We’re still three months off this trip and I can’t wait! So far, twenty-six of us are meeting up to take over one of the most beautiful dive resorts in Fiji. We spent a month last year exploring and snorkelling, so we could get to know about these north division islands. They aren’t so often visited and there is very little online about them. The best thing was snorkelling the house reef at beautiful Paradise Taveuni, which we did day and night.
We still have one cabin available and with a quick shuffle I can accommodate 1-4 people in either a luxury bungalow (2) or family room (up to 4), starting from $3,000pp (including snorkelling). Contact me for details on 0405 220830 or email [email protected]. Here’s info about the trip but you need to ignore the room availability as I will manually accommodate last minute guests.
Most guests leave on 20 September from either Sydney or Melbourne. The price of the trip includes overnight in Nadi enroute, all transfers, accommodation, boat trips and guiding. It’s going to be fabulous. I can’t wait to meet old friends and new, to explore this incredible area and immerse ourselves in its famous hospitality.
About Taveuni Island
What attracted us here in the first place was its remoteness. Taveuni is Fiji’s garden island. Lush forested mountaintops shield the coast from trade winds. You can tell when it’s blowing southeast because the clouds billow over the ridge line, which runs the length of the island north to south.
The resort we stayed at – Paradise Taveuni– is situated in the south east corner. It’s a one hour flight from Nadi and we land in Matei at the islands north. From there, it’s an hour drive – mostly on dirt road – to our destination.
The island’s geography also shielded this place from the worst of cyclone Winston. It was the highest energyEnergy and nutrients are the same thing. Plants capture energy from the Sun and store it in chemicals, via the process of photosynthesis. The excess greenery and waste that plants create, contain chemicals that animals can eat, in order to build their own bodies and reproduce. When a chemical is used this way, we call it a nutrient. As we More system ever recorded. Locals on Qamea to the east told us they woke to an island devoid of any vegetation at all. What little foliage was left, was poisoned brown by the salt. You wouldn’t know it several years later.
The House Reef at Paradise Taveuni
Paradise Taveuni has a house reef that is healthy and lush. Plus, the bungalows are all metres from a short rocky cliff and a ladder places you easily in the water.
When we were there, we saw Banded Pipefish, numerous Octopus and Frogfish within metres of the ladder itself. Along the sheltered foreshore, the reef grades from rocks (where the octopus love to hang out) into coral boulders, festooned with infinitely colourful Christmas tree worms and lots of clownfish.
A little further and the plate corals begin, ending in a magnificent diversity. There are abundant lionfish, moray eels, nudibranchs, cuttlefish, clams, rock lobsters and hermit crabs, as well as the occasional green turtle and white-tipped reef shark.
The world-famous Rainbow Reefs
Each day we take a boat trip north to the magnificent rainbow reefs. It’s in this region that Jacques Cousteau famously began his work. Aptly named, the reefs are covered in colourful soft corals, teeming with purple and orange Antheas (a type of fish).
The soft corals in other parts of the world tend to be mostly red. Here they range from purple to yellow. There are also mountains of cabbage coral, fields of staghorns and beautiful clear and warm water.
