Advice for Fiji Taveuni and Beqa please

[Kelvin@sea]

Dear all,

4 of us are going to Fiji on Jul 16. After surfing a lot here, I plan my itinerary as follows:
Day 1
Arrive at Nadi at 7:30
10:30 fly to Matei, stay at Garden Island Resort, Taveuni
1 dive in the afternoon
Day 2-4
diving
Day 5
Fly to Suva, land transfer to Pacific Harbour
Stay at The Pearl South Pacific
Day 6-7
Shark Dives
Day 8
Land Tour and transfer to Nadi
Day 9
Leave at 8:30

In Taveuni, is there any dive site other than Rainbow Reef? Within an hour boat ride I mean.
At Beqa or somewhere around Pacific Harbour, apart from the shark dive, is there any underwater attraction? I remember some people mentioned about Manta Ray at Kandavu. Is it possible to do a half day trip there?

I had a few hundred logs in Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia. This is my first diving trip leaving from SE Asia, please help.

 

[Blighbaby]

not too familiar with taveuni but understand plenty to see & do on rainbow - you wont be bored.
pac harbour will also give you enough to see over 2 days. kadavu not possible on half day - its another flight and boat ride to get there.
always do some more surfing from pac harbour - frigates is a great break

 

[Kelvin@sea]

Thanks Blighbaby. I will surf by a bodyboard. Taken your advice, I cancel the plan to kadavu. Is Kadavu the place where mantas will appear?
A frequent traveler with tens of thousand logs over the world gave me an advice.
Taveuni is rich of coral and the diving is good. However, it is only on average if comparing with the dive spots I had been in Indonesia, Malaysia and Philippines. I will try to swap a day from Taveuni to Beqa.

 

[ColoDale]

There is plenty of diving around Taveuni including all sites in the Somosomo straights. On the other side of Taveuni is Qamea and other smaller islands with great diving (purple wall, seven peaks, etc). Further out are Noel's and Yellow walls with other sites around that. The latter are longer trips from Taveuni. I can't say if there more than an hour. These sites are going to have plenty of coral and at least the walls will have plenty of fish.

 

[Blighbaby]

yes, mantas at kadavu. your diving the astrolabe reef - best place to dive from is matava. but looks like thats gonna be another trip for you.
plenty to see in somosomo strait - you wont be bored.
dont always think you have to compare everything to everything - experience and what happens topside is what makes a really good dive trip.

 

[farsidefan1]

They pretty much dive the somosomo strait exclusively from the Garden Island resort. The rainbow reef is spectacular. Best soft corals I have ever seen. Critter wise I don't think it will wow you given your southeast asian diving experience.

 

[Kelvin@sea]

Thanks for your advice.
I decide to keep the itinerary. You guys are correct. 2 days diving around Taveuni won't be enough.
I will do one or two shark dive in the morning of day 8. Yeah.