Nuub
Registered
Hello All -
Did a Fiji trip based on recommendation from friends who now live in Bonaire. Bonaire's been my go-to destination since it's easy to get to from the west coast of US (over 200 dives there), but with direct flight via Fiji Air from SFO, I thought I should give the pacific a try. My first trip to the pacific islands other than Hawaii. Direct 10.5 hour flight to Nadi, then an hour inter-island on a 20 person puddle jumper.
We stayed landside on Taveuni island at the Garden Island Resort. Dive op is associated with it (they might have been called Rainbow Reef divers previously). The resort was very nice, upper tier - the pics on their website are accurate. We were greeted by smiling, singing staff and Kava - it was a good omen of the hospitality of the staff. Rooms were nicely appointed and updated, I appreciated the attention to detail of the housekeeping staff. Room was cleaned every day we were out, and always fresh flowers and marble floors were mopped clean. Big windows. Wifi was just OK and costs extra. We did the seven night with five days diving - it wasn't budget, but very reasonable cost. Food was at least good (25%), very good (50%) and sometimes great (25%). Continental breakfast was included and fine. You can get hot breakfast which was a little extra but reasonable cost. We ate there most times for lunch and dinner. There was always a choice between two main dishes for lunch or dinner everyday. The restaurant and bar is in a nice poolside seaside location. Staff are awesome. When we were there, we occasionally had the whole place to ourselves; at most there were six other guests. Not being the party type, it was really nice. Had good conversations with other diver guests.There is no real beach up front, a couple are a short walk away. (I think an LOB would have hard a difficult time as the winds and rain were occasionally pretty strong). Great snorkeling right in front. We didn't dive it (regrettably).
Dive op was staffed by ultranice Fijians. My cousin was along, having just finished his OW course stateside, and this was his first trip. They took REALLY REALLY good care of him, so I was able to enjoy my dives w/o constantly looking out for him. Basically, he had his own divemaster for every dive. We got to know the staff, and they took us to the best places depending on the tide/current and our preferences. They tried hard not to repeat sites. There were never more than six customers on the boat, mostly 3 or 4 customers; the ratio was 1DM to 4 divers at worst. I went one whole day where I was the only diver with two divemasters. They have three boats - all comfortable with easy on/off with nice ladders. We did SIs at a very nice beach we had all to ourselves. The only minus was that there were too few people to schedule afternoon dives or night dives. I would have done shore dives in front, but was being lazy.
The Rainbow Reef is incredible! Most life I'd seen anywhere, and it is aptly named - the soft and hard corals are super colorful, much much better than anything I've seen in the Caribbean. The vis was OK to very good. about 50 at worst and maybe 100 at best. Most diving was done between 30-90 feet. There is a lot of organic particles in the water, which means a lot of life, but it also interferes with vis. It rained almost everyday we were there - mostly light rain for a short time, sometimes heavier, but not a nuisance with the warm weather.
Topside - Walked around a lot in the afternoons, or hung out. Did the International Date line and Natural Waterslide. I really liked being able to take walks in a rural tropical island with nature all around. Lots of wild bananas and papaya. The Fijian people are among the nicest, friendliest people I've ever met. I wandered into neighborhoods alone and never felt unsafe or unwelcome. No one is trying to hustle you. Once, when asking for directions, I ended up talking to the family matriarch for a while about Fiji, while her son went off to get us fresh Fiji Water from their own spring. He came back huffing and puffing - he must have run quite a ways up the hill. We got lost in the hills while hiking and a kid personally led us back to the resort through a shortcut only locals use - saving us about a mile.
Overall, the diving was pretty great. Life was abundant, with bright colors on fish and fauna I've rarely encountered elsewhere. No sign of bleaching. We saw docile white tip reef sharks about every other dive - they were common. We did not do a 'shark dive'. Loved the blue ribbon eels and nudibranches. hard coral was abundant, overgrowing everything and pristine. Juvenile Rock Mover Wrasse are one of my new favorite fish! The softcorals are incredible, and come in all colors. Really liked the numbers and colors of all the basslets and clownfish. The white wall was cool, and we went there when it was not 'blooming' - looking forward to going back when it is! Dive wise, the only thing I missed was the Smooth trunkfish of the Caribbean
. Ironically, only saw one lionfish. No turtles spotted. Spotted Mantas on the surface but didn't see any in the water (I missed the dive where there was one). Diving was often in current, so it can be a challenge for rookies or weak swimmers. But when we went with the drift, it was great. Some cool swim throughs. Few walls, mostly large coral head islands. Tons of colorful, some very large anemones (fields of them!) with super cute clown fish. The OP ran bottomtime conservatively; I had to come up after 60 minutes. Mostly because other customers went up after 45 minutes and they didn't want to make them wait. Water was warm, about 80-83 and comfortably dove in a shorty.
See Pics. This was my first time out with my new TG5 with housing, and I dont have a flash (used a dive light occasionally). So pics aren't of the quality I've seen on here before, but should give you a good idea. I used automatic white balancing on Google Photos.
Taveuni was pretty great, and easy to get to from the west coast. Super relaxed and attitude free. The reef was great, the Fijians were even better. Check it out.
