Back from Fiji...

[schultz]

At 8:15 we left Garden Island Resort for the Taveuni airport. It only takes about 30 minutes, and we assumed our flight would be late. This time however, as soon as we unloaded the luggage from the car, the plane had landed. It was early. We quickly checked in for the flight, and wished our newfound Spanish friends safe travels. They were embarking on yet another dive adventure aboard the Fiji Aggressor, while we were heading back to Nadi to grab our ride to our next resort – Wananavu.

As soon as we were off the plane, a man of obvious Indian heritage met us. With our last names scrawled on a piece of paper, he shook our hands and politely said, “Everyone calls me Goodie.”  A slight mispronunciation of his proper name, but it worked. Goodie showed us to the shuttle that would carry us to the next destination. This was going to be a 2 to 3 hour car ride, so we loaded our dive equipment, and watched the scenery pass by.

One of the interesting things that had struck us from the plane were all the fields around the airport that were billowing smoke. We weren’t certain what they were from the air, but as we drove by them, Goodie pointed out that these were the sugar cane fields – one of Fijii’s main exports. The smoke was quite sweet smelling and pleasant – far different from those experienced around an evening campfire. And as we drove to the next resort, you could see the various stages of burning the fields, cutting the cane, stacking the cane onto small railroad flatbeds, and then a train pulling as many as 50 carts to the processing plant.

Much of the fields reminded us of the endless cornfields that one sees while driving through Iowa. There is so much cane, that your eye tends to look for something else to look at so as not to become hypnotically sleepy. If it weren’t for the occasional glimpse of the ocean along the journey to keep our diving spirits up, we may have done just that. But we were on our way to Wananavu Resort, located on the heart of Vatu-i-Ra Passage, also known as Bligh Water, and we remained excited.

In 1787, William Bligh, aged 33, was given command of ‘The Bounty’, a three year old merchant ship. His mission was to transport breadfruit from Tahiti to the West Indies. The Bounty set sail on December 23, 1787 and on April 1789 the famous mutiny took place, led by Bligh’s one-time friend, Fletcher Christian. Bligh and 18 other crew members loyal to him were set adrift on April 28th in the Bounty’s launch, an open boat, 23-foot long by 6’9” wide. In most cases such an act would have led to certain death for the men aboard, but Bligh was a magnificent seaman and he sailed from Tofua, one of the Friendly Islands, through the Fiji waters later named after him, and finally landing in Timor, Java, without any loss of life on June 14th.  The journey of 3618 nautical miles took them 47 days.

Wananavu Resort’s lies on the Northern tip of Viti Levu, and just several miles south of the path Captain Bligh took on his journey. The rooms are not rooms at all, rather, bungalows named bures in the local vernacular. The bures have one or two bedrooms and sleep up to 4 adults. There are no phones, radios or TVs in the bures, giving you the chance to experience a peaceful slice of paradise. The restaurant and bar area is quite spacious, providing a breakfast buffet, lunch menus, and a semi-formal dinner venue. A Traditional Fijian Feast, also known as a 'Lovo', is organized once a week. Food is wrapped in banana leaves, cooked over hot stones and buried underground. When the tasty feast is unearthed, it is then setup for every guest to enjoy.

There is little to do near the resort, and going anywhere, even to the closest town of Rakiraki requires a shuttle ($10 FJ). The resort does offer day trips for hiking, picnicking, kayaking, snorkeling, and such. We did not do any of these, opting instead to dive, eat, and relax. Fortunately the dive shop is on the same property as the resort. Although the dive shop is well equipped, they unfortunately do not run any Nitrox.

One of the benefits that the Kai Viti dive operators provide is the use of Mike Trussell’s boat, which is admittedly a little larger than Bligh’s launch. This is a 38-foot, Hamilton inboard jetboat that can easily hold 16 divers. Thankfully most days we only had eight divers, giving plenty of room for all aboard. The other great thing is that it’s big enough and fast enough to motor out to the reefs that are a good 16 miles from the resort. These are some of the same reefs that the Fiji Agressor will take you to should you decide to use their services. The difference here is that in rough waters, you stay on the Agressor, whereas with Mike’s boat, you can continue to dive in sheltered reefs closer to the resort. The downside to the inner reefs is that they are frequented by other dive operators, and therefore not as pristine.

That being said, the outer reefs here are simply amazing! My wife and I have been diving close to eight years, and this is the first time we felt simply astounded by the quantity and quality of sea life. I wish I could give Mike and his divemasters Seci and Bola credit for the beauty found here. As far as the crew is concerned, we’ve truly been pampered after this trip. The crew will pick up your equipment from your bure, have it ready on the boat the morning of your dives, and then take it to their shop for rinsing and drying.

Our only criticism is that we wish the operators would warn people not to damage the pristine coral found in these waters while diving. There were numerous dives where my wife and I observed other divers simply plowing through soft corals, breaking off pieces of hard coral, and breaking other reef features like sponges and anemone. While I can understand satisfying your customers, I firmly believe that as dive operator, you should also be in a position to protect the reef life you want to show. Even so, this was truly a memorable and enjoyable dive trip.

We did a total of 13 dives at this resort – The Pinnacle, Breathtaker, Instant Replay, Purple Haze, Black Magic Mountain, Mount Muntany (both sides), The Amazing Maze, Dream Maker, The Pinacle, Golden Dream, Dragontail, and Canyon. Again, I could go into detail on each of these reefs, but there is simply too much information to relay in what we saw here. It is sufficient to say that each reef we visited was a little different from the next, each having its marvelous features, and each making a memorable dive. Locations you shouldn’t miss however would be Purple Haze, Black Magic Mountain, Mount Mutiny, Golden Dream, and Canyon.

Whatever I said about memorable dives – forget it. Thar be whales in these waters! Since the conditions were still favorable, we decided to once again motor 16 miles out into the open waters to get some more deep-water experiences. On this day we decided to make three dives, and while under way to the locations, we could see a large humback whale breaching off in the distance. Humbacks are extremely rare in Fijian waters, so to see one from the boat even had the crew awestruck. Surely this was a good omen.

Purple haze had to be one most memorable dives to date with its massive purple soft corals hanging on the sides of this massive pinnacle. Black Magic Mountain gets it’s name for the massive quantities of black coral around the site, and Mount Mutiny stands another large pinnacle out in the middle of the ocean.

If you ever wanted to dive a site that is nothing more that a tiny point rising out of the ocean depths, Mount Mutiny is the place to do just that. The tip of this coral mountain starts at about 20 feet, but the base of this mountain is a sheer drop to 3000 feet. The entire feature can be circumnavigated in two dives and features many soft corals on the western side, while harder corals are on the eastern. Starting on the southern end you’ll encounter many white tip sharks, schools of barracuda. You end your dive on the northern side, where you’ll encounter the resident hawksbill turtle. What made this diving even more memorable was the fact that there was a humpback whale near our boat at the end of our dive. Although the water conditions weren’t good enough to see it underwater, you could definitely see it once you surfaced. Truly breathtaking!

Although I’d hate to say it, most of the more memorable dive we definitely the locations that were further out. Perhaps it is due to the pristine conditions of the corals due to a fewer number of humans. Whatever the case, the dives were incredible, and I would love to get back to experience more dives in that area of Fiji. If you’ve got the time, and the money, I would highly recommend it.