This time we are presenting a destination that we love and that we are very excited about. For 7 days we will dive around the best spots in Fiji on a liveaboard that will not leave you indifferent.
We will take a route passing by several reefs on the north side of Bligh Water. This is one of the best coral reef dives in the world. We can find all kinds of hard and soft coral, large schools of jacks and barracudas, among many species of fish. But the most interesting thing is that we can occasionally find hammerhead sharks and eagle rays.
Another very special area is the Namena Marine Reserve. This dive site has it all, concentrated schools of large fish and spectacular soft coral reefs. A few large, overfed groupers camouflage themselves on the bottom, waiting to catch any fish that stays low to hide from the grey reef sharks that swim among schools of barracuda and trevally overhead. If you are a photographer and to make you second guess your choice of lenses, the bottom is full of jawfish, shrimp gobies, fire dartfish, clingfish and assorted juveniles, while the pinnacles have more nudibranchs and pipefish than you can possibly photograph.
The Koro Sea is where things get exciting. These are soft coral gardens in shallow water, home to millions of reef fish. As an added bonus, this is an area where manta rays can be spotted, which are usually found feeding. Gau’s specific spot: Nigali Passage is home to 10-25 female grey reef sharks and their pups, the passage also concentrates a large school of trevally, three schools of barracuda separated by age, several large jumbo groupers and a pesky concentration of fish we call snapass (one reference calls them snappers; one calls them bass).
Another very interesting spot in this area is Wakaya where during dives we often see resident manta rays at the cleaning stations and hammerhead sharks frequently come close to check us out. Grey reef and white tip sharks reside along the drop off but it is the healthy coral and the creatures that live in it that often excite divers the most: blue ribbon eels, scorpionfish and perched lionfish. The platform just above the deep drop off is home to the very rare Helfrich’s dartfish.
