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Fiji trip report


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#1 Diver Ed

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Posted 16 October 2012 - 01:35 PM

With the help of Kamala, I spent two wonderful weeks in Fiji with my sister and a couple of friends. The first week was at the Beqa Lagoon Resort, and the second week was at Volivoli on the Northern side of the main island. My trip started out on a BAD note, when I got to the airport only to be informed that my flight was cancelled and I was rebooked for the next day. That turned into a hundred mile an hour frantic drive back home to the little commuter airport that is about five minutes from my home, where I caught a new flight, made a 25 minute connection in Charlotte, and was finally on my way to LAX to meet up with my friend. We both got some sleep on the 10 plus hour flight from LAX to Nadi, were met at the airport for our transfer to Beqa Lagoon, and quickly started to relax and get into vacation mode. As we got to Beqa Lagoon Resort, we were welcomed on the shore to the traditional Fijian welcome song by the resort staff. After a quick lunch, I headed off to bed to rest, while Steve decided to do a shore dive. As my friend floated in the pool later that day, he commented that he now understands why the Fijian people are always smiling and so happy. That feeling was evident all week there. The resort and the grounds were beautiful. Everyone working there was always smiling and friendly. They were happy to say hello and ask how you were every time they saw you, and it was obviously genuine. Each day started with breakfast aroung 7:00, followed by an 8:00 dive departure. The dive boat was slow, and we usually had a 45-50 minute ride to the dive site. After two dives, we headed back to the resort for lunch. Each day offered the option for a shore dive and or a local activity such as a village visit, hike to the water falls, or the show from the local fire walkers in the afternoon. Due to my back problems, I usually went to bed to rest, so I missed out on the shore diving and a lot of the extras, so I can not give first hand reports of them, but others were happy with what the resort offered. On a couple of evenings, after dinner, there was a kava ceremony, or the local children were there to sing and dance. The food was excellent, as was the service. Unfortunately, I probably gained at least five pounds while at Beqa. I was very impressed with the resort, as was everyone else that was there. It definitely had an older traditional Fijian feel to it. Further reports on Volivoli Resort, as well as the diving in both places to follow when time allows.

Ed

#2 Diver Ed

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Posted 17 October 2012 - 11:10 AM

After a wonderful week at Beqa Lagoon, we headed North to the Volivoli Resort. My sister Diane and her friend Andy joined us for the second week. While Beqa Lagoon Resort offered a series of Bures for accommodations, the Volivoli Resort offered a choice of dorms, cottages, or rooms. We were in the rooms, which were more of a motel style setting. The resort is very new, and the room was comfortable. The view from the porch was beautiful. The rooms are set about a hundred feet up on a hill, which has both pros and cons. The height added tremendously to the view that we had, and a lot of time was spent sitting there with a beverage looking out over the grounds and water. The negative was more an issue with me, as I have a large camera system that needs to be carried to the boat each day. Added to that are the physical problems that I have because of my back, and the walk up and down the hill was an issue. The resort had more of a Euro feel to it. As with our first week, we had breakfast around 7:00, and headed out for a couple of dives around 8. Unlike the slower larger boats of Beqa, the boats at Volivoli were smaller and fast. The dive sites were 10 - 30 miles away, and took 30 -60 minutes to get to. On the days that we did two dives, we returned to the resort for lunch. If we added a third dive, our lunch was brought on the boat with us, and we ate between dives. I saw a lot of positive in both resorts that we visited. Although Volivoli had a very new look to the resort and the rooms, my personal preference was for the individual bures that were offered on Beqa. Both resorts offered extra activities such as tours and village visits. As an excursion from Volivoli involves car transfers, there is an additional cost to them. There are no cars on Beqa, so the excursions there are walking, and a lot closer. They are also free. The food was excellent at Beqa, while more basic at Volivoli, and the service was also better at Beqa. The landscaping of the grounds was beautiful at both resorts, as were the views, with Volivoli having the better view. Ed

#3 WreckWench

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Posted 17 October 2012 - 06:42 PM

Hey Ed...great report so far! I look forward to the report about the diving! :thankyou:

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#4 dive_sail_etc

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Posted 18 October 2012 - 07:12 AM

Wow Ed, I agree with Kamala that your report is a great read. :cool1: I seem to recall you are something of an UW shutterbug; any chance there will be photos to complement the descriptions? :D

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#5 WreckWench

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Posted 18 October 2012 - 10:19 AM

I know he did get some shots...but he also sadly had some camera issues which fortunately cost him mostly lost shots and not a destroyed camera! :respect:

But I have heard a few pics will make it our way! :cool1:

And I've been talking to him about how the resorts stack up as SD.com venues so stay tuned as he's been working with me a lot on this!

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#6 WreckWench

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Posted 18 October 2012 - 10:20 AM

p.s. Ed you forgot to mention the water temps or were you saving that for the diving part of your report??? :thankyou:

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#7 Buzo Guero

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Posted 18 October 2012 - 11:19 AM

Thanks for the update, Ed! Looking forward to hearing more. Sorry to hear about your back issues. I've been dealing with that a bit myself, this past year. The only time I truly feel "right" these days is when I'm underwater. This getting old crap is hell!!!

