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Feeding a bull shark
One of the brave feeders handing tuna to these giant fish. Of course he is wearing iron glows under the wetsuit. Otherwise his fingers might be also gone...Fiji, ok what is Fiji??? For us it just started out as a stop-over to cross the Pacific Ocean. But after figuring out that almost any flight would make a stop-over in Fiji, we decided to abuse the moment and prolong our stay. 2 weeks we gave to ourselves.
Happy sharks....
One major attraction is the shark feeding dive in Pacific Harbour, so we booked it. Chris was totally into it, Agi went like "let's see, is it safe.....?!?". But some other divers in Vanuatu had already been to Fiji and had already done the shark feeding dives and they went it's totally safe and like being in a zoo, so she went also for the double shark feeding dive, brave girl as she is. But
see also: ( .
During the first dive we started at 30 meters, where the guides teased the big bull sharks and the large fish (mostly giant trevally's) with 150 kg tuna heads. Later we moved up to 10 meters where the grey reef sharks and the white tip reef sharks continued the show. They were happily enjoying the feeding, sometimes they swam just above our heads. The guides told
Big fish
A bull shark among the giant trevally's and the surgent fish. Heading right toward us... us prior to the dives to keep our heads low, just to avoid any sharks taking us as bait. Well, I made sure my head was always lower than Chris' :-) We finished off the dive at 3 meters, where the black tip reef sharks joined the feeding frenzy. Our second dive was less spectacular as there was an outgoing tide, so fewer bull sharks showed . Anyway, they finished the remaining 450 kg tuna, it just took a bit longer time. We did not mind.
Garden Island of Fiji: TAVEUNI
After the shark dives we decided to head straight to Taveuni, the third biggest island of Fiji. The locals call it the Garden Island, as it's covered with lush rain forests, has many waterfalls and amazing marine life. We took the public ferry from Suva (Fiji's capital) to Taveuni via Savusavu. The ride took a bit longer than 18 hours, was not too comfy, but come on, an other new experience. The good thing is that the ferry had stabilizers, so Chris' stomach did not cause much disturbance...
Upon arrival we decided to go camping. We had not used our tent since Borneo, so
Shark Feeding dive sites
Note the name of the bottom dive site: [i]The Arena[/i] we felt it was time for it again. We took the bus to Beverly Beach, where there is a lovely family-run campground. It is indeed the place where camping is not a chore. All relaxed, great facilities and friendly people. Both the owners and the guests. We spent the weekend here, enjoyed the reef in front of our tent for snorkeling, cooked our first lobster: delicious, and just to make you more envious: ~6 Euro for the fresh lobster of 1.5 KG.
On Monday (when the buses ran again) we moved our residence to Lavena, which is a small village on the east side of the island and a great entry point into Nature's wonders. Lavena is right on the edge of the Bouma Natural Heritage Park, with great rain forests surrounding the village and Lavena is also the starting point for the famous Coastal Walk. It's a 3 hours walk along the beach, passing the scene of the "Return to the Blue Lagoon" movie, crossing rivers, amazing lava rock formations and finishing up with a swim across two deep pools to arrive to the double waterfalls. Our guide jumped right from top of the big fall, approx 25
The Shark Feeders
ok, Agi just watched, but it still looks kinda cool, don't you think? meters. Chris almost went for it too (brave child), but the climb up on the rock wall was a bit too tricky/slippery, so he only jumped from approx 10 meters... still not bad. I went for the funny waterslide, which is a small waterfall with smooth rocks falling from approx 4 meters.
Next day we visited the Tavoro falls near Bouma village. Most of the people only go up to the 2nd waterfall, but we went all the way up to the 3rd one. And actually, that one was the best. OK, the path was a bit muddy and less maintained, probably this is why we had it all for ourselves. We brought along our masks and snorkels too. You might say how stupid this is, but believe me, the view underwater was amazing. Hundreds of freshwater prawns all around, some of them over 20 cm long. We could watch them close up. The only funny part was to enter and exit the water, as the rocks along the shore were also homes for these prawns... watch where you put your feet!
