I had a wonderful time in Fiji. The diving was amazing. The people were great. It was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to dive with world experts and a documentary crew. This trip was jointly run by the New England Aquarium and the Monterrey Bay Aquarium.
The trip had a rocky start. I arrived at the departure lounge at the Los Angeles airport after spending Christmas with family in California. And I didn't recognize anyone. I eventually saw someone with a Naia (the name of the boat) luggage tag and introduced myself and met the folks from the Monterrey Bay Aquarium who would be on the trip. I later found out that the people I knew from Boston didn't make it because of a snowstorm there, meeting up with us in Fiji two days later. And when talking to my parents on the phone I learned about the tsunami, and for the first of many times was asked if Fiji was affected by it (no, it is many thousands of miles east of the Indian Ocean).
The ten hour flight was uneventful other than being a little late. We bussed from the Nadi airport to the First Landing resort where we met up with more folks who arrived early or from other parts of the world, then a few hours later bussed to the boat in Loutoka. The Naia (Hawaiian for dolphin) is a 120 foot motor sailer with a crew of 10 and 19 passengers for our voyage. We were 10 people associated with the Monterrey Bay Aquarium, 8 from the New England Aquarium, plus Gerry Allen, a reef fish expert from Australia who was invited along. Amoung the New England folks were some people shooting underwater documentary footage with a special hi-definition video rig for later use at the Aquarium.
We did our first dive an hour after boarding. Heidi from California and I chose to be dive buddies, and continued this for the entire voyage becoming good friends. That first dive, not far from an industrial city, was already better than any of the diving I have done in the Caribbean. And it only got better.
The next nine days were all about diving. The schedule was typically: wake up around 6:30am, usually when you hear them drop anchor after motoring to a new site overnight. A cold breakfast was offered first thing in the morning, then the morning dive. After that was a hot breakfast (generally with a choice of something egg-based or bread-based), often followed by a presentation of some sort. Next was a second morning dive, then lunch, then another dive, then afternoon snack, then another dive, then dinner. After dinner there was usually a video. Some nights there was a fifth dive offered after dinner. The meals were all very good, usually with a choice of 2 or 3 items, usually meat, seafood or vegetarian. Afternoon snack often had fresh baked cookies or brownies.
I did four dives most days. I only skipped two dives all week; both were night dives. I actually did 5 dives on one day, and completed 37 dives by the end of the trip. I started the trip going through my air much faster than most of the other divers, as I've had problems with in the past. The concentrated diving gave me a chance to work on that, and it was much improved by the end of the trip. All diving was done from two small inflatable motor boats "skiffs" rather than directly from the ship. The Fijian crew were very friendly and helpful, and quite strong, easily moving our gear and tanks around for us.
There is easily ten times as much marine life in the South Pacific as in the Caribbean Ocean. On every dive we saw many kinds of fish, lots of coral and other creatures. Clownfish in their anemones were quite common. Huge clouds of orange and purple anthias swam above each reef. I got to see in the wild many of the fish that I've bought in pet stores and kept in my home aquariums.
On the second day I got to see manta rays. First we saw a pair of them swimming circles feeding just off the wall we were diving on. Later in that dive another manta swam by very close to us. Usually we only moved the ship at night, but that afternoon we sailed to another island to pick up the rest of the Boston people who missed their flight. While under sail we were accompanied by a pod of dolphins. Then I did a muck dive under the town pier. While the mud and trash in the water weren't scenic, there were a lot of interesting critters living there.
We dived off of Wakaya, a privately owned island with a very high-end resort and the house that Bill Gates spent his honeymoon at. We saw sharks on at least half the dives--generally white tipped sharks, and occasionally grey reef sharks. We did a shark feeding dive where there were a lot of grey reef sharks. We saw lionfish and pipefish and blue ribbon eels. Lots of different brightly colored nudibranchs. I saw three different octopuses.
On New Year's Eve we visited a Fijian village to see their celebration. We arrived during their church service (protestant Christian) and heard the beautiful choir. At midnight the pastor led them in three rounds of "Hip, hip, hurrah!". Then we moved to their community hall where there were more speeches (mostly in Fijian), dancing, singing, and the sharing of kava. We brought gifts for the village--educational materials and sporting goods.
While I hadn't told anyone about my birthday, they had gotten it from my medical forms and sang and gave me a cake. On another evening late in the trip we did a kava party on the ship. Everyone dressed up in their sulus (kind of like a skirt which the Fijians, both men and women, wear) and the crew sang and served kava. Most Westerners don't like the taste of kava, but it's a mild stimulant that the Fijians drink. I tried it New Year's Eve, but got an upset stomach so avoided it later in the trip.
When the Naia returned to dock, were were all bussed back to the First Landing resort until our flights the next day. We made a couple of shopping trips into Nadi (I bought a painting of some fish). We visited the orchid gardens started by Raymond Burr. And hung out on the beach and at the pool. On the way back I got to live Saturday twice by crossing the international date line (I missed a day entirely going out).
I had such a wonderful time that I'm trying to figure out when I can next make it to that part of the world, and would certainly join the Naia for another cruise.
-Mark
(I go for the cutesy stuff)
