you wanted to go diving you just showed up, grabbed your weights (so if you want to shore dive, let them know and they'll take your weights off the boat for you), and a tank and had a short walk to the water. The only thing you really had to do was let the shop know if you were going out at night and let them know when you got back. The shore dives were good but not awesome (like the boat dives). There are a fair few reef structures and we checked out most of them during our time. Near shore are also lots of blue starfish, some lionfish, heaps of nudibranches, many anemones with resident clownfish, damselfish, bannerfish, batfish, octopuses, angelfish and lots more. The visibility from shore is not nearly as good as out in the boat though it was usually 15-20m. We had unseasonal torrential rain on about half the days, which dropped the visibility down to about 5m in some areas, but it cleared up quickly. Water temperature was 24-25C on all days.
Blue Sea Star
Nudibranch
Boat Diving
There are about 35 sites around the lagoon that are regularly dived and we went to a different one each dive. We were lucky that during our stay the resort was very quiet (only about 20 divers), and they would use two boats. On our boat there were usually only 6-8 divers and we'd be the only boat at the site so it was not crowded at all in the water or on the boat. For the night dive there was 15 on the boat but you barely noticed as there was a lot of room. The boats were comfortable, with a covered area, towels, a toilet, O2 on board, and big tubs to wash cameras in.
The boat left each morning at 7.45am and to get out to the dive sites it was usually a 30-45min boat ride. The crew brings all of your gear on board if you leave it in the shop the night before. Every day except for one had very calm conditions, the visibility was constantly 30m+ (despite the rain), and the temperature 24-25C. It wasn't particularly warm on the surface (as we went in winter), 21-24C and there could be wind so a windbreaker and beanie is recommended. I was in a 3mm fullsuit and was comfortable but most of the others who were from warmer climates got cold in their 3mm + 5mms. Fiji is not the warmest tropical place to dive so that's worth considering if you tend to get cold easily. Everyone in my group except for me brought 7mm semi-drys, and they were worried about overheating but this wasn't an issue at all. The dive sites aren't really deeper than 35m and most dives I did were in the 18m range. The tops of the coral heads are in 5m of water so safety stops are not boring! Most dives were around 60mins long (and you are limited to this so the boat can be back for lunch). The dives are guided if you want and they had a DM per 4-6 divers, but following them was not mandatory and they were happy to follow you around a lot (nearly everyone on the boat were photographers so this was more usual). Sometimes there was a bit of a current but nothing too strenuous. Between the dives there was an hour's surface interval where you got juice, water and biscuits. I was a bit disappointed with the SI food so bring snacks if you get hungry during dives.
There was lots to see on the dives - blue ribbon eels, moray eels, lionfish, white tip sharks, clownfish (a lot meaner than I expected as they kept attacking my mask), lionfish, nudibranches, octopuses, triggerfish, pelagic fish (though more so towards the edge of the lagoon), turtles, various tropical fish of assorted colours and HEAPS of soft corals (which is what Fiji is known for). There were giant gorgonians and big anemones so there are plenty of nice scenes for photographers as well as macro photography opportunities as well. At some sites there were wrecks - sunk for divers and generally large fishing boats. I think there are four in total around the lagoon at depths 18-35m and we were able to dive three of them. At some sites there are swim throughs and it is interesting to exit a tunnel and see the reef leaking bubbles all over the place! You can also do a night boat dive and these are run once a week (or more by demand I believe). At night there were various crustaceans, more likely to see turtles and cephalopods, and other marine life out for feeding. On a few days the boat pulled into nearby islands so people could snorkel during the surface interval too so it is a good idea to bring a snorkel if you want to check out some snorkeling sites.
Blue Ribbon Eel
Colourful Reef and Fish
Clownfish
Shark diving
One of the things Beqa Lagoon is known for is its 'Big Fish Encounter'. Not far from the mainland (10 minute boat ride from the mainland and about 40 minutes from Beqa) is a site where you can dive with many kinds of sharks that they attract with big wheelie bins full of food. This was another big reason we picked Beqa! You can organise these at the mainland resorts or from Beqa Island. There are eight species of shark that show up regularly and 300 different species of fish that swarm around whenever the food is out. The main sharks are Bull Sharks, Blacktip, Whitetip and Grey Reef sharks, silvertip sharks, tawny nurse sharks, and lemon sharks. Occasionally a tiger shark will show up as well and we were very lucky that one showed up during our dives. Some other people on the boat had been to Beqa five times and said this was the first time it showed up for them. Other stuff to see is a huge Grouper, Maori Wrasses, Giant Trevally, heaps of Remoras, and a big fat puffer that swum around us.
