Fiji
Fiji has been called the "Coral Capital of the World" which led us to believe that the reefs would rival those of the Red Sea and the Maldives, which in my opinion it did not. We dove the famous white wall on three different occasions. Dive guides will watch tide charts to determine the best time to dive it. If there is no current, the corals will not be feeding and will be diminished in apparent size. If there is too much current, the corals will be fuller but the divers will fly by too fast and not really see it. When we saw it the first time, it did not equal our expectations, but was better than either of the subsequent times. It was like individual small clumps of coral spaced at about 18 inches on center. I was never aware of much current which might explain why the wall failed to impress. The wall can be accessed through a tunnel starting at about 40 feet and dropping to about 70 feet.
The purple wall is not as big, but its color makes it lovely. The current was quite strong on our visit so it was pretty much a purple blur.
Hard corals are varied and abundant. Unfortunately, not all were healthy. One particular table coral I remember had a section that appeared bleached, another section that was covered in moss, and yet another portion that appeared healthy.
We were also disappointed by the fish life. Yes there were the normal schools of snappers, fusiliers, butterfies and angelfish, but they didn't seem as numerous or as varied. The sharks we saw in 33 dives can be counted on one hand, but we did see 8 eagle rays which is a personal high.
Nudibranches: one variety of chromodoris, one variety of nembrotha, one variety of glosidoris, and maybe 5 or 6 phyllidias.
Fish factory and Coral Garden were exceptions where quantity of fish was more abundant.
The water temperature in September was 75 degrees.
Visability is never as good as I hope for. During our 2 weeks there it ranged from 30-50 feet at which you could detect the presence of another diver.
There are two very nice National Parks on Taveuni. The Lavena Coastal walk is a pleasant walk along the beach for about an hour and then about a half hour incline that leads to a waterfall. Plan to swim in the pool below and maybe even climb up the rocks and slide down the smaller falls on the left, but be careful as the rocks are slippery. Buoma Park has 3 waterfalls; the first and most famous is a easy 10 minute walk. The highest fall is at least an hour climb and though a bit stenuous, is well worth the effort.
The Fijian people are quite friendly.
