Fiji Trip Report

[Rickg]

Here is a short trip report about our recent trip to Fiji.

We recently came back from a stay at Wananavu Beach Resort Wananavu Beach Resort Accommodation Fiji . We were there from 11-21 Feb for our 25th wedding anniversary and we absolutely loved the resort. The accommodations and food were really good but it was their wonderful staff that made the resort a true gem.

It is a 2.5 hour ride from the Nadi airport to the resort over some pretty rough roads to get there but well worth the trip. The nearest town (and not much of a town) is Raki Raki Town that is about a 10-15 minute drive.

If you have your heart set on a resort with a large expanse of beach then this probably isn't the place for you because there isn't all that much of a beach. Our travel agent told us about this in advance so we were aware of it before we arrived.

The resort does not have its own dive operator. You have your choice of 2 dive operators (Kai Viti Divers Kai Viti Divers Scuba Diving Expeditions and Adventures :: Dive Fiji or Ra Divers Volivoli Beach - Home) that service the resort. Kai Viti Divers is actually on the resort grounds and Ra Divers is located on a nearby island. Both operators depart from the resort marina.

We arranged our diving with Kai Divers though our travel agent. The Kai Divers boat captains, dive guides and deckhands were really good but the dive boats left something to be desired. We never missed and dives but on 2 of our 8 dive dives it was a bit dicey as to whether or not they were going to be able to get the boat running in time to make our dives. We were told that Kai Divers has 3 boats of which we saw only 2:

• a 40' aluminum hull jet boat that we never saw (rumored to have been in Suva for over a year awaiting repair)
• a 35' aluminum hull jet boat named the Suva that we dove from. The first several days we were there this boat was broken but we dove from it for 5 of the 8 days we were there
• a RIB with twin outboards that was working for the first 3 days we were there but then was out of commission awaiting repair to the lower unit of one of the outboards

All boats are covered and comfortable enough for the diving we did, of which the longest boat ride was about 1 hour from the marina to the dive site. The U.S. owners of Kai Viti Divers were not on island while we were there. We were told that they were back in the U.S. on business.

On to the diving. This was our first trip to Fiji and the diving was pretty good. All of the diving was done in what was called the Bligh Waters. On 2-tank dive days we dove what was referred to as the inner waters and the diving was pretty good. On 3-tank dive days we went to the outer waters and the visability and diving was quite good. All the divers we met were on 2-tank per day dive packages. To do a 3-tank dive meant that all the divers on the boat agreed to pay for a 3rd tank which cost $75 FJ dollars (or about $40 US). We ended up doing 3-tank trips on 3 of our 8 dive days. Some of the things we saw included:

• spotted eagle ray
• manta ray (another dive group at the resort)
• free-swimming leopard shark
• grey reef sharks
• whitetip reef sharks
• moray eels
• Spanish mackeral
• Giant trevally
• Napolean wrasse
• school of Big-eyed jacks
• Great barracuda
• Yellowfin barracuda
• nudibranches
• lots of anenomes and clown fish
• Titan and clown trigger fish
• beautiful soft corals
• some of the best hard corals I have ever seen. I highly recommend that you dive a site called Black Magic Mountain. It is a large coral head in the "outer" Bligh waters (3-tank dive trip required) and the hard corals were just amazing and in wonderful shape.

The Wananavu Beach Resort was everything we had hoped for an more. The diving was pretty darn good for shore-based day trip diving. The only negative was the mechanical condition of the Kai Viti dive boats but through the hard work of the Kai Viti dive staff we never missed a dive day or dive out of the 8 days we dove with them.

Would be go back to Fiji - absolutely. Would we stay at Wananavu Beach Resort again - definitely. Would we dive with Kai Viti divers again - probably but I would asking some pointed questions about their boats before I booked with them again.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Ni sa bula vinaka!

Nice report Rick! Went to Wananavu in 2006 and had a great time as well . . .thanks for bringing back fun memories of the diving and resort staff!

Here's a favorite video & soundtrack highlighting Palau diving, but has the beautiful song "(Isa Lei) Lia" by the musical artist Fiji . . .(listen for it near the end).

 

[shawrg]

Bula Rickg,
thanks for the fiji report and congrats on the anniversary. I really enjoyed reading it. When I was planning a Fiji trip last year, Wananavu was on my short list because of the Bligh waters. I didn't go there but reading your report almost makes me wish I had! I notice that you, like me, are using the A720 w/o strobe. I have a few questions if you don't mind. Do you use the diffuser? Are the pictures on your linked sites with that setup? Will you be adding pictures from Fiji?

 

[robint]

Nice report Rickg! We too are looking at going to Fiji, we just don't know when. We had planned to go in 2007 but changed to Palau due to scheduling. Palau was awesome, but now we are interested in Fiji again.
Wananavu comes highly recommended from friends. Do you have pictures to share? Topside and underwater? What did you think of the resort in particular - rooms: size and location, food: were the meals buffet or menu...? Did you do any shore diving? The website says there is shore diving but others who have been there said they didn't try it. Did you do any land excursions away from resort? Village visit? Shopping - we buy local crafts and artwork every place we go..?
We have also been told to go to Beqa Lagoon Resort in southern end of island but that the diving isn't as good as Bligh Waters. The resort there is supposed to be fantastic with more "local culture" available which we love. We can't decide which would be better.


thanks!
robin

 

[Rickg]

shawrg,

The pictures from Sipadan 2007 were taken with A720IS sometimes with natural light only and others using the cameras internal strobe and all pictures were taken with the diffuser. All of the other pictures prior to that were taken with a Sea & Sea Motormarine I manual rangefinder camera using 2 YS-50 strobes. My only regret is that I didn't switch to digital sooner

Yes, I do plan to post some of the pictures to my Picasa site sometime in the hopefully not too distant future. I'll post some from both above and underwater.

