Recommendations for Dive operators in Fiji?

Hello!

Can anybody recommend a diving operator on Fiji? A friend of mine and myself will be there from December 17th 2005 to January 2nd 2006 and we want to do some diving! (Not all the time that we'll be there but maybe 10 days)

Liveaboard boats would be great but shouldn't be too expensive :-)

Also can anybody tell me what the weather/visibility will be at this time of year?

Thanks in advance for any help!

bye,

gehav

Hi Gehav,

Eric and I were there last year for the Shootout and we did an extension with some diving in the Raki Raki area. IMO, it's the best in Fiji - diving the Bligh water and incredible reefs of the Vatu-i-ra Passage.

We dove with Kai Viti Divers who I would highly recommend. http://www.kaiviti.com I think.

Raki Raki is about a 3 hr drive from the Nadi airport and there are many inexpensive places to stay near there.

HTH

James

Hi james!

Thanks very much for this tip!

I think we will try diving with Kai Viti Divers.

Only problem is that they are on Viti Levu. I heard that it's better to stay on the Mamanuca Islands during December because there is less rain there.

bye,

gehav

I produced a CD ROM about Fiji many years ago and had the opportunity to dive all the areas around Fiji as far north as Yasawa, south to Kadavu, east to Matangi and west to Tokoriki. What I found was that the diving was not the same in all areas and the amazing soft coral shots you see in the Fiji ads and magazines come mostly from the area between the two big islands. Some of the places I expected to see great diving, just wasn't that great in my opinion. They had some soft coral, but it was very small and scatted among the the hard coral.

Since then Fiji suffered coral bleaching which caused significant damage. The good news is that my last trip to Fiji, a little over a year ago, I was amazed how great the reefs looked. I too dived with Kai Viti and found them to be one of the best dive operators in Fiji. Great boats, very responsible and takes you to those areas where you'll see soft coral as far as the eye can see. I think I was there just a couple of weeks after Eric and James. Then I spent five days at Castaway Island in the Mamanucas and I was very impressed with the diving there too. We visited soft coral pinnacles and very healthy hard coral bommies. I didn't expect that, but was very happy to see it.

If I had to do it again and time or money were not a factor, I'd get on a live-aboard and go back to the area between Gau and Namena, which was my favorite area, as well as the Vatu-I-Ra Passage. The north end of this area is vistited by Kai Viti on special trips (pay a little more, but worth it).

I don't think rain is going to be a big problem during this time. It gets heavier in Feb and March and the water gets much warmer but its not bad at all in Dec. It usually rained at night and was sunny during the day. You can see a very nice chart of annual water temps on the Nai'a web site. Here is also a chart of average air temp and rainfall.

Have a great trip!

Bonnie

Almost, James...KaiVitiDivers.com

@underwatercolours: thanks for the extensive tips!

regarding live-aboard: time is not an issue for us but money is... :-(

is there a good and cheap live-aboard that you can recommend?

otherwise i think we'll take kai viti!

bye,

gehav

I just got back from Fiji Last week Spent 11 wonderful days at Daive Kadavu, Spent 9 days diving, in the most beautiful waters I have ever seen. The lodge is more Remote, Very quiet, people were wonderful, good food, The very best Dive masters!!!!!!!!! 11 bures, Main building, 3 meals a day, Good to very good,, and a neat beach bar. Like I said Very remote, one Phone , internet , Only fans in rooms , but very beautifull. about 190 a day everything but drinks. Which can be pricey, but took my own bottle for afternoon cocktails , Only Full power during certain times of the days. they had 25 of us, from Single Divers. com there, I can not wait to go back....Sonny beaches