7th Day: More Small Group Diving

Dive# 178: Three Thieves
Mina: 72', 1:16 min.
Mark: 72', 1:14 min.
-this is one of favorite dives in Fiji. We were treated to a duet of lionfish swimming out in the open, and a pair of ribbon eels
-for some reason I went into deco, which explains why I had such a long dive. I was doing a deco stop at the top of the bommie. Mark rolled his eyes and stayed behind.

Dive #179: Seven Sisters
Mina: 63', 0:56 min.
Mark: 62', 0:54 min.
Missy plays volleyball with a giant sand dollar the size of a beachball

After diving, I got a 90 minute massage at the spa by the beach which was wonderful. Later on, we experience an evening of Fijian dancing and singing. What a treat.


-- Post From My iPhone

6th Day: the Fiji I Envisioned

Today's diving encapsulated the Fiji diving I had been dreaming of. Small fish of every color imaginable danced over the reef, obscuring the reef beneath them. Wherever I looked there were soft corals and sea fans hanging off every available square inch on the bommie.

Today, there were only 5 people on the boat, which was a gift in itself. The large Russian group and the San Diegan group were leaving. We were going to have the dive sites all to ourselves. Maybe with the group being so small, the diving improved. Maybe it was the quality of the dives themselves. Maybe it was because Mark and I were beginning to feel comfortable with our gear. Or maybe it was because we were finally learning to appreciate the Fijian sea life. It was probably a combination of all four.

One of the divers we were privileged to dive with today is an 80 year old diver named, Gordon. Gordon is as smart as a tack and regaled us with stories of his youth surfing in Hawaii. He proudly tells us he will dive until he dies. I would love to dive until I die, like Gordon!

Dive #177: Fantasy
This is the must-do reef dive in Beqa Lagoon. If you ever travel to Beqa Lagoon, make sure you don't miss this dive. No other dive captures the color and sheer volume of fish that the word Fiji conjures. This reef is particularly famous for it's unusual patch of blood red anemones and large population resident anemone fish.

Mina: 66', 0:54 min.
Mark: 64', 0:49 min.

Dive #178: Gee's Rock
This is one of the top 5 dives we did in Beqa Lagoon, primarily for the cool things we saw and did:
(1) I saw my first mantid shrimp (a very colorful lobster sized shrimp).



(2) I had my teeth cleaned by a cleaner shrimp for the first time.
(3) And in a stunning scene that I couldn't have planned better, I was able to capture Mark, a Spade fish, a pair of pyramid butterfly fish, and a pair of bannerfish in one photograph.

Mina: 68', 1:01 min.
Mark: 61', 0:59 min.

-- Post From My iPhone

5th Day: Shark Dives

Holding on to the current line with one hand, I survey the deep blue water beneath me. The surface water is choppy, and the water is so deep I can barely make out the bottom. As I wait for the other divers from our boat to jump in, I feel oddly exposed. The water is teeming with sharksuckers. About 2 feet long, and sporting large suction pads on the top of their heads, these fish are bigger than the better known remoras, and they are swarming just a few feet below me. Some have had huge bites taken out of them. Some are even missing their tail fins entirely. But somehow they manage to stay alive. It is a sign of what is to come below.

We are about to do the famous shark dive in Beqa Lagoon. The Fijians from Beqa Island have an ancient belief, that no shark would ever harm them. To this day, the Fijian divemasters, who hark from this island, feed large sharks by hand. On every dive there are lemon sharks, nurse sharks and bull sharks. On almost every other dive, a Tiger shark will cruise by.

Bull sharks and Tiger sharks are two of the three most dangerous sharks in the world, in case you didn't know (the third is the incomparable Great White Shark). Although the Bull Shark is probably the single most dangerous shark in the world, based on it's number of fatal attacks on people, they are actually the smallest of the three sharks, topping out in length at about 8 to 10 foot. The Tiger shark and the Great White sharks, however, can grow to 20 feet in length. Although enthusiastic (especially male) divers like to refer to these large sharks as "big boys", they are more than likely members of the opposite sex. You can call them "big mamas".

Up to this very day, there haven't been any deaths or injuries among either the dive crew, or the divers. And it is not by luck alone. The normally fun and ebullient Fijian divemasters become strict taskmasters on this dive.

Finally, everyone has entered the water and we descend to the bottom. We line up behind a rope just a few feet above the staging area. I am surprised to see divemasters Missy, and Seru wielding large metal poles the size of crutches instead of their usual pointers. They perch behind us to fend off any sharks should they get too close.

Black Jacks the size of tombstones swirl above the scene. There are 3 or 4 Bull Sharks circling for a handout. They turn on a dime to face the feeder and open their mouths like puppies for a hand held fish head. Mark is invited down to the amphitheater floor to take closer camera shots. The 7 foot Bull sharks come within an arms length of him. He pulls his camera, and his arms in closer. These sharks are surprisingly wide, and their girth makes their beady eyes look even smaller. We are told later that these are the fattest bull sharks one well travelled diver has ever seen. There are more than enough fish heads to provide for all of their eating needs. One Bull Shark burps up a cloud of fish juice.

Pretty soon, the tornado of fish grows out of control and gets ever close. The effect is like sitting being beside a high speed freeway. Mark turns around to find that the divemaster beside him, who had erstwhile been protecting him, has already jumped over to the safe side of the rope. Leaping over the wall with one hand, Mark demonstrates a fine sense of self preservation.

Dive #175: Bistro I
Mina: 82', 0:43 min.
Mark: 84', 0:43 min.

Dive #176: Bistro II
Mina: 65', 0:47 min.
Mark: 63', 0:47 min.

-- Post From My iPhone

4th Day: Jon's Tunnel

Jon's Tunnel
We were alerted in advance by Tina and Jim, a friendly San Diegan couple, that this was a favorite dive of theirs, as they dove it on their honeymoon more than a decade before. This was an awesome dive and my favorite dive in Fiji thus far.

We started out at a ship wreck in 80' of water. The ship was covered in soft coral. Buried in a hatch one story below deck was a green moray eel whose body was about as thick as a woman's waist. I had heard about eels taking off peoples' fingers, so I did not approach. But, I heard later a lady on our boat did get close, but purely by accident. She was filming the machinery inside the hatch before someone alerted her to the fact that the ginormous eel was right at her fin tips.

There was a metal grillework on the stern of the wreck heavily hung with sea fans. Perhaps one of my favorite diving moments ever was swimming upside down underneath the sea fans. With every inhale I drifted up closer to the fans. With every exhale, I drifted down. On the same dive, elsewhere, I saw a diver lying down on the sand blowing donut bubbles. Sometimes the best part about diving is just being silly underwater.

We then headed to some bommies in the distance where there was a deep tunnel swim through. Excellent buoyancy was definitely required in this 20 ft long overhead environment that was heavily inhabited by soft corals and sea fans.

At the end of the dive, we hovered over the top of the bommie. My computer was edging midway through the yellow caution zone but I kept staying behind in this gaily colored world.

Dive 172# - Jon's Tunnel
Mina: 73 ft., 1:04 min.
Mark: 71 ft., 0:54 min.
Other sights:
-Black lionfish
-Fluted Giant Clams
-Clown Triggerfish
-A pair of Pennant Bannerfish
-Greasy grouper
-Map Puffer

Mark at Turtle Head

Flurry of Life at Turtle Head

Dive #173 - Turtle Head
Mina: 62', 1:02 min
Mark: 62', 1:02 min
-Sunset wrasse
-Sharksucker (free swimming)
-2 foot long Pineapple sea cucumber the width of my calf
-A pair of Regal angelfish that evaded pictures

-Longnose hawkfish
-Dwarf hawkfish
-Moorish Idols
-Longnose Butterflyfish
-Sleeping octopus in a crack
-8 Orangespine Unicornfish

Juvenile Lion Fish on Night Dive

Dive #174 - Ridge Reef (night dive)
Mina: 65', 1:05 minutes
Mark: 62', 1:01 minutes
-Sleeping porcupine fish that kept bumping it's face into rocks
-Cornet fish?
-Baby lionfish
-Two hermit crabs that were fighting over a larger shell
-Sleeping parrot fish inside cages of antler coral- you wonder how they got there.
-Upside-down jelly that lifted off from the sand when bothered
-Crab
-Crown of thorns
-Large sea urchins the size of bowling balls


-- Post From My iPhone

3rd Day: First Dives in Fiji

It was our first day of diving in Fiji and I think I was a little bit disappointed.

If only I could have seen out of my mask, I think I would have enjoyed it more. But as it was, my mask kept fogging up, obscuring the entire dive, no matter how much I spit into them before hand. It got so bad toward the end of each dive that I was filling and clearing my mask every 10 second just to remove the fog. Mark had issues with his mask as well, except his mask kept leaking.

Corals on the Top of the Bommie

The dive sites themselves are all along a 90 mile coral ring around Beqa Island, which was shaped by an ancient volcano that collapsed into the sea. The dive sites consist mostly of coral bommies, which we have never dove before. These are rock silos whose tops are at 20 ft and whose bottoms are at 50 to 70 feet. At the top of each bommie are shallow hard corals, each of which comprises an apartment complex for tiny neon anthias and dascyllus fish. Along the sides of the bommies hang the soft corals and sea fans, where the lion fish, butterfly fish and parrot fish like to reside. Even lower still, near the sea floor, are the eels and ground hugging gobies and other sand dwelling creatures.

Sea Cucumber on the Sand Floor

To my chagrin, we found ourselves at the resort with social groups already firmly established. Beqa Lagoon Resort encourages social interaction with other guests. Guests sit together at all meals. There are set activities every day, and the dive boats are so small that you are forced to mingle with the small number of guests at the resort, unless you want to be a social pariah.

One of the main groups is a 20 person strong dive club from San Diego. With some exceptions, they are not terribly friendly. They are also very well-off, judging by the volume of expensive video cameras bristling with insectoid strobes. The other group is from Moscow. They don't mix with others at all, perhaps due to the language barrier. But they also don't seem to smile very much. At all meals, the dive groups are seated separately at their areas. Mark and I, are seated at the overflow table, where the resort managers, Mark and Sue, try to make their guests feel welcome.

Diver on the Side of the Bommie

We are put on the boat with the San Diegans as part of today's diving. Part of the reason why I didn't enjoy myself is because this group is very, very experienced in diving, and perhaps I felt self-conscious about my own comfort level in the water. These people know their cameras and fish ID inside and out and they are all mostly in their late 40s to 80s. I think we established ourselves as the dive "newbies", which is an unusual position for me since I have a divemaster certification! On the boat ride over, I expressed some nervousness about diving with our brand new BCDs, and mentioned that Mark and I hadn't dove in a year (with a couple of exceptions last month). Maybe that labelled us with the San Diegans.

Even so, I think I surprised the divemasters, and the others on board when I stripped to my bathing suit and was one of the first people to jump in the water. Everyone else wore hoods and wetsuits. The wetsuit that I had brought over was an extra large, and rather than swimming around in a garbage bag, I decided to risk it without a wetsuit. I'm a cold water diver after all!

Life on the Side of the Bommie

Immediately after my first dive was over, I was slightly cold. The water temperature was around 80 deg. F, which can get a little cold when you are in the water for greater than an hour. Also, I came out with stings and itches all over my body. I was later told that this was from the "sea lice" that was floating in the water column (thimble jellyfish). They are so small, I don't recall seeing them at all.

This day was definitely intended to shake out all of our equipment issues, including our underwater camera. Some of the underwater photos in this blog definitely reflect our inexperienced camerawork.

Dive #169 - Soft Coral Plateau
Mina: 80 ft, 1:01 min (weight worn: 4 lbs)
Mark: 80 ft, 0:59 min
Dive highlights:
Black tip reef shark
White tip reef sharks
Jacks
Moorish Idols

Dive #170 - Three Thieves
Mina: 62 ft, 1:08 min.
Mark: 61ft, 1:05 min.
Dive highlights:
Barred Unicorn fish
Ribbon Eel
Indian Lion fish
Black-Blotched Porcupine fish in a cave
Pipe fish
Clown Triggerfish
Barred Snake Moray
Moorish idol
Long fin Banner fish
Leaf Scorpion fish

Dive #171 - Shark Reef
Mina: 54 ft, 1:00 min.
Mark: 54 ft, 1:00 min.
Dive highlights:

Leaf fish
Cleaner shrimp
Blue moray eel
Clown fish in anemone
Chromodoris sp. nudibranch

-- Post From My iPhone

2nd Day: Settling in

After what seemed like forever (2.5 hours by car and 45 minutes by boat) we have finally reached Beqa Lagoon Resort.

We are currently settling into our deluxe Garden bure (a bure is a Fijian thatched roof house). The bure is quite nice and is exotic in flavor. There are elaborate wood carvings on the doors and on the walls. There is a separate living area apart from the king sized bed, and a generous porch its own seating. There are fresh flowers strewn on the beds, the tables even on the floor. We even got fragrant flowers leis placed around our necks as soon as we waded to shore.

Mark has settled into the day bed with an issue of Scuba Diving Magazine. I am in our separate living area on the sofa writing this post. It is so quiet here, all we can hear are the rain drops falling. It rains heee on and off all day. And yes, there is no TV (which explains why I have the time to write this post at all).