The dives take place at a site called 'The Bistro' and the DMs get in the water and start handing out food. Some of them have big poles, to push the sharks away with in case they get too close. Even though there were lots of sharks around it never felt unsafe at all. Then everyone else enters and stays behind a line in about 25m of water. If you ask in advance they will take some photographers closer for photos or get others to come over and pat some of the sharks. It is difficult to work out what is going on at first as there are so many swarming fish you can barely see the sharks! Anyway after a bit the fish thinned a bit and I saw bull sharks, nurse sharks and also lemon sharks trying to stick their heads in the wheelie bins. There were reef sharks as well but they hung around more towards the edge. Towards the end of the dive I saw a huge stripy shark show up in the distance but didn't think much of it (as I didn't get a close look) until I got out when my buddy said 'did you see the tiger at the end??', and then I realised the tiger shark had shown up! During our surface interval we snorkeled up top watching it lurk below with the bull sharks. After an hour we all got back in for the second dive and this one is at around 18m, again behind a rope whilst the DMs fed the sharks. The tiger (around 5.7m I am told) swum around a lot and was eating giant fish heads. At one point it turned and swum right over my head, within touching distance! I got the whole thing on video too so that was probably the highlight of the trip. After the sharks had dispersed I explored the nearby wreck, which is upside down and sits not far from the feeding spot. Across the back it had remoras stuck along the top, all in a line, which I found very cute. There are bits of reef here and there too so lots of other marine life to see after the sharks disappear. The whole thing is filmed and you can purchase a copy of the DVD after the dive.
Tiger Shark in the distance
Buddy on a wreck
Lazy Remoras
Lots of fish during shark feed
Anyway, overall it was a great trip. Though probably more so for the divers in our group as the others were a bit limited by the bad weather early in the week and were only able to get out for about half the trip for their activities. Also the resort revolves around diving or honeymooners so if you don't fall into those categories there are probably better options. For me, the resort was comfortable, the food delicious, the locals very friendly, and the diving awesome, so will definitely go back!
Anyway, there's some more photos here if anyone is interested: Beqa, Fiji - a set on Flickr
Also would like to thank the people who helped me in these threads and via PM: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/pacific-islands/297520-fiji-water-temperature.html and http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/pacific-islands/281060-shore-diving-fiji.html, especially Wiggsy!
Travel
To get to Fiji from Melbourne, Australia it was approximately 4.5 hours to Nadi Airport (and 5.5 hours return). We'd organised our transfers in advance and were met at the airport by someone from the resort. The trip to Pacific Harbour was about two hours long and we stopped in Sigatoka for a break during the trip. Sigatoka was a nice place to spend some time in as there is a big fresh produce market, supermarkets, souvenir shops and places to get hot food for lunch. If you want snacks such as crisps and chocolate for the island (as once you're on the island these are a bit more limited) stock up here. At Pacific Harbour we got on a boat to head out to Beqa Island. It was about 40mins long and quite comfortable on the boat, which is large, has sheltered areas as well as a toilet. A few people got seasick however (it was slightly choppy) so take some Kwells in advance if you are prone to this. On the island we were greeted by a group of Fijians singing a welcome song and we all got flower necklaces.
Accommodation
There are a few places to stay if you want to dive Beqa Lagoon and you can stay at places around the Pacific Harbour area if you don't want to leave the mainland. On the island itself there are four resorts and we stayed at Beqa Lagoon Resort. A lot of friends had recommended this place to me and I wasn't disappointed with the quality. The bures were lovely, very comfortable, clean, spacious and they all had a fan and air conditioning, protection from the mozzies, a safe, queen sized bed with an optional single bed if needed. The resort itself was quite pretty, with lots of coconut trees, nice gardens and around our room was a moat with lillies and lots of frogs. The dining area is open and there is a bar with beer, wine, cocktails, etc. The bugs weren't too much of a problem on most days but bug repellent is a good idea just in case.
