Arrived Nadi Airport after not so bad sleep on flight (thank you Ambien). Spent day and half at First Landing resort time adjusting and doing tide pool exploration. Nai'a picked us up late the next day due to problems with transport bus. Consequently we missed our 1st day check out dive.
Boat She's a beauty with spacious, clean rooms. A bit noisy next to engine room but earplugs handle that. She flat gets with the program motoring to sites. Wish we could have seen her sail just once. Very competent Captain always got us to our sites in time for dive schedule. Layout provides enough privacy to read a book. Staff very efficient and friendly. Warm deck showers and towels await post dive.
Host(s) Paul Humann. What a nice congenial fishy person. Doesnt pretend he knows EVERYTHING about every fish. Provided several lectures on Fiji area critters, their habitat and behaviors and plenty of tall fish "tails" during meal conversations. Mark, pro-photographer was getting some astounding video and had some great color and lighting tips. Made my Gates set up look like a Barbie toy.
Routine Typically cereal/toast nosh and coffee fix. 7:00am first dive. Breakfast. 10:30 dive. Lunch. 2:30 dive. Snacks. 5:30 dusk dive. 7:00 dinner. Two night dives offered. Diving is via two skiffs with backward rolls. Staff carefully set up gear and schlep camera gear to and from mid-ship staging area.
Temps Needed the 5/4/3. Air temp very comfortable. Only rained one day.
DMs Very thorough briefings. The DM we had on our skiff pretty much went and took pictures but if we met up with other group could tag along with Big MO who is the King of Small Critter Sightings. Other DM was also getting some very fine video with his rig and produced a very nice trip show. He was also nice about sharing critter discoveries.
Biggies Lots and lots of sharks, hard and soft corals, so many anthias it's like diving in colored confetti, leaf fish, lovely nudies, sea snakes, pygmy sea horses and rare Harlequin shrimps playing tug of war with a sea star. A few turtles. Thought we would have seen more eels but the fish numbers are astounding. Official fish survey counters were on board and many new species were discovered in the area. Paul Humann has plenty of new material for the next editions of Pacific ID books. I was a bit disappointed in repeatedly diving some of the same sites, but I could probably spend a full 70 minute dive on one square yard there's that much diversity.
Food Kinda meh. Lots of chicken and fish. Choices were a bit limiting, lunch e.g: Caesar Salad with chicken or Caesar Salad. Deserts were pretty yummy and staff unexpectedly baked me a lovely chocolate 500th dive cake! Plenty of sodas and wine with dinner. Liquor available via honor system.
Downside Hubby and one other guest seem to have had a bit of food poisoning though source not clear. We did visit a village and had Kava (though we're told the water used was fine). He lost out on several dives at the end and passed out due to dehydration and split his brow open falling on the dresser. Got him "back together" with butterfly bandages and re-hydrated with saline concoction the staff mixed up.
I'm reluctant to discuss one of my experiences because I don't want to dissuade anyone from trying out the Nai'a. One dive had a particularly gnarly current and we were told to book down and immediately follow the DM. This was difficult at best and I shot down to 101' in a few seconds. Folks went all over the place and I got separated from buddy. Worked my way up slowly to the top of the bommie, which on top was about 23'. I had to do my 3 minutes kicking madly to stay in sight of the reef. I surfaced at about 20 minutes. I blew up my safety sausage. I saw one of the skiffs picking up divers when I crested a wave. Then it was gone. We we're told not to swim towards the main boat and I drifted WAY off the reef. I blew up my safety sausage to max and held as high as I could and waited nearly 40 minutes ..no one, no skiffs and the boat became a speck. By that time I figured they "thought" I was already back on the boat and no one was going to show. I had no choice but to swim like crazy to try and make it for the boat with my remaining strength. Finally after another 20+ minutes I was gaining on the main boat and someone finally saw me. They said they thought I was still diving and had just begun "codered" searching. By that time they figured I was SOL under water or far away. Then they said they couldn't see me because I was drifting in the early-morning sun reflection. This event left all pretty upset and I'm sure diver pick up options were reviewed. After skipping the next dive I jumped back on the saddle again. I WILL be bringing an air horn on all liveaboards in future.
For the most part, a wonderful trip and I do recommend the Nai'a. Would I do it again yup! Hope to post video soon. Feel free to PM if you have any questions.
