Family Vacation to Fiji - Day 2, 3, & 4 June 2024 - Diving

We spent a quiet, peaceful day in paradise on our second day in Fiji. We went to the local grocery store and then spent the rest of the day at Sega Na Leqa. The manager of a local spa came out to the property to give us each deep tissue massages. Wow, what a great way to start a vacation.

   

Savusavu has a population of about 5000. There is one main street in town with grocery stores, restaurants, gas stations, and shops. We ended up shopping at three places to pick up groceries for the week. People were very friendly. Bula bula is the local greeting. Locals also told us "welcome home".

The sunset did not disappoint on day 2.

Day 3 was the day we had been waiting for... our first scuba diving day in Fiji!

The sunrise was so peaceful. I enjoyed sitting on the deck, listening to the birds, and watching the sky lighten.

We drove about an hour on absolutely awful roads to get to our first dive location. My husband said it felt like he was playing Frogger having to dodge so many potholes on the paved road. This video shows the rough and narrow dirt road out to Natewa Bay. 

We dove with Ocean Ventures. We met the dive boat in a small cove. Ocean Ventures is the only dive company diving in Natewa Bay. It was not a bad place to go for our first dive in over a year but it was not amazing. Because of problems with fishermen taking their anchor buoy, the buoy was submerged. It took about ten minutes of going back and forth for them to locate the anchor buoy. The dive master was super excited about the hundreds of different types of coral in the bay, especially the zoanthids. The coral was very pretty. We dove at The Zoo and Sleeping Beauty dive sites. 

This is one of my favorite views - looking out over the bow of the boat on the way to a diving site.

Getting everything ready for the first dive.

All smiles! So happy to get back under water.

Boogs with dive master Sarah.

I loved watching this. It was so neat to see it sway in the current.

There were some small fish. 

It was great to get some footage of this eel. 

This is a giant clam.

These sea anemone were brilliantly white.

We found Nemo!

It was not a bad diving day but it was less impressive than what we expected. We returned to our villa, swam in the pool, and had a quiet evening. We were unable to stream movies or shows due to wifi restrictions. There were a lot of dvds of old movies on the property. We watched Tropic Thunder before going to bed.

Day 4 in Fiji

We decided to switch dive companies for our next day of diving. My husband found Koro Sun Dive and it was a great dive company to work with. We met the dive master at Copra Shed Marina and followed him to Savasi Island Resort where their boat is docked. For some reason, the dock and surrounding lagoon reminded me of Gilligan's Island.

Can't you just see the S.S. Minnow shipwrecked here?

The feel on this dive boat was so much better. It felt more professional and less mom and pop on the fly. There were three other divers on the boat with us. Two people diving with us were taking a break for the day from the yacht they were cruising through the South Pacific on for nine weeks. The other diver was a professional photographer. Dive master Jeff was great. We dove Grand Central Station and Blue Ribbon dive sites. During our surface interval time between dives, we had amazing delicious cream buns from The Bread Kitchen. Booboo, a crew member, is in charge of picking up the surface interval snack each day. Yum! He made a great choice. At the Blue Ribbon dive site, we dove around two large columns of rock covered in coral. It was one of the best dives I have been on. The coral was vibrant and varied, the columns started at 14 feet and went down to 80 feet. There were so many kinds of tiny fish everywhere. Part of the dive felt like you were swimming in an aquarium full of fish. 

This was our safety stop at the end of our 2nd dive. You can see how all of us are kicking our fins. The current was really strong. If you weren’t kicking, the current was pushing you off the reef.

Diving with Koro Sun was really great. We booked more dives with them as soon as we were back at the lagoon. This is what we expected with diving in Fiji. The current was stronger than any current we have previously dove in. It was a great day of diving.

We spent the rest of the day lazing around our rental property.