Resort at sunset
Our package included meals and the food was delicious. There is a fairly standard buffet breakfast (cereal, fruit, juice + toast) and you can also order pancakes, french toast or omlettes. This was served at 7am for the divers until 9am. I think if I was not diving I would have preferred breakfast to run until 10am and the two non-divers in the group felt the same. Lunch is ready not long after the boat returns from diving (around 1-2pm) and dinner is at 7pm. If you have special meal requests these are catered for and lunch and dinner have three options - vegetarian, seafood, or meat, with dinner having an entree and a dessert. Anyway, there was plenty of food and it was very good quality. If you want snacks there is some from the bar or also at a convenience store (which also sells clothes, jewelry, toiletries and so on).
As far as activities go, there were cultural activities run each day after diving and included a waterfall walk, a visit to the local village (though it rained heavily that day so it got cancelled), fire-walking (Beqa is famous for its fire walkers), kava ceremony (didn't taste as bad as I was expecting but ask for 'low tide' servings unless you're happy to go quite numb!), visit to the local school, a coconut show and a cooking class. The coconut show and cooking class were lots of fun as the guy who ran them was hilarious! You can also snorkel, kayak, go deep sea fishing, surf, hike, swim in the pool, nap in hammocks or use the spa (massages, manicures, and all that stuff) and so on, if you don't wish to just dive.
The service was great and pretty much everything was done for us. The staff went out of their way to be helpful including surprising our group with birthday cakes (as we had two birthdays in our group) and even set up a wedding for two people who decided to get married during our stay.
The Diving
Shore Diving
One big reason why we went with Beqa Lagoon Resort is they include unlimited free shore dives for divers. A lot of the resorts I looked at either didn't allow diving off the shore, or they charged for it or they had a bunch of requirements you had to meet to be able to shore dive (such as having to have a DM on every dive to 'supervise'). We didn't want to just be restricted to two dives a day from the boat on a set schedule. The resort had the dive shop right near the shore so if you wanted to go diving you just showed up, grabbed your weights (so if you want to shore dive, let them know and they'll take your weights off the boat for you), and a tank and had a short walk to the water. The only thing you really had to do was let the shop know if you were going out at night and let them know when you got back. The shore dives were good but not awesome (like the boat dives). There are a fair few reef structures and we checked out most of them during our time. Near shore are also lots of blue starfish, some lionfish, heaps of nudibranches, many anemones with resident clownfish, damselfish, bannerfish, batfish, octopuses, angelfish and lots more. The visibility from shore is not nearly as good as out in the boat though it was usually 15-20m. We had unseasonal torrential rain on about half the days, which dropped the visibility down to about 5m in some areas, but it cleared up quickly. Water temperature was 24-25C on all days.
Blue Sea Star
Nudibranch
Boat Diving
There are about 35 sites around the lagoon that are regularly dived and we went to a different one each dive. We were lucky that during our stay the resort was very quiet (only about 20 divers), and they would use two boats. On our boat there were usually only 6-8 divers and we'd be the only boat at the site so it was not crowded at all in the water or on the boat. For the night dive there was 15 on the boat but you barely noticed as there was a lot of room. The boats were comfortable, with a covered area, towels, a toilet, O2 on board, and big tubs to wash cameras in.
The boat left each morning at 7.45am and to get out to the dive sites it was usually a 30-45min boat ride. The crew brings all of your gear on board if you leave it in the shop the night before. Every day except for one had very calm conditions, the visibility was constantly 30m+ (despite the rain), and the temperature 24-25C. It wasn't particularly warm on the surface (as we went in winter), 21-24C and there could be wind so a windbreaker and beanie is recommended. I was in a 3mm fullsuit and was comfortable but most of the others who were from warmer climates got cold in their 3mm + 5mms. Fiji is not the warmest tropical place to dive so that's worth considering if you tend to get cold easily. Everyone in my group except for me brought 7mm semi-drys, and they were worried about overheating but this wasn't an issue at all. The dive sites aren't really deeper than 35m and most dives I did were in the 18m range. The tops of the coral heads are in 5m of water so safety stops are not boring! Most dives were around 60mins long (and you are limited to this so the boat can be back for lunch). The dives are guided if you want and they had a DM per 4-6 divers, but following them was not mandatory and they were happy to follow you around a lot (nearly everyone on the boat were photographers so this was more usual). Sometimes there was a bit of a current but nothing too strenuous. Between the dives there was an hour's surface interval where you got juice, water and biscuits. I was a bit disappointed with the SI food so bring snacks if you get hungry during dives.