 

[Rickg]

Kevrumbo,

Isa Lei (Farewell) - yes, a very beautiful song. It was definitely difficult to say farewell when we headed home after such a great stay in Fiji. I'll have to watch your video when I get home because my work computer blocks videos.

 

[Rickg]

robint,

I'll try to answer your questions as best I can.

Pictures - I hope to post some pictures, both topside and underwater to Picasa within the next several weeks.

Room - we stayed in a Beachfront bure and the room was great. Plenty of room, large comfortable bed, 2 ceiling fans and A/C, and a large, immaculate bathroom. I'll post a picture. Some our friends stayed in a Garden View room and it was very similar.

Food - meals are all menu unless you are going on a 3-tank dive and then the resort provides a lunch for you (providing that you tell them the night before). I highly recommend that you go with the meal plan option when you book your trip.

Shore Diving - there is shore diving to be had a short swim from the beach in front of the Kai Viti Divers shop. We did not do any shore diving. I was on my best behavior because it was our 25th wedding anniversary and our agreement was to "relax" on this trip. We heard the house reef is a pretty decent "muck" dive. We were told by Kai Viti Divers that tanks were free for shore diving if you had booked your diving with them.

Land Excursions - we did not do any. A young honeymooning couple we that was staying at Wananavu went on just about every excursion available and liked them all. They did the village shopping tour, the island snorkel tour, 3 island tour, natural water slide tour, the village visit with shopping and a visit to the grave of Fiji's last cannibal chief. Not a whole lot of shopping or artwork to be had in the nearest village (Raki Raki). You'd probably be better off including a day or 2 in either Nandi or Suva for shopping.

Bequa Lagoon Resort - is where we originally looked at going but they were booked solid over our anniversary so we went to Wananavu. There were several guests that came to Wananavu after staying at the "The Pearl" and some some other that had stayed at the Pacific Harbor Resort. They said the shark dives were interesting but that the vis, hard and soft corals, and sealife were better in the Bligh Waters than what they saw in the Beqa Lagoon.

Hope this helps.

 

[cowdog77]

Yep, nice shots!

Do you use the UW setting or custom settings? I'm liking my 720 but not sure I'm maximizing the options.

 

[robint]

Thanks! that is exactly the kind of information I am looking for! Were the land excursions in the afternoons after diving? They sound interesting to me. I would want to do a couple but not miss any dives.

Glad to hear there is some shore diving. Muck is fine with us.

Thanks for the info about Beqa. We had heard the same thing from some other people, nice to know you heard the same. Wananavu sounds like where we need to go. We have seen lots of sharks (went to Palau last year, now that is shark diving!!!) so we don't want to go to Beqa just for that.

robin

 

[Rickg]

Yep, nice shots!

Do you use the UW setting or custom settings? I'm liking my 720 but not sure I'm maximizing the options.

Hi Jerri,

I'm glad to hear that you are enjoying your A720IS. I almost never use the UW setting or full auto. Here's what I've found.

- full auto works pretty good if you are in clear, shallow water (less than 6m or so) and bright sunlight
- I have yet to try to use Manual White Balance (MWB) for any of my shots. This is something I really want to do but since I usually make only 1 or 2 dive trips a year it seems like I have to relearn a lot of things that would be "routine" if I dove with my camera more often.
- above 9 meters I usually used the "sunny" WB setting unless it was early or late in the day, cloudy or poor vis in which case I use "cloudy" WB setting.
- below 9-10 meters I usually used the "cloudy" setting for WB. I did some comparison shots using "cloudy" and "UW WB" at depths greater than 9-10 meters and didn't notice much difference.
- I keep my camera in the Macro mode at all times. It will work just fine shooting longer range shots and you won't forget to switch to Macro when you do want to shoot Macro.
- practice how to turn your flash on and off and adjust camera flash levels until you can almost do them with your eyes closed. You'll find when shooting Macro you will have to reduce your flash level otherwise the picture will be way over-exposed, especially if you are shooting against a light colored background (e.g., sand or light colored coral or rock)
- learn how to shoot in the Manual mode. Almost all of these photos shoot in the Manual mode.
- I usually kept the camera in the "center weighted" focus mode. I used "spot" focus mode for Macro shots and "center weighted" for most everything else except of course when I would occasionally forget to switch to "spot" for a macro shot which resulted in some less than optimal focusing for some of the macro subjects.
- I usually start off with the following settings:

• ISO 100
• Speed 1/125
• F-stop F4.5
• WB (cloudy or sunny depending upon the conditions)
• Flash Output Full
• Focus Center Weighted Avg
• Resolution Superfine

Hope this helps.