pablosells
Guest
(Last of three posts. I spent three weeks in Fiji in June 2006: one week on the Aggressor II, one week at Moody's Namena, and one week at Namale. I've posted each report in a different thread).
This was the last place we stayed on our trip to Fiji. I was looking forward to staying at an upscale resort and enjoying good food and wine in addition to doing some great dives.
Overall the experience was not as good as what we expected it to be. This is an ultra-expensive place (US$1,000+/couple per night, US$125 for 2-tank dive). Although the grounds and staff are nice the dive shop and food/wine are not at all what you would expect in this price range. We did have some good meals but some meals (mostly at lunch) were horrible. We also got food poisoning as did many other guests.
The diving was the worst part of the experience since the dive shop knowingly provides divers with bad air. The air tastes bad and smells bad. In 5 years of diving (100+ dives) in many different countries I have never had an experience like this. When I brought this to the dive shop's and management's attention they dismissed my concerns and said that their filters were wet because of the humidity and that there was nothing to worry about. They also told us that they would have to upgrade their system to a silicone gel filter to improve the air quality. (I won't go on about this because I posted another thread about this subject - http://www.ScubaBoard.com/showthread.php?t=149399&referrerid=17366 ).
I did do two dives before I got smart about the air. The first was a wall dive (Hole in the Wall). The corals were all quite a bit smaller than at Namena and there was definitely less life. We did come upon a turtle and managed to get quite close. That was the highlight of the dive.
The second dive (also Hole in the Wall) ended up being a rubble dive and I'm not sure why. There was only one diver in addition to myself and the DM. I kept trying to get the DM's attention so that we could go to the wall but he never noticed. Near the end of the dive we got very, very close to an octopus that was perched on a rock. I guess he had nowhere to go and was trying to blend in with his surroundings.
The dive crew is also very different from DMs and crew on the Aggressor II and at Moody's. I was fully expecting that they would be just as friendly and helpful but they weren't. There was something of a negative vibe to the whole dive shop.
They also only have one boat (a planing hull) so it makes the trips to the site unecessarily rough when the seas are not calm (and they weren't calm during our stay). On some rough days the boat just can't go out. Many of the divers staying there were hoping for a calm day so that they could head out to Namena for a day of diving.
If you really want to dive the Namena Marine Reserve then you should just stay at Moody's. The DMs know the sites better than anyone else and they're all very close to the island.
So in a nutshell I cannot recommend Namale Resort in Fiji. Depending on your expectations you may have a good experience but if diving is what you're interested in there are better and safer choices in Fiji.
This was the last place we stayed on our trip to Fiji. I was looking forward to staying at an upscale resort and enjoying good food and wine in addition to doing some great dives.
Overall the experience was not as good as what we expected it to be. This is an ultra-expensive place (US$1,000+/couple per night, US$125 for 2-tank dive). Although the grounds and staff are nice the dive shop and food/wine are not at all what you would expect in this price range. We did have some good meals but some meals (mostly at lunch) were horrible. We also got food poisoning as did many other guests.
The diving was the worst part of the experience since the dive shop knowingly provides divers with bad air. The air tastes bad and smells bad. In 5 years of diving (100+ dives) in many different countries I have never had an experience like this. When I brought this to the dive shop's and management's attention they dismissed my concerns and said that their filters were wet because of the humidity and that there was nothing to worry about. They also told us that they would have to upgrade their system to a silicone gel filter to improve the air quality. (I won't go on about this because I posted another thread about this subject - http://www.ScubaBoard.com/showthread.php?t=149399&referrerid=17366 ).
I did do two dives before I got smart about the air. The first was a wall dive (Hole in the Wall). The corals were all quite a bit smaller than at Namena and there was definitely less life. We did come upon a turtle and managed to get quite close. That was the highlight of the dive.
The second dive (also Hole in the Wall) ended up being a rubble dive and I'm not sure why. There was only one diver in addition to myself and the DM. I kept trying to get the DM's attention so that we could go to the wall but he never noticed. Near the end of the dive we got very, very close to an octopus that was perched on a rock. I guess he had nowhere to go and was trying to blend in with his surroundings.
The dive crew is also very different from DMs and crew on the Aggressor II and at Moody's. I was fully expecting that they would be just as friendly and helpful but they weren't. There was something of a negative vibe to the whole dive shop.
They also only have one boat (a planing hull) so it makes the trips to the site unecessarily rough when the seas are not calm (and they weren't calm during our stay). On some rough days the boat just can't go out. Many of the divers staying there were hoping for a calm day so that they could head out to Namena for a day of diving.
If you really want to dive the Namena Marine Reserve then you should just stay at Moody's. The DMs know the sites better than anyone else and they're all very close to the island.
So in a nutshell I cannot recommend Namale Resort in Fiji. Depending on your expectations you may have a good experience but if diving is what you're interested in there are better and safer choices in Fiji.