There was lots to see on the dives - blue ribbon eels, moray eels, lionfish, white tip sharks, clownfish (a lot meaner than I expected as they kept attacking my mask), lionfish, nudibranches, octopuses, triggerfish, pelagic fish (though more so towards the edge of the lagoon), turtles, various tropical fish of assorted colours and HEAPS of soft corals (which is what Fiji is known for). There were giant gorgonians and big anemones so there are plenty of nice scenes for photographers as well as macro photography opportunities as well. At some sites there were wrecks - sunk for divers and generally large fishing boats. I think there are four in total around the lagoon at depths 18-35m and we were able to dive three of them. At some sites there are swim throughs and it is interesting to exit a tunnel and see the reef leaking bubbles all over the place! You can also do a night boat dive and these are run once a week (or more by demand I believe). At night there were various crustaceans, more likely to see turtles and cephalopods, and other marine life out for feeding. On a few days the boat pulled into nearby islands so people could snorkel during the surface interval too so it is a good idea to bring a snorkel if you want to check out some snorkeling sites.
Blue Ribbon Eel
Colourful Reef and Fish
Clownfish
Shark diving
One of the things Beqa Lagoon is known for is its 'Big Fish Encounter'. Not far from the mainland (10 minute boat ride from the mainland and about 40 minutes from Beqa) is a site where you can dive with many kinds of sharks that they attract with big wheelie bins full of food. This was another big reason we picked Beqa! You can organise these at the mainland resorts or from Beqa Island. There are eight species of shark that show up regularly and 300 different species of fish that swarm around whenever the food is out. The main sharks are Bull Sharks, Blacktip, Whitetip and Grey Reef sharks, silvertip sharks, tawny nurse sharks, and lemon sharks. Occasionally a tiger shark will show up as well and we were very lucky that one showed up during our dives. Some other people on the boat had been to Beqa five times and said this was the first time it showed up for them. Other stuff to see is a huge Grouper, Maori Wrasses, Giant Trevally, heaps of Remoras, and a big fat puffer that swum around us.
The dives take place at a site called 'The Bistro' and the DMs get in the water and start handing out food. Some of them have big poles, to push the sharks away with in case they get too close. Even though there were lots of sharks around it never felt unsafe at all. Then everyone else enters and stays behind a line in about 25m of water. If you ask in advance they will take some photographers closer for photos or get others to come over and pat some of the sharks. It is difficult to work out what is going on at first as there are so many swarming fish you can barely see the sharks! Anyway after a bit the fish thinned a bit and I saw bull sharks, nurse sharks and also lemon sharks trying to stick their heads in the wheelie bins. There were reef sharks as well but they hung around more towards the edge. Towards the end of the dive I saw a huge stripy shark show up in the distance but didn't think much of it (as I didn't get a close look) until I got out when my buddy said 'did you see the tiger at the end??', and then I realised the tiger shark had shown up! During our surface interval we snorkeled up top watching it lurk below with the bull sharks. After an hour we all got back in for the second dive and this one is at around 18m, again behind a rope whilst the DMs fed the sharks. The tiger (around 5.7m I am told) swum around a lot and was eating giant fish heads. At one point it turned and swum right over my head, within touching distance! I got the whole thing on video too so that was probably the highlight of the trip. After the sharks had dispersed I explored the nearby wreck, which is upside down and sits not far from the feeding spot. Across the back it had remoras stuck along the top, all in a line, which I found very cute. There are bits of reef here and there too so lots of other marine life to see after the sharks disappear. The whole thing is filmed and you can purchase a copy of the DVD after the dive.
Tiger Shark in the distance
Buddy on a wreck
Lazy Remoras
Lots of fish during shark feed
Anyway, overall it was a great trip. Though probably more so for the divers in our group as the others were a bit limited by the bad weather early in the week and were only able to get out for about half the trip for their activities. Also the resort revolves around diving or honeymooners so if you don't fall into those categories there are probably better options. For me, the resort was comfortable, the food delicious, the locals very friendly, and the diving awesome, so will definitely go back!
Anyway, there's some more photos here if anyone is interested: Beqa, Fiji - a set on Flickr
Also would like to thank the people who helped me in these threads and via PM: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/pacific-islands/297520-fiji-water-temperature.html and http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/pacific-islands/281060-shore-diving-fiji.html, especially Wiggsy!
Towards the end they would disperse a bit and you could see the sharks a lot better 
