Diving in Fiji
- Thread starter doronhall
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donacheson
Contributor
doronhall:
Some of us are big fans of the eastern Bligh Waters, accessed now by Kai Viti Divers running out of Wananavu Beach Resort.
Mantasscareme
Contributor
Yeah, just some added thoughts on Fiji, their last general election ended in a military coup, their next election is coming up some time between now and next September. Does this concern anyone in the least? I'm not trying to be negative here, because if the answer is "no", I'm on the next flight over there 
. Any thoughts on this?
. Any thoughts on this?almitywife
Vegemite Mod
here is the gist on Fiji and coups from my experience.
Fiji International airport and where you connect to most islands/resorts is Nadi.
From my experience, Suva (about 200klms south) is where the politics/nasty stuff originates from.
during the coup in the 90's the company i worked for had a company that had a aussie working crew in fiji. they were safe, followed the curfew (bunked down with kava) and completed the work and came home about 6 weeks after the coup. the only problem was one nite they got a bit of cabin fever and went out and partied too much, got pulled up by the cops and after a bit of frisking/bribing went back to hotel to behave. of course, times have changed but the keep your head down and out of trouble theory is always best.
we went to fiji june last year and rumors of a coup were happening again - my thoughts were that considering we were on one of the outer island, chances are that we wont even know whats going on even if it did happen until we got a phone call from home about it.
a thing to remember is that even if a coup happened, australia generally reacts pretty quickly and sends a defence force plane/boat to evacuate people because at any one time we have thousands of aussies there. last time this happened was soloman islands i think.
rumors of coup and scaring off tourists can ruin a diving industry - ask Soloman & PNG dive shops so the best thing we can do is not react before its happens, dont forget your insurance just in case and worse case senario - its a adventure for us and dont forget to spare a thought for the people that live there.
Fiji International airport and where you connect to most islands/resorts is Nadi.
From my experience, Suva (about 200klms south) is where the politics/nasty stuff originates from.
during the coup in the 90's the company i worked for had a company that had a aussie working crew in fiji. they were safe, followed the curfew (bunked down with kava) and completed the work and came home about 6 weeks after the coup. the only problem was one nite they got a bit of cabin fever and went out and partied too much, got pulled up by the cops and after a bit of frisking/bribing went back to hotel to behave. of course, times have changed but the keep your head down and out of trouble theory is always best.
we went to fiji june last year and rumors of a coup were happening again - my thoughts were that considering we were on one of the outer island, chances are that we wont even know whats going on even if it did happen until we got a phone call from home about it.
a thing to remember is that even if a coup happened, australia generally reacts pretty quickly and sends a defence force plane/boat to evacuate people because at any one time we have thousands of aussies there. last time this happened was soloman islands i think.
rumors of coup and scaring off tourists can ruin a diving industry - ask Soloman & PNG dive shops so the best thing we can do is not react before its happens, dont forget your insurance just in case and worse case senario - its a adventure for us and dont forget to spare a thought for the people that live there.
donacheson
Contributor
Mantasscareme:Yeah, just some added thoughts on Fiji, their last general election ended in a military coup, their next election is coming up some time between now and next September. Does this concern anyone in the least? I'm not trying to be negative here, because if the answer is "no", I'm on the next flight over there
As far as I know, tourists outside of Suva haven't been greatly affected by coup activities in the past. Once, when I was ready to leave Wananavu Resort, near Rakiraki on Viti Levu, for the airport in Nadi, the owner of the resort told us that some Fijians had set up road blocks, but there was no violence and the taxi driver scheduled to take us on the 2-plus hour drive to the airport felt he knew enough back roads to avoid the roadblocks. Had it just been the two of us, we would have taken the taxi, but three Canadians staying at the resort while on business were instructed to fly out immediately, so we ended up flying out on a seaplane with them. The international airport was secure. The only aggravation turned ouit to be Air New Zealand; it chose to overfly Fiji on its way to Los Angeles and failed to make provisions for all their stranded passengers. We were lucky and got on an Air Pacific flight departing a couple of hours later.
Mantasscareme
Contributor
Well, I guess that answers my question.
Mantasscareme:Yeah, just some added thoughts on Fiji, their last general election ended in a military coup, their next election is coming up some time between now and next September. Does this concern anyone in the least? I'm not trying to be negative here, because if the answer is "no", I'm on the next flight over there
From
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/asiapcf/auspac/02/17/fiji.speight/
Gotta love a country where eight people with guns is considered a coup. Hell, in Texas, that would be considered an average household.
I have discovered this trip (attached pdf file) which looks amazing. The boat's site is here: http://www.tuitai.com
Has anyone ever been on it? heard about it?
Thanks
Has anyone ever been on it? heard about it?
Thanks
doronhall:
While I haven't heard of that particular trip i'm just back from Fiji 2 weeks ago. Like all of the South Pacific diving off Fiji is excellent.
I dived off Denaru Island, which is near Nadi, on daily trips and in a week didn't have a bad dive!
Whatever you choose i'm sure you'll have some good diving.
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