Bula!

[Pies]

Bula (hello in Fiji).

Well we are finally home after our 2 week trip to Fiji.

Jane and I had a great time and did lots of diving and snorkeling as well as the usual things, drinking, eating, readings and relaxing.

We spend the 1st week of our holiday on Kadavu Island, southern most Fiji. The resort we stayed at was very small (12 people the most that were staying when we were their, down to 4 at one stage).

The 2nd week we joint the rest of the FNZAS crew on Mololo Island staying on Plantation Island Resort. Although we had lots of fun here, its not the sort of place I would retun too, Jane and I prefur the more secluded and private places where you get to meet the villagers and see some real Fiji.

JetSkiSteve came to visit, but we had some 'communication issues' and didn't actually get to see Steve or Carla, which was a shame, but Steve got to meet most of the other FNZAS people so not a waste at all. (next year Steve!).

The weather was fairly average, mostly overcast with some rain. Unusual for the dry season. The days the sun came out it was too hot anyway, and the weather doesn't affect the diving one bit!

The diving and snorkeling in Fiji was excellent. It is obvious why Fiji is known as the soft coral capital of the world. Millions of nice corals, soft and hard, and more marine life than you can shake a stick at.

The dives varried from shallow water reefs and reef crests and inner reefs, to deeper fore reefs and bommies. Lots of swin throughts and things to see. Overall the diving was fairly easy, which is good, most dives close to an hour in length. We did about 17 each.

Night diving. We did a night dive and it was awesome, infact I would say it was the best night dive I have ever done. We did a site called 'Crazy Mazey' which was lots of tunnels and swimthroughs, and it was the first time the dive charter had ever done it at night. The wild life was awesome, and I say rays, sharks, fish, mantas shrimp, anemones and worms and millions of other things too. It was a challenging dive and I came up with about 4bar of air (start with about 210), which is as low as I have ever been. I actually had to suck the air from the tank! Great dive.

Anyway some pics:

This turtle was large, perhapps a metre accross, with a remore attached. As soon as it saw me it raced away:

This is of the largest moray eel family, the giant moray. The largest of this type of eel found weighed about 240kg, so they get MASSIVE. Jane and I saw a HUGE one in Vanautu, this one was small by comparision, about as round as my thigh. Morays looks menicing and are feared by many divers, but the truth is they are gentle, blind and bit scardey cats. You can pat and stroke them, but often they look as mean as anything you have ever seen, however the one pictured here looks goofy and a bit stupid, I also think its crosseyed!

Requium Sharks. Sharks are not an uncommon sight on the reef, and for most divers they are an interesting distraction but not something to fear or worry about (treated with respect of course). This was as close as I have ever been to large sharks (2.5-3m for the largest). I was approx 1 foot from them at times. This was a planed shark dive and feed, and Issakki the dive master who was feeding them later told us it didn't quite go as planed and the sharks were a little closer and in the wrong places (behind him) more than he would have liked:

After the feeding some of the sharks had shed teeth and where to be found on the sand, Jane and I have 1 each, and makes they only trinket I brought back with me:

I have never seen so many clown trigger fish. Awesome looking, some very large, I think once of the prettiest fish on the reef and the most active:

This was the only wreck we dived. It was a passanger liner (120feet, so small) and had been stripped bare to allow for safter penetration of the wreck. I think the boat was called the Aerora:

So thats that. I will try and post up some coral pics later on for those interested. I didn't take as many (good) photos as I would have liked, but was too busy diving to bother.

Jane and I return to the reefs in October for a 2 week dive trip of Vanuatu, this time visiting the Presedent Coolege and Million Dollar point.

Pies

[Alan]

Thanks for sharing Pies.

Something I can now only dream of.

Alan