Just 4 weeks after we returned from our Bali-Komodo dive trip, we jumped on an 11-hour flight from LAX to the South Pacific island-nation of Fiji. While we don’t normally schedule trips so close together, this was an opportunity for a third GoPro video workshop with Todd Kortte (sponsored by Bluewater Dive Travel), and we just couldn’t pass up this chance.
Following our overnight flight to the largest island in Fiji (Viti Levu), we landed on the west side of the island in Nadi, were greeted at 6:00 a.m. by Fijian musicians in the airport, and met up with fellow divers for a 3-hour van ride.
While Fiji is made up of over 300 islands, the vast majority of its 1-million people live either on Viti Levu or Vanua Levu (which we did not visit). And most of the people on Viti Levu live along the coast, since the inland areas are extremely steep and difficult to traverse.
Our van ride took us around the southwest corner of Viti Levu to the Waidroka Bay Resort, our home for three days of diving. The friendly staff greeted us with “Bula!” and coconut water (in coconuts!) and escorted us to our spacious ocean-view room, already learning our names and never getting them wrong the rest of the time we were there! Before dinner (this night and each night), we had video and photo workshops from our trip leaders, Todd Kortte and Nirupam Nigam.
Next morning, we headed out for two dives at Rainbow Valley and Seven Sisters, with a rest stop on a classic South Pacific island between dives. One dive site included a picturesque shipwreck, fun to dive because of the cool stuff that was growing on parts of the wreck, along with our first views of the soft coral for which Fiji is known. Soft corals do not have the hard skeletons that hard corals do, and therefore bend and move in the current, just like plants and trees move in the wind. Soft corals are often brightly colored and therefore lots of fun to photograph and record on video (note that all of our underwater photos on the blog are actually stills taken from our GoPro footage).
We saw many of our South Pacific usual suspects (eclipse butterflyfish, Moorish idols, anemonefish), and some rare sightings, such as the speckled butterflyfish.
After a long boat ride back to the resort followed by a late lunch, Hank participated in a coconut shredding workshop, and he and I participated in an outdoor yoga session taught by one of the resort staff. The frogs came out on the grass after a short rain, and we were introduced to our upcoming shark dives, the main reason we were in this part of the country.
Aqua-Trek has been operating the Ultimate Shark Encounter in Beqa Lagoon for 25 years. They have worked with the local community to structure a safe and effective encounter with eight different kinds of sharks (bull shark, whitetip reef shark, blacktip reef shark, nurse shark, lemon shark, grey reef shark, silvertip shark, tiger shark), most commonly the highly-aggressive bull sharks, considered one of the most dangerous sharks in the world. Divers pay a fee to dive in this location, and those fees support the local villages and their community and education programs. The goal is to make sharks more valuable alive than dead by creating a sustainable tourist event. Local Fijians serve as divemasters and shark feeders. Aqua-Trek has built up a wall out of coral rubble that divers sit behind while the sharks are fed tuna heads from a large trash can. Only the Aqua-Trek team can do this dangerous work of feeding the sharks, and they also are on hand with prongs to push the sharks back if they get too close to divers.
Next morning, we were filled with excitement as we headed out to our Shark Dive encounter, jumping in as normal for the dive, wearing a few pounds of extra weight to help us stay stationary on the bottom. At about a 65-foot depth, we lined up along the coral wall to watch the show. The sharks are fed four days a week, and we got to experience four separate dives (over two days) with these stunning creatures. We were not allowed to use video lights for our shark filming, but they were close enough that we were still easily able to capture the footage.
Bull sharks were certainly the highlight of the show, but tawny nurse sharks were also prominent. We even got some shots of a sicklefin lemon shark, and the largest grouper we’ve ever seen, a giant (Queensland) grouper, along with assorted damselfish and butterflyfish that stayed out of the way of the sharks’ teeth.
After watching the sharks for 20 minutes, we carefully backed up and ascended slightly to enjoy swimming around a nearby shipwreck.
Then we went back for a second shark dive, just as exciting as the first. To watch Hank’s 2-minute shark video from our diving with Aqua-Trek, click on the link below.
After the first day’s shark dives, we headed back to Waidroka for a late lunch, another yoga session, basket and hat weaving for some (out of coconut leaves), and more instruction. That evening we were treated to a traditional Fijian ceremony led by some of the staff. We drank the traditional drink made from the root of the kava plant, described by a Fijian as tasting like spicy dirt, which we thought was a bit generous—it wasn’t spicy at all. Kava is supposed to have a sedating and/or euphoric effect, but we didn’t notice much except for some tingling in the mouth. The staff sang for us and got us up to dance with them.
Two more shark dives the next day preceded our 5-hour drive to our next location, Volivoli Beach Resort, where we would stay for a whole week. That will be in our next blog post.
What a thrill to dive with the majestic sharks found in Fiji and experience the wonderful hospitality of its people! Thanks for reading!
Wow-what a trip!
Such great experiences, photos and video.
So beautiful.
Most amazing yet! So incredible to see! I’d really love to go to Fiji, not necessarily for sharks but I’d love to go experience the island. You guys are looking great!
What a wonderful trip. Incredible photos. Scary encounters with those big guys, but it seems the experts know how to provide a safe adventure. Thank you both for sharing. Diane
Just plain awesome!
The colors are so vibrant! Love the photos and all of the adventures! What an amazing experience!!