CajunDiva
Contributor
Our first destination in Fiji was Wananavu Resort on the main island of Viti Levu. Our Continental Airlines flight arrived just after midnight. As promised, a driver for the resort was waiting to drive us 2 1/2 hours to the northern part of the island where the resort is located. Our driver's name was Sai and he was one of the kindest people I have ever met. He took great pains to explain much about the Fiji culture to us and we really enjoyed the ride...until almost 3:00 in the morning!
Wananavu is a lovely resort. We had a garden bure' which was very clean and nice. There was an air conditioning unit, but unfortunately it could not keep up with the extreme heat in Fiji. It made afternoons (prime nap time!) pretty unbearable. But we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there and made the most of it. The activities director at Wananavu was a very gracious Fijian gentleman who gave talks every afternoon at 2:30. He was so interesting that we made it a point to spend every afternoon visiting the beach to listen to his talks. We learned a lot about the Fijian culture and village practices.
The food at Wananavu was very good. Our package included 2 courses at lunch and 3 courses at dinner. You could choose your selections from whichever area of the menu you wished. We usually reserved the great desserts for dinner time!
Ra Divers handles the diving for Wananavu Resort. We loved the staff of Ra Divers and they became our buddies in no time. That part of the operation was great, but unfortunately there were issues with the management and equipment. A group came in from Hawaii and didn't want to share the larger boat with any other divers. So all other divers were forced to share the two smaller boats. We really didn't mind because we all became friends and enjoyed each other's company immensely. And we were very happy because even though we were on the smaller boat, Ra Divers still took us out on the hour-long journey to the best diving at the "Passage" on two of our three dive days. The dive sites were amazing and although the current could be quite a challenge we enjoyed each and every dive very much. Since the ride out is so long, the surface interval is done on board the boat. I must admit it...I'm a lightweight! I ended up chumming the water between dives - maybe that's why the fish life was so great!
Our overall experience at Wananavu was good and it is a beautiful resort. I probably would go back especially because the staff was so wonderful. They knew our names by the second day and we felt like friends by the time we left. Also, I hear the dive operation has new boats on order, so I'm sure they'll be top notch in no time.
Before moving on to Part III at Garden Island Resort on Taveuni, here are a couple of pictures from the Bligh Waters:
Wananavu is a lovely resort. We had a garden bure' which was very clean and nice. There was an air conditioning unit, but unfortunately it could not keep up with the extreme heat in Fiji. It made afternoons (prime nap time!) pretty unbearable. But we thoroughly enjoyed our stay there and made the most of it. The activities director at Wananavu was a very gracious Fijian gentleman who gave talks every afternoon at 2:30. He was so interesting that we made it a point to spend every afternoon visiting the beach to listen to his talks. We learned a lot about the Fijian culture and village practices.
The food at Wananavu was very good. Our package included 2 courses at lunch and 3 courses at dinner. You could choose your selections from whichever area of the menu you wished. We usually reserved the great desserts for dinner time!
Ra Divers handles the diving for Wananavu Resort. We loved the staff of Ra Divers and they became our buddies in no time. That part of the operation was great, but unfortunately there were issues with the management and equipment. A group came in from Hawaii and didn't want to share the larger boat with any other divers. So all other divers were forced to share the two smaller boats. We really didn't mind because we all became friends and enjoyed each other's company immensely. And we were very happy because even though we were on the smaller boat, Ra Divers still took us out on the hour-long journey to the best diving at the "Passage" on two of our three dive days. The dive sites were amazing and although the current could be quite a challenge we enjoyed each and every dive very much. Since the ride out is so long, the surface interval is done on board the boat. I must admit it...I'm a lightweight! I ended up chumming the water between dives - maybe that's why the fish life was so great!
Our overall experience at Wananavu was good and it is a beautiful resort. I probably would go back especially because the staff was so wonderful. They knew our names by the second day and we felt like friends by the time we left. Also, I hear the dive operation has new boats on order, so I'm sure they'll be top notch in no time.
Before moving on to Part III at Garden Island Resort on Taveuni, here are a couple of pictures from the Bligh Waters:
