I’ve been away for a couple of weeks taking a group of friends and family to Fiji so this is just a quick udpate. I don’t normally do tours outside of the Pindito trips we do to Indonesia. But this was the chance to bring everyone together at a wonderful place we discovered in Fiji a couple of years ago. Paradise Taveuni is located at the southern end of the country’s northern division. The island is a barrier to predominant trade winds which makes it a good bet for reasonable swimming weather. The resort, which is about an hour from the local airport is beautiful and its right on the Somosomo Strait. In our nine days we saw and did so much. Here’s the complete trip report to flick through.
Best wishes,
Simon.
Paradise Taveuni Island
The resort has a beautiful house reef, is near to the world famous Rainbow Reefs, and the stunning Vuna Reef. Most importantly it’s incredibly quiet – as few as 12,000 people live on the island. The fun begins with getting there on board a 15-seater plane. This scenic flight took us over the Nausari Highlands of Viti Levy, then east over Vanua Levu. We finally descended over the Somosomo Strait into Matei.
Our Fijian hosts
The week at Paradise Taveuni exceeded my expectations again. Sure, there’s the usual diving and snorkelling but the beautiful resort staff and villagers deliver so much more. ‘Fiji Night’ was great fun. We visited the school we were helping to fund, met the local village chief and villagers in Vuna village. During one of our Rainbow Reef trips we took a packed lunch to Vanua Levu and everyone played volleyball on the beach (as well as every night at the resort). We visited nearby Bobby’s Farm too, to learn about biodiversity-forestry and see the stunning Many-coloured Fruit Doves, as well as taking workshops in sulu-tying and Fiji cooking.
Whales and dolphins
I have to say, we did well with the weather in Taveuni. It rained the day we arrived and the day we left! The flat calm conditions certainly contributed to our amazing cetacean sightings. Two Sperm Whales were a huge highlight. A fabulous pod of Short-finned Pilot Whales entertained us on the first day and we saw Pygmy Sperm Whale and Pygmy Killer Whale.
Oceanic sharks, seabirds and turtles
Over the course of our trip we racked up quite a list of sharks, many of which I have only very rarely seen.
Thresher Shark and Oceanic White-tip Shark were both seen at the surface on boat trips into the Rainbow Reefs. The latter was with the Short-finned Pilot Whales. A Bull Shark was also seen twice by snorkelers at Paradise Taveuni (harmless enough at these remote coastal locations). White-tipped Reef Sharks were seen by everyone on the nearby reefs.
Turtles were quite thin on the ground, which is normal here. Most people saw Hawksbill Turtle and a couple of people saw Green Turtles. Seabirds included Brown and Red-footed Boobies, numerous Black and Common Noddies, Bridled Tern and a couple of Red-tailed Tropicbirds.
Diving and snorkelling
We mostly travelled as a group from Paradise Taveuni, taking the larger of the two vessels out to different dive and snorkel sites each day. Our new divers couldn’t have asked for better conditions with incredible visibility underwater. Meanwhile, the healthy reef tops and naturally sculptured coral topography was stunning for the snorkelers to explore. Several of our guests got dive qualified and a couple of our snorkellers were even able to do a discovery dive on the lovely house reef.
