Wananavu Beach Resort
In 2013 my fiancée and I had the opportunity to visit Fiji and dive the Wananavu Resort after winning in the Bluewater Shootout. What can I say about the experience? Amazing, fabulous, wonderful, would do it again in a second.
Fiji itself is amazing.
The trip from Nandi to Wananavu - about 2-hours by road - gives you the opportunity to see some of the island and the people. Green rugged hills are reminiscent of some areas of Northern California while in other areas great sweeps of sugar cane fields bordered with palms, banana, papaya and mango trees leave no doubt that you are in a tropical paradise. And this is even before you get a look at the water!
Arriving at the resort I was impressed by the warm welcome and the neat facility. Our check-in was easy and completed with a complimentary welcome cocktail. We were upgraded to the Honeymoon bure which was a magnificent ocean-view room. The king-sized canopied bed, private mini-pool, view deck and indoor and outdoor showers were exactly the things that would keep newlyweds very happy.
The food at the resort was very good and abundant and the staff first class.
But we were at Wananavu to dive.
Over our six-day stay, we made 14 dives, our first less than an hour after we arrived. The dive operation was prompt and anticipated our needs and had our gear onboard the boat in short order. The dive operators - Chris Liles an American expat and Vicky his wife, a transplanted Brit - were efficient, cordial and accommodating in every way. Both being underwater photographers, they and the dive masters ( Mere, Josh, Las, Jimi, Kini and Jo) are finely tuned to the need of UW photogs and some of the nicest folks anywhere. The operation runs two boats. The 33-foot Nami, the larger boat, is setup to accommodate (I believe) 20 divers, but we never had more than ten aboard during our trips. Twin outboards allow fast trips to the amazing dive sites of the Bligh Waters. The second boat the Nami Llailai, is smaller (24-foot) and is setup as a six-pack boat and is as fast as the large Nami. Both boats have dive gear storage bins beneath bench seats and carried the usual safety equipment along with GPS, VHF radio, life preservers, fire extinguishers, 02 and first aid kits.. Both boats are fast and stable and are very good dive platforms.
The Diving! Is just amazing.
All our dives were to sites in the Bligh Waters and we made repeat dives to the same site a couple of times. Usually I would have issues with jumping the same site, but the reefs there totally change depending on depth, current and time of day. Parnella’s Rock became a totally different dive when the current picked up. The current was easy enough to swim against, but made the difference in the types and number of creatures seen and whether certain soft corals were out in feeding mode. Other sites we did multiple dives on were Black Magic Mountain and Mount Mutiny. Truly, by picking a different depth, time of day and current flow, each one of these sites was actually myriad different dives.
The colors of the fish and corals on the sites were amazing. Looking at some of my images after the trip it looked like someone went crazy in a paint store; the vivid colors – blues, reds oranges, yellows, greens and the shades and variations of each is just stunning. As far as creatures, we did not see many big boys. We saw sharks often, but out in the blue and barracuda and turtles of some size would cruise through periodically. But the spectrum of colors provided by the local reef inhabitants seemed to make up for fewer large folks. For me, the number and diversity of the Tridacna clams was very cool. Every mantle was different and I killed many pixels capturing the amazing colors and patterns.
Diving the Bligh Waters with the Dive Wananavu operation will make you want to come back (or not leave!)