Did a Fiji trip based on recommendation from friends who now live in Bonaire. Bonaire's been my go-to destination since it's easy to get to from the west coast of US (over 200 dives there), but with direct flight via Fiji Air from SFO, I thought I should give the pacific a try. My first trip to the pacific islands other than Hawaii. Direct 10.5 hour flight to Nadi, then an hour inter-island on a 20 person puddle jumper.
We stayed landside on Taveuni island at the Garden Island Resort. Dive op is associated with it (they might have been called Rainbow Reef divers previously). The resort was very nice, upper tier - the pics on their website are accurate. We were greeted by smiling, singing staff and Kava - it was a good omen of the hospitality of the staff. Rooms were nicely appointed and updated, I appreciated the attention to detail of the housekeeping staff. Room was cleaned every day we were out, and always fresh flowers and marble floors were mopped clean. Big windows. Wifi was just OK and costs extra. We did the seven night with five days diving - it wasn't budget, but very reasonable cost. Food was at least good (25%), very good (50%) and sometimes great (25%). Continental breakfast was included and fine. You can get hot breakfast which was a little extra but reasonable cost. We ate there most times for lunch and dinner. There was always a choice between two main dishes for lunch or dinner everyday. The restaurant and bar is in a nice poolside seaside location. Staff are awesome. When we were there, we occasionally had the whole place to ourselves; at most there were six other guests. Not being the party type, it was really nice. Had good conversations with other diver guests.There is no real beach up front, a couple are a short walk away. (I think an LOB would have hard a difficult time as the winds and rain were occasionally pretty strong). Great snorkeling right in front. We didn't dive it (regrettably).
Dive op was staffed by ultranice Fijians. My cousin was along, having just finished his OW course stateside, and this was his first trip. They took REALLY REALLY good care of him, so I was able to enjoy my dives w/o constantly looking out for him. Basically, he had his own divemaster for every dive. We got to know the staff, and they took us to the best places depending on the tide/current and our preferences. They tried hard not to repeat sites. There were never more than six customers on the boat, mostly 3 or 4 customers; the ratio was 1DM to 4 divers at worst. I went one whole day where I was the only diver with two divemasters. They have three boats - all comfortable with easy on/off with nice ladders. We did SIs at a very nice beach we had all to ourselves. The only minus was that there were too few people to schedule afternoon dives or night dives. I would have done shore dives in front, but was being lazy.
The Rainbow Reef is incredible! Most life I'd seen anywhere, and it is aptly named - the soft and hard corals are super colorful, much much better than anything I've seen in the Caribbean. The vis was OK to very good. about 50 at worst and maybe 100 at best. Most diving was done between 30-90 feet. There is a lot of organic particles in the water, which means a lot of life, but it also interferes with vis. It rained almost everyday we were there - mostly light rain for a short time, sometimes heavier, but not a nuisance with the warm weather.
Topside - Walked around a lot in the afternoons, or hung out. Did the International Date line and Natural Waterslide. I really liked being able to take walks in a rural tropical island with nature all around. Lots of wild bananas and papaya. The Fijian people are among the nicest, friendliest people I've ever met. I wandered into neighborhoods alone and never felt unsafe or unwelcome. No one is trying to hustle you. Once, when asking for directions, I ended up talking to the family matriarch for a while about Fiji, while her son went off to get us fresh Fiji Water from their own spring. He came back huffing and puffing - he must have run quite a ways up the hill. We got lost in the hills while hiking and a kid personally led us back to the resort through a shortcut only locals use - saving us about a mile.
Overall, the diving was pretty great. Life was abundant, with bright colors on fish and fauna I've rarely encountered elsewhere. No sign of bleaching. We saw docile white tip reef sharks about every other dive - they were common. We did not do a 'shark dive'. Loved the blue ribbon eels and nudibranches. hard coral was abundant, overgrowing everything and pristine. Juvenile Rock Mover Wrasse are one of my new favorite fish! The softcorals are incredible, and come in all colors. Really liked the numbers and colors of all the basslets and clownfish. The white wall was cool, and we went there when it was not 'blooming' - looking forward to going back when it is! Dive wise, the only thing I missed was the Smooth trunkfish of the Caribbean
. Ironically, only saw one lionfish. No turtles spotted. Spotted Mantas on the surface but didn't see any in the water (I missed the dive where there was one). Diving was often in current, so it can be a challenge for rookies or weak swimmers. But when we went with the drift, it was great. Some cool swim throughs. Few walls, mostly large coral head islands. Tons of colorful, some very large anemones (fields of them!) with super cute clown fish. The OP ran bottomtime conservatively; I had to come up after 60 minutes. Mostly because other customers went up after 45 minutes and they didn't want to make them wait. Water was warm, about 80-83 and comfortably dove in a shorty.See Pics. This was my first time out with my new TG5 with housing, and I dont have a flash (used a dive light occasionally). So pics aren't of the quality I've seen on here before, but should give you a good idea. I used automatic white balancing on Google Photos.
Taveuni was pretty great, and easy to get to from the west coast. Super relaxed and attitude free. The reef was great, the Fijians were even better. Check it out.
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