2007 Fiji

May 11-21, 2007

The Resorts:
    Lalati Resort on Beqa Atoll was the first place we visited in Fiji, and we just fell into love. The 7 Bures, a pool with a hot tub, dining and bar area, groumet food, owners Jayne and Clint, and manager/cook Beato, there was nothing we did not like. Even a long ride (2-3 hrs from Nadi) was not too bad.
    We stayed at Garden Island Resort, which is supposed to be the best deal on Taveuni if not in Fiji, but we did not care for it too much. We do not know if this is regular, but our dinner was served cold, and it was almost inedible. Lunch was not better either. We dove famous "White Wall" in the morning with incoming tide, and it looked like a black wall because this wall faces West so it was dark and soft corals were not open. We thought it was a waste of dive, and were later told the 4 divers from New Zealand wanted dive there to say "We dove there." However there were 12 of us aboard, and we had no say in it. It was odd.
    Matangi Island Resort was another beautiful place off Taveuni. They just put a new pool in. There are 14 Bures including 3 Tree houses and a Villa. The construction for the new dining room and a state of art kitchen was almost complete. I can not imagine how the chef can improve his gorgeous meals, but they said he would. The island is beautiful and plenty to do even if you are not divers.

Focus of the trip: Visiting Fiji's different islands and resorts and diving

Dive Sites: Beqa Lagoon, Jayne's Lane in front of Lalati, Somo Somo Strait in Taveuni, and Matagi Island

Water Temperature: 82 F (28 C)

Fiji diving can have a strong current, but in general dive masters know the condition so well that you do not need to worry about it. The hardest part was to get in and out of the dive boat. Exception of Lalati, we did not see piers in Fiji, which means you are getting in the boat parked on the beach. With the heavy surf actions it could be difficult. As everybody told us the color of soft corals were amazing everywhere in Fiji. We also added several new fish and nudibranch in Fiji.
In Beqa Lagoon we loved Jayne's Lane, the shore dive off the resort. It is basically a muck dive with frogfish, anemone including colonial anemone, nudibranch, shrimps, and various juvenile fish. We did not dive Friggate Pass for the pelagics though.
Matagi's Yellow Wall was incredible, and we saw whitetip and silvertip sharks, bumphead parrot fish, and schools of fish besides normal fish and invertabrates. We were told they have some frogfish, but never saw one. Shore diving and snorkeling are also available, but we did not have a chance.

2007 Fiji Islands