Take care.

#8 Diver Ed

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Posted 18 October 2012 - 01:04 PM

On to the diving report. It was the end of winter, start of spring in Fiji. The water temps ranged from around 71, up toward about 75. I wore a full 3 mil suit, and was often a bit chilly. If I returned there at this time of year, I would opt for my 5 mil suit. The Beqa Lagoon diving was done from a larger boat that was very slow. The average travel time to each dive site was about 50 minutes. Most of the Beqa dive sites were collections of bommies. The average site would be in about 90 feet of water, and made up of 3 to 7 separate bommies, each coming to within about 10-20 feet of the surface. There would be a couple of dive guides in the water, leading the divers that chose to follow. The hard corals were very healthy, and the size of the sea fans was impressive. Although there was not a lot of large fish life, there were some turtles, a few sharks, and a couple humphead wrasse seen by the divers. I also saw a couple of octopus out in the day time, as well as a few blue ribbon eels. The upper thirty feet or so of the reefs were amazing. Between the soft corals, anemonefish, fusilers, and so much more, people said it was like diving in a fish tank. The soft corals that Fiji is known for were beautiful. The biggest draw to the Beqa Lagoon area, and the reason that most divers go there is for the shark feed dives. Run on certain days of the week, and requiring coordination with another dive operation that brings the bait and controls the feed process, the shark feed is run at one of two different locations. The procedure for both spots is the same. There will be several boats moored up to the site. Divers all get in the water and hang on a surface line. The dive guides will lead everyone down a line to the bottom at about 85 feet. Divers are positioned kneeling on the bottom behind another rope, and watched over by the dive guides, while the other dive guides running the operation do the feeding. Your dive is about 20 minutes, and then the group ascends together, following the rope back toward your boat. If you make the mistake of lingering a bit to try and get another picture, you may end up going up with the wrong group, toward the wrong boat. Following the same procedure, the second dive is done around 60 feet, for about 25 minutes. I have very mixed thoughts on the shark dives. This was the first time I did a shark feed dive, so I do not have anything to compare it to. From a photo stand point, it was difficult. There were thousands of fish ranging from 4 inches or so up to about two feet. I rarely had a decent view of the sharks, and could barely see the divers doing the feeding. It was a swarm of small fish action right in front of us, and occasionally a shark would come through the cloud of fish. Most of my pictures have a lot of little fish blocking the view of the shark. Things seemed to be a bit thinner on the second dive, and the viewing was better. I was happy that I experienced it, but would not have booked a second day, had my sister not been showing up later that week specifically for the shark dive. For my second day of shark diving, I was positioned off of the rope line, and a bit closer to the action. I really do not remember a lot of those two dives though. The only memory is that of an 8-9 foot silvertip shark coming almost nose to nose with me. The shark seemed intent on occupying the same space that I was, and I am evidently not smart enough to realize that that is not a good situation for me. As I sat there smiling and watching, the dive guide had to reach around me from behind, and push the shark away with his pole, as I was too stupid to duck my head out of the way. That alone has me wanting to do that dive again. Unfortunately that picture, as well as all of the Beqa Lagoon pictures are limited and of poor quality. I ended up flooding my brand new housing at the start of the trip. That left me without strobes all week. As Andy was flying in for the second week, I had him bring a replacement part, and luckily that resolved my problem. On to the diving at Volivoli. I have read wonderful reviews about the diving done from the liveaboard Nai'a. They dive the Bligh waters area, which is why I wanted to dive out of Volivoli. Our first day of diving, we went to the passage ( the prime area for diving ). It was about an hour run in a 32 foot boat with twin 300 horse power engines. The boat was fast, and we were heading into the waves on the way out. Our first dive site was about a hundred yards away from the Nai'a, and our next two sites were close by. The first dive was a pinacle in about a hundred feet of water. The current was enough that it made it tough to swim into for the old, out of shape type of divers that drag along a large camera system. I will save myself the embarrassment of naming names. The size and colors of the sea fans and soft corals were amazing. The site was beautiful, as were the other two dives of the day. The wind picked up each of the next three days, so we were unable to head to the passage. Instead, the boat went in the other direction, where there was some protection from the waves. The sites in that area were either pinacles, or maze like areas of coral reefs. Although not equalling the dives on day one in the passage, these dives were fantastic. There were sea fans that were 6-10 foot across, beautiful soft and hard corals, loads of small fish, and usually several white tip reef sharks. The last day of diving was back in the passage again. The first two dives were soft current drift dives. All I can say is WOW. The first dive was along a wall of purple soft corals, and the second dive had a golden yellow soft coral wall. Those dives rank up there with some of the prettiest dives I have done in my life. As with the Beqa Lagoon dives, the upper part of the dives were coveres with small fish of all kinds. What Volivoli offered that was not in Beqa were more white tip reef sharks, several schools of Jacks, the soft corals were significantly larger and much more abundant, as were the sea fans, and the structure of the reefs were beautiful. I considered the diving at Beqa to be great. The diving at Volivoli was a lot better. As an over all assessment of my trip, and looking at what I have seen a lot of members on this site want out of dive trips, I would start by saying that an October trip is probably not a great idea due to the water temps. I am not sure about the weather at other times of the year there, but will research it at some point. I expect the Nai'a liveaboard would be amazing. I do know that it is pretty pricy though, which is why I tried the land based option. Although the diving at Beqa Lagoon is of a lesser quality than Volivoli, I would recommend a trip there for people interested in either the cultural exposure and or the shark dive. The diving was very enjoyable, and enough to make the trip worth doing again. The diving just seems lesser because the second week of diving was amazing. If Kamala ran a trip starting with a week in Beqa, followed by a trip at Volivoli, I would sign up for both weeks. If I am booking my own trip, I would either do the liveaboard, or another two week land based trip starting at Beqa, followed by either a week diving the Astrolabe reef, or up at Taveuni diving the Somosome Straits. I dove Taveuni 16 years ago and was amazed. I have not dove the Astrolabe reef yet. As great as the diving at Volivoli was, we passed on the last day of diving because the wind did not allow the boat to go back to the passage. Although it would have been great diving at the other spot, it would have paled compared to our passage dives on Thursday. My personal reasons for trying a different spot instead of returning to the excellent diving of Volivoli are the physical difficulties of the rooms being up on the hill, and knowing that it is hit or miss with getting to the top diving sites ( we got there 2 out of 6 days ). The other part is that Volivoli offers unlimited shore diving. I did one shore dive there. My sister did not look at anything because she knew that if she took her eyes off of my fins, she would lose sight of me immediately. There were a couple of pieces of live corals and a few fish, but nothing to really see there. That said, after the boat dives, there wasnt much else to do. If anyone has any specific questions, ask away. Ed

