D ivers are all different, each hasunique wants, needs and desires.

One loves strong currents with large ani-mals; another prefers still waters with tinycreatures to study. The problem is findingone destination that pleases everyone.We think we have found it, it's called Fiji!

With more than 300 islands Fiji offers adiversity sure to fulfill your dream dive va-cation. So, how do you find out whichplaces best fit your dive needs? You'vealready taken the first step by readingSKIN DIVER Magazine. Each month pho-tojournalists are sent to various locationsand our lucky assignment was Fiji; the fol-lowing details our discoveries.

Our trip started with aten hour flight from LosAngeles to Nadi (pro-nounced Nan-de) aboardAir Pacific. Flights to Nadialso originate from Aus-tralia, New Zealand, Ha-waii and Japan aboardQantas and Air New Zea-land. Fiji's outer islandsare reached on smallerplanes via Sunflower andAir Fiji.

Nadi is sort of a hub,with most Fiji dive tripsstarting and ending at this airport. It isprobably one of the easiest internationalairports to get around. Customs is quickand pleasant. Everyone offers a smile andis eager to welcome you. If your plans re-quire an overnight stay, don't fret, Nadihotels are close by, offering reasonableaccommodations and day rates for thoselong layovers. If you love shopping, youcan catch a taxi downtown and exploreshops offering a wide variety of souvenirs.

Which direction do you head from Nadiif you want to go diving? The answer isany direction but each island offers slightlydifferent conditions.

On our trip, we flew northeast to Savu-savu to visit three resorts. Each dives thesame sites but offers quite different ac-commodations, depending on budget, lo-cation and preferences.

Cousteau Fiji Island Resort is home toJean-Michel Cousteau's Project OceanSearch. The resort has recently been ren-ovated and features 20 bures (Fijian cot-tages), a dive shop with a 37 foot diveboat, freshwater pool, E-6 photo lab andclassroom. Afternoon activities includetrips to mangroves, kayaking, snorkeling,tidepooling or local village visits.

Eco Divers, at the edge of Savusavu, isfor the diver who wants great dives but ison a budget. It visits most of the samesites as the Cousteau Fiji Island Resortbut uses two fast inflatables modified fordiving with 12 built-in tank dive racks. EcoDivers features a retail dive shop withchanging rooms and showers. Affordableaccommodations can be made at hotels

/ JA'JK AND UU= UrtArArlL

in or near Savusavu. Eco Divers offers ex-peditions to an historic fortified village, an-cient hot springs and an old town site viaa special four wheel drive vehicle.

At Namale Resort, diving is not the pri-mary focus. It has eight bures designedfor divers on a honeymoon, celebrating ananniversary or just needing a romanticweekend away. There is a honeymoonbure high on a rock overlooking the oceanand accessed only via a small bridge.Activities other than romance include div-ing, tennis, kayaking, waterskiing, wind-surfing, local tours or relaxing by thefreshwater swimming pool.

Savusavu is at the lower portion ofVanua Levu. It has calm diving inside thebay and current diving on the outside.Inside the bay you will see lots of nudi-branchs, lionfish, anemonefish, sea-snakes, Lizardfish and fish cleaning sta-tions. Most of the animal life is on coralbommies that rise from the seafloor. Sitesinclude Nuggets and Split Rock.

When the weather cooperates, diveson the outside of the bay can be made onseveral moored spots. There is a slightcurrent here so the potential for larger ani-mals is great. Sharks, turtles and muchlarger fish all pose for the underwater pho-

tographer. Namenalala one of the bestdive spots in the world, is 20 miles to thesouth and can be accessed by some ofthe larger dive boats in two to three hoursfrom Savusavu. This is one of the bestcurrent dives you will ever experience.There is so much animal life here that list-ing it would exceed our word limitation forthis article!

Taveuni, Fiji's third largest island, is calledthe Garden Island. It offers the perfect cli-mate for lush greenery on land and the rich-est gardens of soft coral below water.

The Garden Island Resort is a 33 roomhotel overlooking the Somosomo Strait. Itoffers a restaurant, freshwater pool anddive shop. On your first day you take yourdive gear down to the dive shop, a fewyards from the main hotel. Your gear will bechecked and loaded on the dive boat. Eachday after that it will be washed and dried inthe shop, then readied for the next day.

Dive Taveuni has eight bures on agrassy bluff overlooking the SomosomoStrait in a flower garden wonderland.Each bure is quite private, with glamorousinteriors and a unique outdoor showersystem you have to see to appreciate. Acovered outdoor dining table allows youto eat your meals in comfort overlooking

84 SKIN DIVER JULY 1996

Divers exploring the waters surrounding Laucala are mesmerized by pulsating jelly-fish (above) and pristine reefs adorned by crimson seafans and feathery crinoids (left).A Fijian dancer (below) reenacts the steps of his ancestors for Dive Kadavu's visitors.

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the Fijian reefs you dived that morning.Additional activities at both resorts in-

clude village visits, hikes to magnificentwaterfalls, horseback riding, birdwatchingand numerous other watersports.

Dive Taveuni dives the same spots as

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the Garden Island Resort. Diving in theSomosomo Strait requires a little currentexperience. If you don't have the experi-ence, this is the best place to learn, asthe divemasters are very experienced.

If you are a photographer, bring plenty offilm. The animal life is quite varied and pre-sents great photo opportunities. On onedive we saw leaffish, seasnakes, nudi-branchs, clownfish, Clown Triggerfish, fishcleaning stations, sharks, turtles and more.

Some of the more famous dive spotsin Fiji are here. The Great White Wall isa massive wall covered with white softcoral that offers great wide angle photoopportunities. We're sure you can guesswhat you'll see at Blue Ribbon Eel Reefand the Fish Factory.

The 3,000 acre Forbes Laucala Island isjust east of Taveuni. It houses seven bures,each separated by acres of grassy spacefor total privacy. Meals are unique. Break-fast is prepared in your bure by your "buregirl," who also cleans the room and replen-ishes any of the food or drinks used duringthe day. Lunch can be served just aboutanywhere you want—the Tree House,your bure, the old Forbes house, thebeach, an overlook or even the dive boat.Evening meals are served at the main plan-tation house or in the barbecue area.

Island tours on the 12 mile PerimeterRoad take you through spectacular fo-liage featuring a prolific bird population.

Transportation to any of the numerousdive spots is aboard one of the fourboats. Here, you dive when you feel likeit, not at specific times. Diving depthsrange from 15 to 130 feet, with visibilityas good as 150 plus on some days.

It's pretty obvious that, with so manysites, you will not be able to dive them all.The best solution is to give your hosts a

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wish list of sights and critters and let thempick the spots to match. If you want a lotof big fish, you might try The Wall. Itplunges from near the surface to 2,000feet. If current diving is your wish, thenThe Passage will give you a great view oflarge fish at depths of 0 to 60 feet in veryswift waters. Close-up photo buffs will en-joy Starfish Alley, Closeluff, CoralGardens and Anemone Reef. With somuch variety, you can have it your way.

From Laucala we returned to Nadi,then took a one-half hour boat ride fromthe big island of Viti Levu to Beach-comber. This tiny island is only 12 kilome-ters west of the Nadi International Airport.

Three types of lodging are possible in19 bures spread out over the entire is-land. Budget and the degree of privacydictate your choice. You can have yourown bure with private bath or you canhave a private bure with shared bath-rooms. If you don't mind dormitory style,you can stay in the Grand Bure.

Of course, with so much going on, youwill spend little time in the bure. Daily ac-tivities include windsurfing, fishing, ca-noeing, sailing, jetskiing, parasailing and,oh yes, diving! If you are a party animal,this is your island. Nightlife includesbands, dancing, something to quenchyour thirst, hottubbing or beach walking.

The dive shop has two boats andcaters to divers ranging from beginnersto those using nitrox. If you want to makea wreck dive, you can visit a B-26Bomber or the Sa/amanda. The BigWs is a dive on the outside of the barrierreef that offers the potential of seeingmuch larger open ocean animals.Gotham City is three pinnacles in theouter barrier reef, where we saw severalBatfish and other large schooling fish.The Supermarket may provide the op-portunity to see a shark feeding.

Moving farther west by boat, wereached Mana Resort. Air transport fromthe Nadi airport is also possible. This islandis much larger than Beachcomber and canaccommodate large groups of divers withits 128 bures and 32 hotel rooms. The re-sort has several restaurants, a gift shop,

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laundry services, volleyball, tennis courtsand a children's activities program.

