South Oz diving/Pacific diving ideas needed

[outpost31]

Hey all,

I'm going to Oz in Dec (10-30th-ish) to see family and i want to do some diving too. Money is tight so 1 week on a liveaboard would probably be best in the pacific region. I have two ideas so far:

1) Nip down for a couple of dives in SA to see seals in the kelp, leafy dragons, or maybe a cage dive with great whites if possible (i realize GW's turn up rarely so is risky) but is this a good time of year for the seals and dragons, visibility, price, etc?

2) Get a flight from Brisbane or Sydney and do 7-10 days on liveaboard in pacific region, i'm thinking in either Palau, Yap, PNG, those kind of places. My budget is £1000-£1500 for diving and flight, i'm mainly interested in seeing the big fish, especially Mantas and sharks, octopus, Cuttlefish, but also the little nubi's too.

Yap seems good for the time of year for mantas but vis and weather may let it down. Has anyone been to Palau or PNG for Mantas and sharks in Dec? Is there a liveaboard that visits many great sites around the region so i get the best of both worlds?

Any help would be much appreciated.
Cheers

Outpost31

 

[almitywife]

:happywave and welcome to :sblogo:

have a sqiz at these sites to get some pricing idea (aussie prices) on whats available: Scuba Dive Trips, Dive Travel Agents. Scuba Diving Holidays - Dive Adventures & Allways Dive Expeditions

i suggest checking out the group departure sections as by tagging onto a shop group you can save $$$

as far as SA goes - from my research last year you need to get to rapid bay and thats about a 3hr drive from adelaide airport and there wasnt a local dive shop to take care of you (ie accomodation & dives) and the GW cage diving involves about a 6hr boat ride out

you're also talking about Yap/Palau and we went there about 2yrs ago. getting there is work - we flew sydney/cairns/guam/palau/yap just to get there - it takes up alot of time and energy but YES, we got our mantas

in 2 weeks time we will be diving lady elliott island in queensland and we are told there are lots of mantas there so hopefully i can tell you in 3 weeks time the results

cheers

 

[outpost31]

Hi Almitywife,

thanks for the reply and the links.

Were you just going to Yap or were you diving at Guam and Palau too as part of a package? What sort of price did you pay to fly and dive (how many dives?) at Yap? What time of year did you dive Yap and how was the vis and overall dive sites? Any other info i might need to know?

Good luck with the Mantas at Lady Elliott, let me know how it goes.

Thanks again!

 

[almitywife]

we went to Yap just for the mantas - hubby had a manta itch he had to scratch

we went in April (& a full moon) and flew sydney to cairns then guam - 1 night in guam then flew to palau for a 5hr stopover then yap for 8 nights before home again.

if we were to do it again - i wouldnt go all that way just for Yap although i really enjoyed myself, i would add some dives in either Palau or Guam.

the Viz in Yap was a milky 15-20mtrs... the mantas are in a channel and they come in for cleaning so there isnt anything else but rubble & manta watching but you usually follow the 1st manta dive with a different dive for more fishlife and their evening mandarin dive was fun

to be honest - you would be better timewise and money wise to stick to the south pacific than Micronesia. by memory all up inc transfers/food/dives/meals it ended up costing about $4K pp which is about £2000

PNG, solomons, vanuatu, nuie would be better value for your money is my 2cents

vanuatu is a 4hr flight from sydney or a 3hr flight from Brisbane, Niue is via NZ & they use $NZD so you get more for your money and PNG is about 4hrs via Brisbane

on our next year list is PNG ( Loloata Island scuba resort - Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea ) although hubby is talking about Bali all of a sudden

 

[outpost31]

Hi Almitywife,

thanks again, your comments are very helpful.

I suspected that going to Yap may be expensive and would probably be best left for another time when i had more money.

I'm going to do a bit more research into PNG, Vanuatua, etc and see what has more of what i want to see, mainly Mantas and sharks.

If anyone has any experience of this region for Mid December up to early January, what you saw, vis, getting there and rough prices, let me know please.

Cheers Almitywife!

 

[almitywife]

for chrissy last year we went to Vanuatu - we go there every 2 years or so and here is my trip report; http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/pa...stmas-07-vanuatu-tranquility-trip-report.html but there are plenty of dive options/island

ive never gone to vanuatu for big fish (ie mantas) - but we have found them there and ive seen reef sharks and turtles on alot of the dives but they are not guaranteed

i was checking out the lady elliot/qld website today - we will be there in 2 weeks time and they advertise lots of mantas so i will be interested if its true

cheers

 

[bowlofpetunias]

almity I am surprised you haven't yet pointed out that there is great diving in Sydney that time of year. If you are going to be in Sydney a few dives here could be a nice cheap option. We have Weedy seadragons here which are pretty amazing. I am dying to see the leafies myself tho.
Hey coming from Canada Sydney diving is pretty well tropical too

We did PNG and got shots of the mandarin fish mating at the house reef. I understand many sites boast a house reef with mandarin fish.

Keep posted for the review on Lady Elliott..... Almity is pretty good at spotting things so we just might tail her..........

 

[outpost31]

Thanks for your help Petunia.

Almity,

After a bit of research I've more or less decided on Fiji but not sure which sites. Do you suggest i start a new thread titled Fiji or just continue on this post?

cheers

 

[frozenwarp]

Hey Outpost i cant help with info on Pacific Islands but as far as SA goes i can help (being a local and all) If its Leafies and Weedies ya want then AlmityWife is not wrong Rapid Bay is one of the best places to see them and its about 2 hours from Adelaide. I am more then happy to help organise some dives there either through the LDS i do some work for, my dive club or just myself. Also at Rapid bay there is a colony of seals and sealions, i have dived with them but there not as playful as some farther to the west of SA. As for the shark dives there are 2 main operators but only one that does day trips (to stay in a budget) I can help organise u with that to as i used to live in Pt Lincoln (where u leave to dive with the GWS) Depending on my cash flow at that stage i may join u i have been meaning to do the GWS dive. Anyway as i said feel free to contact me though this post or PM's and i'll help u where i can. Depends on when u come down this way it will depend how much i can help as i may still be in the Philipines.

Good luck with all,
Bradley

 

[outpost31]

Hi Bradley,
thanks for all the info. The seals and especially the GW's are definitely on my list but there's so much in fiji to see i don't think i'll have the cash to do SA as well this time. I will be visiting Oz again so i'll just have to do it another time.

Thanks again and have a good time in the philipines!