Nature has so much to show us here. As we were still not fed up with
it, next day we visited the Waitabu Marine Park. This is a protected area right next to the shores of Waitabu village. As the locals are not allowed to fish here, the sea is full with theming marine life. Fish of all sizes and colors, wonderful corals and some giant clams. We did a guided snorkeling here, really enjoyed it.
It's so good to see that these villages decided to earn their money from tourism instead of continuing the logging of the forest and selling out their fish. I think they made a good deal.
Back at Beverly's
First we wanted to camp in Waitabu as there is a camp site nearby, but as there were no facilities really we decided to take the bus back to good old Beverly Campground. Bill, our host was happy to see us back, he welcomed us as good old friends. This time we were the only guests in the camp, so actually we decided to use one of his permanent tents for the next couple of nights. Bigger, nicer, right on the beach.
Next day we started lazy, even though we wanted to visit the famous Blowholes
LOBSTER!!!!!
And actually we wanted just a 'fish', but those were sold out. So we could only choose between lobster and lobster ;-) on the southern end of the island. Around 10 am we started hitching on the road and in half an hour we got a ride to town, to Naqara. There we had just enough time to buy lunch and the bus was leaving to Vuna. When we told the bus driver that we wanted to go to the blowholes, he asked if we stay overnight as this was the last bus... Well,...oh, not really. He was really friendly and said that he can bring us to the blowholes and give us 10 minutes there, so we can come back to town with him. Great deal, took us only the bus fare and we were brought right to the place. As there were no other passengers on that part of the trip, the bus driver even joined us to watch as the wind pushed the waves into the lava cliffs on the shore creating water curtains travelling to inland. Beautiful, especially with the blue sky, which only lasted for these 10 minutes that day, the rest of it was cloudy and rainy...
Next day we had a lazy day, just going downtown to arrange a day of diving and visiting
Views from the Coastal Walk
Lava rocks on top of old corals. the famous 180 degrees meridian. Indeed, Taveuni is situated right on the date line, so practically you can stand with one foot in yesterday, while your other foot is in today! We walked to this tourist site, funny enough, the information board was lying on the ground as the cyclone broke it down 2 months ago.
Ah yes, there was a huge cyclone here mid March, causing loads of damages to roads, homes, schools, crops and big part of the coral reef. You can still see the trees next to the road with roots towards the sky and the telephone line is still literally on the ground since then. Our host told us that the coral reef used to be 10 times nicer than now, but the cyclone broke most of it, so it will take approx. 20 years to have it grown back... The farmers hardly had any fruits and crops left, after 2 months now you can see the vegetables growing again. As a result the locals eat lots of canned food. But as we learned this was already like that before the cyclone too. Apparently, eating canned food is a status symbol here as import food
is expensive, most of those are canned meat, fish and stuff like that. Only the wealthier locals can afford these. Not good, as they should prefer to eat their tasty fruits, veggies and fish instead of the prefab stuff. Well, we can't do a lot about this...
Diving in the Somosomo Straight
Today we went diving. There is a wide straight between the islands of Vanua Levu and Taveuni with very strong current and a 30+ km long reef, called Rainbow Reef. A divers' paradise, especially pre-cyclone times, but it's still beautiful nowadays. We did two dives among soft and hard coral forests, through a yellow tunnel covered with yellow soft corals like a carpet, we have seen plenty of colorful fish and had a great drift dive at the end. It's so comfortable to ride on the drift, no need to swim, just float and enjoy the show. Of course the drift should not be too fast, as then you can't see anything...
Wrapping up Fiji
Ok, this has been written a few days later and the final days on Taveuni: RAIN, RAIN and RAIN. Right now we know why this island
Lavoro waterfalls
The third waterfall. We had it for ourselves in case you ignore the fresh water prawns is so lush and green. The locals were happy as the crops needed the water, but us spoiled tourists were left to waste our time on a veranda with coffee, beer and loads of fiji-food... The family from Bill & Tila (our hosts) always drop by on Sundays and have then a Melanesian food orgy. We settled for the left-overs , but we don't complain: fish in fresh coconut sauce, chicken from the oven with manioc.
But we had to move on. So we took a local ferry to Savusavu on Vanua Levu Island. We spent one night here and today we take a larger ferry to Lautoka, just North of Nadi from where a plane will bring us to Los Angeles. Time for a new continent!
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finally a pic
great place....