SteveD
Registered
Just got back from Fiji and I thought I should post a quick report.
First week was at Wananavu Resort on the NE corner of Vit Levu. Closest town is Rakiraki. Great 3 star resort, very friendly staff, nice accommodation and facilities. Not much to do on the resort: pool, bar, dining room. But that's what we wanted.
See www.wananavu.com
There are two dive operations at the resort:
Kaiviti Divers www.kaivitidivers.com
Ra Divers www.radivers.com
We dived with both of them and both were great. Kaiviti caters more for the US market. The Bligh Waters area (aka Nananu-I-Ra) that we dived was fantastic, lots of soft corals, fish, great drift dives, excellent snorkling and 3-6m extended stops at the end of the dive. Basically, you just want to suck the tank dry before you get out of the water. Water temp was a constant 30C, so diving in a lycra suit was perfect.
The second was was at Sonaisali Island Resort about 30 mins drive south of Nadi (aka Mamanuca).
See www.sonaisali.com.
The dive operation was owned by the resort. This was disappointing compared to both of the operators at Wananavu. They were pretty unprofessional verging on unsafe. The hints started at the activities desk when we booked the dive trips. The only form they wanted us to fill in was the liability waiver. They took down no details of our certification, experience, contacts, next of kin, etc, etc. It was worse when we got on the boat: no boat briefing, no dive briefing, no diver schedule, no headcount on exit, no snacks/drinks during surface interval, rushed SI (barely 30 mins), no proper dive boat (apparently in for survey), etc, etc.
It was so bad that I wrote out a 2 page list of "suggestions" and asked for a meeting with the recreation manager who said that he was a dive instructor. Personally, I think that they could have done a lot better given the money they were charging.
The diving itself was so-so. Poor vis (5-7m) and poor weather conspired against us. But the dive sites were nowhere near as good as the Bligh Water. The only site that I could absolutely recommend was Namotu Wall, a reef behind on of the surf breaks in the area. There was a hell of a surge at 20m, so we could not get close to the coral, but vis was great 15+m and there was plenty of good hard corals.
Hope this is useful to anyone thinking of a trip to Fiji. We had a great time and would definitely do it again. Wananavu certainly, but probably also out to some of the more remote areas in the east and north of the island group.
cheers, steve...
First week was at Wananavu Resort on the NE corner of Vit Levu. Closest town is Rakiraki. Great 3 star resort, very friendly staff, nice accommodation and facilities. Not much to do on the resort: pool, bar, dining room. But that's what we wanted.
See www.wananavu.com
There are two dive operations at the resort:
Kaiviti Divers www.kaivitidivers.com
Ra Divers www.radivers.com
We dived with both of them and both were great. Kaiviti caters more for the US market. The Bligh Waters area (aka Nananu-I-Ra) that we dived was fantastic, lots of soft corals, fish, great drift dives, excellent snorkling and 3-6m extended stops at the end of the dive. Basically, you just want to suck the tank dry before you get out of the water. Water temp was a constant 30C, so diving in a lycra suit was perfect.
The second was was at Sonaisali Island Resort about 30 mins drive south of Nadi (aka Mamanuca).
See www.sonaisali.com.
The dive operation was owned by the resort. This was disappointing compared to both of the operators at Wananavu. They were pretty unprofessional verging on unsafe. The hints started at the activities desk when we booked the dive trips. The only form they wanted us to fill in was the liability waiver. They took down no details of our certification, experience, contacts, next of kin, etc, etc. It was worse when we got on the boat: no boat briefing, no dive briefing, no diver schedule, no headcount on exit, no snacks/drinks during surface interval, rushed SI (barely 30 mins), no proper dive boat (apparently in for survey), etc, etc.
It was so bad that I wrote out a 2 page list of "suggestions" and asked for a meeting with the recreation manager who said that he was a dive instructor. Personally, I think that they could have done a lot better given the money they were charging.
The diving itself was so-so. Poor vis (5-7m) and poor weather conspired against us. But the dive sites were nowhere near as good as the Bligh Water. The only site that I could absolutely recommend was Namotu Wall, a reef behind on of the surf breaks in the area. There was a hell of a surge at 20m, so we could not get close to the coral, but vis was great 15+m and there was plenty of good hard corals.
Hope this is useful to anyone thinking of a trip to Fiji. We had a great time and would definitely do it again. Wananavu certainly, but probably also out to some of the more remote areas in the east and north of the island group.
cheers, steve...