Divers will find the dive shop, operatedby Aqua Trek, well equipped with rentalgear, classroom and equipment dryingand storage areas. Two boats transportdivers to a variety of surrounding islands.Many of the sites are the same ones visit-ed by guests of Beachcomber. When wedid our dive at The Supermarket, ourdivemaster performed a shark encounter.The Circus offers clownfish galore.

The next stop was Kadavu, southeastof Viti Levu. We visited two resorts hereand both were so remote the only accesswas a short boat ride from the beach.

Dive Kadavu is spread out on the sideof a hill; you can barely see the resort forthe lush foliage. The resort has only fivebures but plans to add more. Four of thefive bures are private rooms but for thebudget diver, the large bure has severalsmaller rooms with a shared bathroom.

Meals are taken in a large bure higherup on the hill. On our short trip there wewere able to experience a true Fijian lovo.The food is cooked in a pit and thenserved on a table made of leaves. Onelarge leaf serves as your plate. We later vis-ited a local village and mingled with friendlyvillagers, danced, drank kava and listenedto the locals sing. Oh, what a night!

Two dive boats are used to get you tothe numerous dive sites inside and on the

edge of the Namalata reef. Photo-graphers will thrill with the colors—fish,soft corals, gorgonian seafans, clownfishand larger pelagic fish all frequent the

GETTING THEREFlights to Fiji are available through

Air Pacific and Qantas. The nonstop

Air Pacific flight from Los Angeles toFiji's International Airport in Nadi is ap-proximately 10 hours. The outer is-lands can be reached via the local car-riers, Air Fiji and Sunflower.

Air Pacific(800) 227-4446Air Fiji(800) 677-4277(310)670-7302

Qantas(800) 227-4500

Sunflower Airlines(800) 224-0220

large bommies. On the last dive at BlueTang, we were told to save film for thetangs. As the film counter increased to30, the divemaster motioned and therebefore us were two Blue Ribbon Eels. Wewere out of film in less than a minute!

Malawi, the second resort, has onlythree white plantation-style bures but issurrounded by more than 300 acres that

are a birdwatcher's paradise.The resort has a fleet of five boats that

dive and fish the same waters as DiveKadavu. Malawai offers Robert'sWreck, a 210 foot, 675 ton freighter thatsank in 1993 in 80 to 110 feet of water.Crossroads is another favorite dive,where soft corals of every color mix withgorgonians and large schools of fish:

A short hop northwest of Kadavubrought us to Vatulele. If you are lookingfor the very best accommodations andmaximum privacy, this is the resort. Eachbure is completely surrounded by foliageand has its own pathway to the beach

If you are on a honeymoon, celebratingan anniversary or just have romance inmind, this is the place. For total seclusion,the resort will take you to a tiny island offthe coast with food, water and shelter andleave you for one-half day.

The resort offers a variety of outdooractivities, including tennis, sailing, volley-ball, snorkeling, cave exploring and div-ing. Most of the diving takes place at thenorth end of the island, where 12 divesites have been located. The Wreck is asunken 500 ton island trader and Ca-thedral, Outer Limits, Dave's Cavernand The Tomb offer underwater caves,steep walls and deep dives.

In this article, we have only scratchedthe surface of what Fiji has to offer. Comemeet the friendliest people on earth.

A 4-Forbes Masazine's Laucala (La-tha-la) Island, you are/xltreated to a world of space and choices beyond compare.All wrapped in the friendly and warm Fijian hospitality that itselfknows no bounds.

Our full service dive operation will cater to your everyneed...there are no time tables or schedules. You decide

when and we'll take you to over thirty world class dive sitesnearby our spectacular island located in the Northern Groupof the Fiji Islands. If you don't want to dive, you can fish,windsurf, snorkel, play tennis or do nothing at all. Anytime.

Your accommodations, a privatebure, is located on the beach and

features all the modern comforts andconveniences you will need. Our staff MAGAZINE'Swill prepare your meals, make up your FIJI ISLANDbure and cater to your special requests. —

FORBES

/ In a Fiji Forbes Laucala world, you get toexperience paradise without a limitation in sight! 7

1 -8OO-FORBES-5Outside U.S. Phone (719) 379-3263 or fax (719) 379-3266Address: P.O. Box 149, Ft. Garland, CO 81133 ©SD/AD1996

SKIN DIVER JULY 1996 89