Blog 10: Dive Trip to Fiji
In mid-February we went on a dive trip to Fiji with Diver’s City, the dive shop we patronized in Winnipeg. We had an amazing trip, and the diving was top notch!
We flew from Sydney to Nadi on Friday, February 8th with Air Fiji, which was a great experience overall. The airline is very themed, with all the flight attendants wearing Fijian inspired dresses and shirts, and spa music playing while everyone boards the aircraft and gets settled. The food was surprisingly good (curry!!!!), and they would bring around Fiji Gold beer every so often. Once we arrived in Nadi, we stayed overnight at the Novotel by the airport. We had a comfortable room, and the restaurant was very nice. We dined with a large group of frogs on the patio.
The next morning we went back to the airport to meet the group from Winnipeg. Then we were off on our two and a half hour bus ride to Pacific Harbour. There, we took a 45 minute boat transfer to Beqa Lagoon Resort. The resort was very nice, and our whole group was upgraded to ocean front bures with plunge pools! It was very hot while we were there, so the pools were a nice perk.
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| Boat Ride Over |
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| Our Plunge Pool & View |
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| Our Bure |
We dove two to three boat dives per day for the week we were there, except the last day (you can’t dive within 24 hours of flying). We really enjoyed the dive sites there, and saw so many varieties of anemone fish. We also saw ribbon eel, which are quite rare. On the days with three dives, we had a shore lunch on a nearby beach, which was fun. One of the days, we also participated in the shark dives. Unfortunately, these dives are baited, which is not good from a conservation perspective, as it definitely changes shark behaviour. We both went on the shark dive, as I managed to talk myself into trying at least one of the shark dives. Jacqui, our trip leader, agreed to let me sit with her, so I felt much better underwater with such an experienced diver next to me. It was very interesting to see all of the sharks: tawny nurse, black-tip reef, white-tip reef, lemon, bull, and tiger sharks. It was interesting to see their different behaviours as well. I had a good enough time that I went on the second shark dive, which was challenging due to a very strong current. I don’t think I’ll do a shark dive again, but I’m glad I did it, as I definitely fear them less underwater.
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| Anemone Fish |
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| Shark Dive |
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| Tiger Shark |
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| Sea Cucumber |
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| Leah & Sea Fan |
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| Do you see the Octopus? |
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| Lobster |
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| Jelly |
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| Hey Drew! |
While at the resort we also went to nearby village, and met some of the people there and visited their market & medical clinic. The island has no roads, so you either get around by walking or boat.
After a week at Beqa we switched islands. First, we took the boat back to Pacific Harbour, and then we drove to Suva, where we flew to Taveuni. There we took an hour long car ride to Paradise Resort. Again, we were upgraded, and Drew and I were put in the Honeymoon suite! We had an extra large deck with chair hammocks that overlooked the ocean—it was really rough!
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| Our group of 13 was 85% of the flight |
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| The Airport |
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| Amazing Suite! |
Taveuni is nearby to a number of famous dive sites, and our trip there was timed so that we could dive the white wall. The white wall is fairly deep, but features all white soft corals. It is very beautiful, and we were able to do it twice! We also saw the purple wall, which has all purple soft corals and sea fans. Naturally, I’m a big fan of the purple wall. We also went to the cabbage patch, which was incredible. First, you swim past coral bommies (mounds of coral), and then you arrive at giant cabbage looking coral. It was very cool.
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| The White Wall |
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| A Tiny Crustacean on Soft Coral |
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| I'm OK! |
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| Model Shot of a Sea Cucumber |
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| Nudibranch |
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| Trumpetfish |
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| The Cabbage Patch |
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| A Turtle |
** Our dive photos haven't been colour-graded yet, so keep in mind that the colours look a little flat, especially on the deeper dives.
The diving at Taveuni was similar in structure to Beqa, two or three boat dives a day. We did beach picnics on the triple dive days. We also did some night diving, and I did my first night dive with Drew, which happened to be on his 100th dive!
While we were at Taveuni, we went to a black sand beach a few times, including one time when we kayaked over to it. The resort itself was quite nice, and the food was excellent. After a week of diving, we once again hoped on a plane, this time to Nadi.
We stayed in Nadi overnight for Drew’s birthday. When we arrived at the Westin (where we were staying on points), they upgraded us to a room with a plunge pool. It was a fabulous room, and they had put out a piece of cake & bottle of champagne out for Drew’s birthday. It was a great way to start our stay there. We had Indian food for Drew’s birthday dinner. The next day we looked around the resort, went to the Sheraton next door, and then eventually had to go to the airport for our flight home.
Our trip to Fiji, as you can tell was awesome, but I would like to go back at some point and see more things above water!