FYI Nadi airport gate staff tried a bribe shake down saying our carry-ons were too heavy when other monster bags were going through. When I suggested to those following that they should have their brides ready the "guard" had a change of heart and slipped the $20 back.
Boat She's a beauty with spacious, clean rooms. A bit noisy next to engine room but earplugs handle that. She flat gets with the program motoring to sites. Wish we could have seen her sail just once. Very competent Captain always got us to our sites in time for dive schedule. Layout provides enough privacy to read a book. Staff very efficient and friendly. Warm deck showers and towels await post dive.
Host(s) Paul Humann. What a nice congenial fishy person. Doesnt pretend he knows EVERYTHING about every fish. Provided several lectures on Fiji area critters, their habitat and behaviors and plenty of tall fish "tails" during meal conversations. Mark, pro-photographer was getting some astounding video and had some great color and lighting tips. Made my Gates set up look like a Barbie toy.
Routine Typically cereal/toast nosh and coffee fix. 7:00am first dive. Breakfast. 10:30 dive. Lunch. 2:30 dive. Snacks. 5:30 dusk dive. 7:00 dinner. Two night dives offered. Diving is via two skiffs with backward rolls. Staff carefully set up gear and schlep camera gear to and from mid-ship staging area.
Temps Needed the 5/4/3. Air temp very comfortable. Only rained one day.
DMs Very thorough briefings. The DM we had on our skiff pretty much went and took pictures but if we met up with other group could tag along with Big MO who is the King of Small Critter Sightings. Other DM was also getting some very fine video with his rig and produced a very nice trip show. He was also nice about sharing critter discoveries.
Biggies Lots and lots of sharks, hard and soft corals, so many anthias it's like diving in colored confetti, leaf fish, lovely nudies, sea snakes, pygmy sea horses and rare Harlequin shrimps playing tug of war with a sea star. A few turtles. Thought we would have seen more eels but the fish numbers are astounding. Official fish survey counters were on board and many new species were discovered in the area. Paul Humann has plenty of new material for the next editions of Pacific ID books. I was a bit disappointed in repeatedly diving some of the same sites, but I could probably spend a full 70 minute dive on one square yard there's that much diversity.
Food Kinda meh. Lots of chicken and fish. Choices were a bit limiting, lunch e.g: Caesar Salad with chicken or Caesar Salad. Deserts were pretty yummy and staff unexpectedly baked me a lovely chocolate 500th dive cake! Plenty of sodas and wine with dinner. Liquor available via honor system.
Downside Hubby and one other guest seem to have had a bit of food poisoning though source not clear. We did visit a village and had Kava (though we're told the water used was fine). He lost out on several dives at the end and passed out due to dehydration and split his brow open falling on the dresser. Got him "back together" with butterfly bandages and re-hydrated with saline concoction the staff mixed up.
I'm reluctant to discuss one of my experiences because I don't want to dissuade anyone from trying out the Nai'a. One dive had a particularly gnarly current and we were told to book down and immediately follow the DM. This was difficult at best and I shot down to 101' in a few seconds. Folks went all over the place and I got separated from buddy. Worked my way up slowly to the top of the bommie, which on top was about 23'. I had to do my 3 minutes kicking madly to stay in sight of the reef. I surfaced at about 20 minutes. I blew up my safety sausage. I saw one of the skiffs picking up divers when I crested a wave. Then it was gone. We we're told not to swim towards the main boat and I drifted WAY off the reef. I blew up my safety sausage to max and held as high as I could and waited nearly 40 minutes ..no one, no skiffs and the boat became a speck. By that time I figured they "thought" I was already back on the boat and no one was going to show. I had no choice but to swim like crazy to try and make it for the boat with my remaining strength. Finally after another 20+ minutes I was gaining on the main boat and someone finally saw me. They said they thought I was still diving and had just begun "codered" searching. By that time they figured I was SOL under water or far away. Then they said they couldn't see me because I was drifting in the early-morning sun reflection. This event left all pretty upset and I'm sure diver pick up options were reviewed. After skipping the next dive I jumped back on the saddle again. I WILL be bringing an air horn on all liveaboards in future.
For the most part, a wonderful trip and I do recommend the Nai'a. Would I do it again yup! Hope to post video soon. Feel free to PM if you have any questions.
FYI Nadi airport gate staff tried a bribe shake down saying our carry-ons were too heavy when other monster bags were going through. When I suggested to those following that they should have their brides ready the "guard" had a change of heart and slipped the $20 back.
