Fiji

Welcome to paradise, said the sign on the airport that greets tourists along with some live Fijian music. Promise of endless sandy beaches, vast blue seas and some of the cheapest diving in the Pacific await. Well, what can we say… we couldn't wait to dive into Fiji. Couple of minutes later we are already pleasantly chatting to customs officials who seem to have forgotten that this is a serious no nonsense kind of a job. We mean, chatting to middle aged tourists! As first impressions go, this place is a true gem!

As soon as customs is cleared, obvious first stop: Vodafone shop.  Well, we do have to stay on the grid.  Having a local data SIM is by now a tradition and Fiji didn't disappoint. Moments later, we are loaded with tons of mobile internet data and we are ready to go. Only question left is where. You see, the flight from New Caledonia being so short and the fact that we didn't have any time to plan Fiji between the heaps of French vino there, we were without a plan. . Luckily, this time it was middle of the day and we were had time  to avoid getting stranded on airport (which kind of happens a lot lately).

So, ten minutes later we are on the bus. At this point we have to admit that the key reason for us to come to Fiji is for one of the best shark dives in the world. And so we thought, let’s do best things first, right? Decision made – first stop: Pacific Harbour.   Ten minutes later we are on the local bus towards our destination still trying to book a place to stay. We managed to completely confuse the poor driver when we couldn’t really tell him where we will be stepping off the bus. Catch is that there are not  a lot of big towns around and buses stop at resorts of your choice. Still everybody was super nice. Surely government must be mixing something into the water???  We hoped that place known as Fiji adrenaline capital, would have plenty of mid-range accommodation. You can guess, right? Of course, we were wrong. Soon reality hit and we learned that you can do Fiji two ways: honeymoon style in luxurious rooms (called bure) with all the trimmings or The Dorm. No perks included here. Quick check of our finances confirmed that yes, we will be sharing our Fiji experience with plenty of other people. Young people mostly.

Dorm in the resort was in fact very nice and you get to share all the amenities of the resort with the properly “paying” guests. To top it all, you even get the same breakfast. Which was excellent news for us, but perhaps not up to Hilton level. We even decided to skip lunch in the effort to lose some of the brie and wine weight gained in New Caledonia. Again, locals were unbelievably friendly.

Once settled, we just had to immediately book our shark diving. And this is where the confusion started – there are actually two companies that do the feed and both have declared themselves as original product with plenty of best in the world to go with it. Life is just never easy and looks like we will have to do the shark feed with both to be sure not to miss out on something. I mean, that is the only logical choice, right?

First we went with Aqau-Trek and loved it. South African owner is a shark enthusiast and a delight to be on the boat with. Sharing some of our favourite dive sites in South Arica got him home sick and we really got a special treatment. We were allowed to stay down with the sharks after everybody else was already gone. That seemed like a fantastic idea until we felt quite small being alone with big bull sharks. And we do mean big here. Boy, these girls and boys looked as if they were on steroids! Let’s just say that we didn’t stay too long. Fantastic experience overall and we saw also nurse sharks, silvertips, lemon sharks on top of the usual white and black tip ones. We loved every minute of it and decided to do it again – with all the money saved on skipped lunch.

Second company (Beqa Adventure) that offers shark feed was quite different. The Swiss American owner’s only job seemed to be to yell at guests – sit down, do this, do that. With typical American over emphasised safety he was annoying to say the least. Luckily the staff didn't catch on his approach to customer service and were at their best always happy Fiji selves. This dive is all about bull sharks – up to fifty of them this time of the year. Such a treat! We thoroughly enjoyed both experiences so much we had to repeat the dives… yes, with both of them… Seems there will be quite a few lunches to skip…

Next stop is either third of fourth largest barrier reef in the world (seems decision is still pending): Astrolabe reef. Only way to get there is either with plane (too expensive) or by boat (yep, definitely right choice for us). We were warned that ride is not for faint hearted. But hey, we have survived some pretty bad rides in our days and we decided to give it a go. Armed with plenty of water and snacks we were ready to survive the night on a cargo boat. To our delight ferry turned out to be a very modern ship in excellent condition. Even the toilets were usable! The trick is that everyone in the passenger area had to take shoes off. And that definitely did the trick. Last shock came when we were offered a bed for extra 5 EUR with clean sheets and pillows. Bring it on! It was one of the best rides ever.

So, Kadavu was another tropical island with beeches and coral reef (seriously, at this stage they all look same…). Diving was OK, but nothing to write home about. Except Manta Rays of course (and yes, Nives had that grin again…). Resort on the other side was really nice – we treated ourselves this time and had a private room. Food was unfortunately already in the price and to our complete horror absolutely delicious. And they just kept bringing it. How is one supposed to lose weight here?

Six days passed quickly and it was time to head to our last destination close to a town of Rakiraki. This time north of the main island for some more diving. Or so we thought. When we got to the resort we realized that they were charging extortionate prices and settled on doing some snorkelling / free diving after seeing footage from another dive group (at fraction of the price). We actually quite enjoyed the free diving experience and got quite good at it after a few days with regular dives down to 15m or deeper. Diving was OK, but nothing spectacular and definitely not worth the money they wanted. The so called soft coral capital of the world didn’t convince us. While it is nice, we saw same or better soft coral in many other dive destinations.

In the end, our reflections on Fiji.

Diving. Not up there with the good ones really. It is OK, but that is it. Only exception is a shark feed dive, which is superb. But that is not a dive really, more of an underwater show. This one definitely worth doing and flying to Fiji for. The rest is… well… not (unless you live close by). To top it all they are allowing the Chinese to fish in the Fijian waters. And that is never a good thing. One can already see that the see is overfished and there is not a lot happening to improve the situation.

General. Very expensive we thought. Obviously there is double economy here: one for locals and one for tourists. Guess it is fine if you are here for a fortnight and don’t mind spending a buck or two extra. However, if you are on the budget, maybe not the best place to be. Reality is that they are not in the same league as honeymoon heavyweights as Maldives or backpackers heaven like Thailand. But, obviously close enough to Australia and New Zealand.

Next stop is really our final destination on this trip and main reason we are here: Rangiroa in French Polynesia. And yes, probably one of the best shark diving in the world. We are on our way!

Some more pictures here.