#9 Buzo Guero

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Posted 18 October 2012 - 03:20 PM

:thankyou: , Ed! Good info.

#10 Diver Ed

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Posted 18 October 2012 - 04:03 PM

I am not too good with computers, so this is a test. This is the view that we had outside our place in Beqa.Beqa Lagoon 35.jpg

#11 Diver Ed

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Posted 18 October 2012 - 04:19 PM

Hello Brad,

You are correct. I do enjoy looking through the camera. As Kamala mentioned, I had a problem in Beqa with the housing. On day two, the alarm on my brand new Subal housing started going off. I quickly got out of the water, opened the housing and got the camera out. There was about a quarter cup of water that got into the housing. In my rush to open things up and access the camera, I pulled the strobe sync cord out. As the strobes no longer worked, I was hoping that I damaged the cord, and it was not another issue from the water. A new cord did work, so I was back in business on week two. The end result is that I have very poor quality shots from Beqa. The Volivoli pics are better. I had my old Subal housing for about 15 years, and never had a leak. I do not know what happened to cause the leak here, but am guessing that I damaged an o ring when I put the port on. A new o ring and a bit more care in setting up, and things worked fine the rest of the way. As for pictures, I will be working on them as time allows. I looked for a place to add a test photo, and the closest spot I found was the Fiji section of future trips. I did not have access to add a picture there. I added one in a post here, and will continue with that method, unless someone suggests a different approach. Ed



Wow Ed, I agree with Kamala that your report is a great read. :cool1: I seem to recall you are something of an UW shutterbug; any chance there will be photos to complement the descriptions? :D

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#12 WreckWench

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Posted 19 October 2012 - 08:17 AM

Thank you Ed...I have lots to work with to help set up a trip to Fiji...but it will NOT be in Sept since that is still dead of winter. Sorry gang...I'm a wuss! :(

Contact me directly at Kamala@SingleDivers.com for your private or group travel needs or 864-557-6079 AND don't miss SD's 2018-2021 Trips! ....here! Most are once in a lifetime opportunities...don't miss the chance to go!!
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#13 finGrabber

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Posted 23 October 2012 - 10:27 PM

Thank you Ed...I have lots to work with to help set up a trip to Fiji...but it will NOT be in Sept since that is still dead of winter. Sorry gang...I'm a wuss! :(

well, that's unfortunate, I was looking forward to doing Fiji with SD

#14 WreckWench

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Posted 24 October 2012 - 08:10 AM

Is there any other time you can do it say LATE fall or winter??? That is the warm time for Fiji!

Contact me directly at Kamala@SingleDivers.com for your private or group travel needs or 864-557-6079 AND don't miss SD's 2018-2021 Trips! ....here! Most are once in a lifetime opportunities...don't miss the chance to go!!
SD LEGACY/OLD/MANUAL Forms & Documents.... here !

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710 Dive Buddy Lane; Salem, SC 29676
864-557-6079 tel/celfone/office or tollfree fax 888-480-0906

#15 finGrabber

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Posted 24 October 2012 - 09:53 PM

Is there any other time you can do it say LATE fall or winter??? That is the warm time for Fiji!

Maybe fall, def not winter; my understanding is warm in Fiji means lower vis




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