Having become increasingly interested in resuming more scuba diving while continuing my travels, I found an amazing video of the world famous Fiji Shark Dive. Thus when I had a chance to meet a friend for 10 days in Fiji in late January, the trip was on. I flew from Anchorage to Los Angeles and finally the long 11 hour flight on Fiji Airways to Fiji and its south Pacific setting just north of New Zealand. The lst couple days were very hot and humid with thundershowers in the afternoons. After a couple days of resting up from the trip and exploring that side of Fiji's largest island, Viti Levu we did two days of diving with Scubabula, a wonderful dive outfit run by two Brits with two great Fijian dive masters, Scuba Sam and Api. I had rented a car, a stick shift VW and had a real time getting used to both shifting with my left hand and driving on the left side of the highways. The diving was wonderful with the warm, clear waters in the upper 80's. The reefs were beautiful with the varied corals and many tropical fish. A large sea turtle, and very large sting ray were the highlights, along with some small reef sharks.
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| The wonderful "swim up" bar at the main pool of our Radisson Blu resort |
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| The peaceful "adult" pool with its two big jacuzzi pools just off the right bank |
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| Ending "Happy Hour" with one of the friendly Fiji torch lighters and "Bula" on his chest |
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| Me on one of the large, comfy lounges in the "quiet" garden area |
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| The Pina Coladas were super with the wonderful sweet south Pacific pineapples |
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| Me on the way out to dive the reef |
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| me cruising along a reef wall at about 50 feet |
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| one of the most beautiful of the corals I saw that day |
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| some of the many colorful reef fish |
Then my friend wanted to try a day of surf lessons at Natadola Beach with Fiji Surfing, a famous surf learning center. I went along and took photos. Then the most pleasant days of the trip were two all day boat trips out to small south Pacific islands off Port Denarau. Fiji has 333 islands over a vast area of ocean. The lst day was out on a high speed catamaran ferry for an hour to South Seas Island. There we took over the tiny island, where there was only one small hotel. We had unlimited drinks, lunch, use of a Hobie sailboat, sea kyaks, got to snorkel and swim and just enjoy the sun , beach and crystal clear, warm waters for most of the day. We then cruised back in the afternoon on the catamaran ferry, with stops at 4 other islands. My favorite other island was Mana Island. Returning to Port Denarau, we shopped a little and then had a delightful dinner at dockside in one of the many fine restaurants.
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| The vast, nearly deserted and beautiful Natadola Beach |
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| Port Denarau harbor with the two boats we were on for our all day island trips |
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| Departing Port Denarau, looking back into the harbor |
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| The idyllic South Seas island. Our island for the day !! |
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| Me cooling off in the shade with a cold Fiji beer, a tough life ! :-) |
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| I used one of the sea kayaks to circle the island |
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| A group for Fijians about to entertain us after lunch |
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| My favorite other island, Mana Island where we stopped briefly a popular Fiji destination |
Another fine day was aboard a 60 foot schooner with about 40 others for a 2 hour cruise out to another tiny island for the day. It was called Paradise Island and had no full time residents. Again, we had a great day of snorkeling, swimming and sunning. The snorkeling was terrific, especially when a snorkel guide showed up to feed the reef fish and create a frenzy and cloud of beautiful reef fish that literally surrounded you. Again, the water was close to 90 F and crystal clear. You could just lie and float in it by the hour.
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| Me on the foremost bow of the schooner as we approach our Pardise Island for the day |
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| Me about to enjoy lunch and a cold Fiji beer |
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| A view along the back side of tiny Paradise Island |
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| One of the more colorful and beautiful reef fish |
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| Me feeding the reef fish |
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| My favorite and most beautiful of the reef fish off the island |
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| Me surrounded by the many friendly reef fish |
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| Another shot of my reef fish friends |
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| My friend returning from the dining are with cold beer. |
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| "cooling off" You could float endlessly in the very warm, clear waters |
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| My favorite photo ! It was really hard to leave this incredibly beautiful place on our planet |
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| About to leave, with our schooner anchored just off the island behind my left side |
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| A final photo of Fiji, a south Pacific jewel |
Finally, we drove along the coast over to the Pacific Harbor area and did the scary Fiji Shark Dive. It was frightening, with going down to close to 30 meters (over 90 feet) to a cleared bench on the reef with a rope to hang on to . The dive masters took 2 chests of fish to feed the sharks and we hung on for 20 minutes while the big sharks swarmed all around. There were 2 dive masters with prods to poke the sharks that got too close to us. The visability was not very good and light a little dim at that depth. We only saw two of the big bull sharks, as they are breeding at this time of year. There were no tiger sharks our day either. We then rose up to about the 60 foot depth for another 10 to 15 min. There we stopped at another roped area and they fed the mostly reef sharks, which were everywhere. We also saw many large fish including huge groupers. The tiger shark that frequents the area did not show our day. I was just as happy. Finally we went up to 15 feet for a 4 minute decompression stop. It was an unforgettable experience and I have several videos of the dive that were on U-Tube that I copied.
The most unforgettable memory of Fiji will be the incredible friendliness of its people. Only in Thailand are the people so warm, friendly and gracious. The spontaneous "Bula" greeting is everywhere and then a smiling Vinaka for thank you. This was my lst experience in the true South Pacific and now I am really anxious for a trip to Tahiti with my oldest son, Scott for his 40th birthday this coming next January in 2016. I then returned to LA and finally back to Anchorage.
