Fiji - Best Diving ?

Hi,

Travelling to Fiji in June and have never been there before.
Where is the best diving?

I don't mind travelling off the beaten path and would prefer to avoid spending a small fortune.

I'm a OWSI and IANTD Deep Air/Nitrox certified...so advanced sites are OK for me.

Thanks for your replies!

divedog@megapathdsl.net pounded away at his keyboard resulting in:
:Travelling to Fiji in June and have never been there before.
:Where is the best diving?
:
:I don't mind travelling off the beaten path and would prefer to avoid spending a small fortune.

I was there last year. Trip report here ==>
http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/Trips/Fiji2004.htm

and in 1999 ==> http://www.pathcom.com/~bracuk/Trips/Fiji.htm

Draw your own conclusions about Woidroka Bay.

Dan Bracuk
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.


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where is the best diving in Fiji?

That's a tough question. Generally speaking, Fiji has some really good diving, but if your idea is
to just get off the plane in Nadi and immediately go diving, think again. The West side of the
Fijian archepelago generally does not have good diving. That side of the island chain has been
thrashed by strong cyclones that wiped off the reef from the surface down to 35 feet.

I've had 13 trips to Fiji which included many land operations and three dive charters.

There are currents, sometimes strong currents in Fiji waters but they never bothered me but I've
seen a few people freak out who didn't realize what they were up against.

The best diving was, of course, off the live-aboards but they're very expensive. Superior diving
is located beyond the island of Viti Levu. An off-shore island called Kadavu (Ken-dah-voo) has
some good diving, big bommies festooned with pretty yellow flowering corals.

The waters bet'n Viti Levu and Vanua Levu can be a bit murky-- if you don't mind that. Dan Grenier
had an operation that was only a couple of hours from the main airport near Nadi (pronounced
"nan-dee")off the North coast of Viti Levu where he had some good sites, but some of the water can
be a bit murky.

But the best sites all around are with the provence of the live-aboards and you have to have the
bucks for that, like the Naia and others.

And stay away from the resorts on the so-called "coral coast" --the South shore of Viti Levu --
they are crap!

Along the coral coast was a resort once known as "Man Friday," taken from the Robert Louis
Stevenson novel. "Man Friday" had a troubled history -- first, it was the hangout for Kiwis (New
Zealanders) -- a family friendly resort. That didn't fly, so they converted it into a "gay
friendly" resort, hoping attract a new int'l gay clientelle. That lasted about six months and
again....didn't fly, and caused consernation among the native Fijians who were mostly Methodist or
of religious extremists leaning..

My family and I did a trip last year to Viti Levu and really had a great time!
Most of our diving has been in the Carribean but we have done the GBR in
Australia and some Hawaii diving as well but this has been our favorite trip to
date.

On Sat, 29 Jan 2005 02:44:20 GMT, Daniel Kessler <dkessler@pop.cybernex.net>
wrote:

>The waters bet'n Viti Levu and Vanua Levu can be a bit murky-- if you don't mind that. Dan Grenier
>had an operation that was only a couple of hours from the main airport near Nadi (pronounced
>"nan-dee")off the North coast of Viti Levu where he had some good sites, but some of the water can
>be a bit murky.

We dove with Kai Viti divers out of the Wannanavu Beach Resort (sp?). The
diving was a bit higher octane than in Beqa lagoon. We had some swift currents,
beautiful drift dives, lotsa sharks (including a zebra shark and some bulls).

>And stay away from the resorts on the so-called "coral coast" --the South shore of Viti Levu --
>they are crap!

Well, I guess, one man's crap is another man's WOW! My family dove the Beqa
Lagoon Resort and found some wonderful diving. We saw blue ribbon eels by the
ton, cleaner shrimp, lots anemone fish, lion fish, and a bunch of other stuff.
Check out our pix on http://travel.adventure101.com/fiji

I lived in Fiji for a few years and put some resources together for
divers. It might give you some ideas:
http://www.blue-oceans.com/scuba/fiji/index.html
Best wishes

Peter Forster

<divedog@megapathdsl.net> wrote in message
news:sSzKd.12674$mo2.985216@news.xtra.co.nz...
> Hi,
>
> Travelling to Fiji in June and have never been there before.
> Where is the best diving?

I dived Fiji October 2001. Visited Castaway Island and dived Eka (fish
bazaar), The Pinnacles, Yandua Island, Seven Sister Reef and finally, the
best, Supermarket Reef. For most of the dives I had one or two other divers
plus the guide and boat handler. On Supermarket reef it was just me and the
guide on the dive. Loads of sharks plus a nice drop off there. I will never
forget the smally shark that kept nuzzling my BCD pocket while I was
trundling along the reef.

Saw loads of dead corals (staghorn) on a couple of sites but maybe things
have improved.

Bof

<divedog@megapathdsl.net> wrote in message
news:sSzKd.12674$mo2.985216@news.xtra.co.nz...
> Hi,
>
> Travelling to Fiji in June and have never been there before.
> Where is the best diving?
>
> I don't mind travelling off the beaten path and would prefer to avoid
> spending a small fortune.
>
> I'm a OWSI and IANTD Deep Air/Nitrox certified...so advanced sites are OK
> for me.
>
> Thanks for your replies!
>
Liveaboards are the only way to go IMO. I really enjoyed the Nai'a.

here are some:

http://www.travelplaces.com/director.../Scuba_Diving/