edpdiver
Contributor
My wife and I recently returned from our second trip to the Sau Bay Resort, where we stayed for 13 nights and dove for 12 days. The trip was excellent and we are anxious to return. We arrived at the international airport in Nadi on January 12, transferred to small plane for the 1.5 hour flight to Taveuni. There was a taxi waiting for us in Taveuni that took us for a twenty minute drive to the boat, which took us for a twenty minute ride to the Sau Bay Resort. We arrived in the morning, and they had breakfast for us shortly. The resort was as we remembered it, very beautiful with just a few cottages (bures). I believe that there were four or five of them. We stayed in the same one we did on our last trip, the one closest to the resort restaurant/lounge area, which was particularly beautiful. We were the only divers at the resort, although sometimes snorkelers would go out with us on the boat, and they had there own guide. There was a new dive guide on this trip, named Tiko. He was extremely helpful and accomodating, and we liked him as much as we did the previous divemaster. One change from our previous trip is that they have a new dive boat, which is roughly twice as fast as the old one. It never took us more than twenty minutes to reach a dive site from the resort, which was a great change. The food at the resort was excellent, as it was previously. Every morning, we would have a breakfast at 7:30am, except for one day, where the tide schedule dictated that we leave a little earlier so we could get to the Great White Wall when the currents would not be too strong to dive. It was worth noting that the dive operation worked to accommodate whatever schedule we wished to dive by. We would go for two dives in the morning, and elected not to do any afternoon dives. We would come back for lunch (usually a choice of two main courses), and relax in the afternoon. Typically we would have a drink at 6:30pm, chatting with the other guests (typically between 2 and 6 other guests), followed by dinner at 7 or 7:30pm (again with a choice of two entrees).
The diving was excellent. It really is the soft coral capitol of the world. The soft corals were incredibly beautiful. The hard corals were excellent at some sites, but had been damaged in cyclones at others. The fish were beautiful, too. We typically saw huge schools of anthias, as well as fusiliers. There were typically a couple of white tip reef sharks that we would see on each dive. There were a few turtles, too. Surprisingly, we also spotted a manta ray at the end of a dive while doing our safety stop. It just swam around us, checking us out. Here are a few pictures showing what the scenery looked like.
The whole set can be found here
The diving was excellent. It really is the soft coral capitol of the world. The soft corals were incredibly beautiful. The hard corals were excellent at some sites, but had been damaged in cyclones at others. The fish were beautiful, too. We typically saw huge schools of anthias, as well as fusiliers. There were typically a couple of white tip reef sharks that we would see on each dive. There were a few turtles, too. Surprisingly, we also spotted a manta ray at the end of a dive while doing our safety stop. It just swam around us, checking us out. Here are a few pictures showing what the scenery looked like.
The whole set can be found here