We managed to get some fun in in addition to all the boating and driving to get here. We had a morning to kill before our ride to Beqa Lagoon Resort, so we hired a driver to take us on a 3 hour tour of the Nadi area. Our first stop was a fruit and vegetable market where we saw vegetables we had never seen before. I was quite interested in the display of kava root for sale. A group of Fijian men were lined up to buy this popular product. Kava in case you haven't heard of it is a mild sedative that the South Pacific Islanders like to drink daily. If you drink a lot (10 bowls or so) you can get quite drunk. Mark must have been feeling flush with cash because he bought a mango from a small Indo-Fijian lady for 2 Fijian dollars (that is around 1$). We later learned from the driver that we paid around 4X more what we should have. Ah well, at least it's a funny story to tell.

Our next stops were the giant Hindu temple that the ciry of Nadi is famous for, and the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. The former I wasn't overly impressed with since I've seen a grander Hindu temple in Singapore. The latter was nice as there were hundreds of orchid species to take pictures of (see iPhone photo above).

We were also taken to see the "First Landing" which is a point on Vitu Levu where the first Fijians arrived by boat. It was sad to see that a mediocre resort marked this site rather than a nice memorial or museum.

Finally we were taken past various Fijian villages (where only Fijian people were allowed to live), and also through Lautoka town, which is the second largest town in Fiji, and whose main commerce is in processing sugar. It was here that I grabbed a bite to eat at the corner grocery store, a bland meal of fish and chips. (That's Mark below warning me we have to go soon.) I was particularly to eat with the locals - several large and well tattooed Fijian men.

As a side note, I have already decided in the brief period I have been here that Fiji is quite a nice place to live. Were I to decide between living in Mexico, the Bahamas or Fiji, I think I might decide on Fiji so far. Fiji is clean, and everyone is well housed, at least by Silicon Valley standards, which aren't very high. As the managers here at BLR told us, "you never see an unhappy Fijian, nor do you ever see a hungry one." Unemployed Fijians, which I suspect number quite a few, can subsist off the land. There is plenty of unfarmed land, plenty of fish and fruit off of wild trees.

The tour over, we embarked on a long trip along the coast to the BLR. It was pretty, and uneventful. What was unusual were the Fijians who kept waving us hello as we drove past them in the car. (See top picture.) That is how friendly they are.

Once at Beqa lagoon we were treated to the voices of a local choir. There was some talent in that group in spite of the fact that they came from the two small villages that sit on either side of the resort. I am glad I attended when I could have slept instead. The voices were angelic. One lady sang with tears running down her face, so moved was she by the song she was singing. Dinner (all meals come with the dive package) was New Zealand lamb with a French style reduced brown sauce. This was the best lamb I've ever tasted. We had wonderful tablemates- the manager, whose name is Mark, and his wife. These were truly interesting folks who had previously managed resorts in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea.

Tomorrow will be our first day of diving. I'm already getting jitters just thinking about it. Well, it is off to bed for me. More tomorrow...

-- Post From My iPhone

1st Day: Enroute to Fiji

I write this as we fly over the middle of the Pacific Ocean on our way to Fiji. The plane interior is dark. The outside is jet black, all except for the brightest stars I've ever seen in my life. In between those stars are countless more tiny stars, all of which tell me, we are not in Kansas anymore.

By the time we land in Fiji, we will have spent 13 hours on a plane, and four hours in various airports. I spent the first couple of hours at San Francisco International Airport decompressing from work from the previous week. While at the gate waiting for our plane to depart, I sprang off last minute e-mails and text messages to members at work. It is difficult to leave the pace of the Silicon Valley behind.

Right now, I am feeling rumpled and not very glamorous given that we're supposed to be on our exotic honeymoon. It is hard to shake off the adrenaline from the past week at work, and perhaps that explains the anxiety that I feel.

There were many highs and lows going into our trip, especially when Mark discovered his passport was missing the night before we were supposed to leave. We managed to postpone the trip while we spent those extra days acquiring a new passport. Those extra days I spent at work were some of my more heroic moments. I swept in, made some last minute discoveries, and was generally such a big help that management admitted to being glad to have benefited from my passport demise. At least Mark has his passport this time, expedited over this past week at great expense.

At this same moment I have been wondering: why am I here and at such great expense? When will I be happy? Scuba diving vacations cost a lot more than regular vacations. For the same amount of money that I have spent on our resort stay alone, I could have bought an entire package to Egypt, including airfare. These moments of questioning, however, are interspersed with moments of pure glee as, I look over at Mark and we grin conspiratorially. Mark and I are finally going on our much needed tropical vacation.

-- Post From My iPhone