Birthday Wishes Come True

Destination: Bligh Water, Wakaya, Makogai, Namena

Trip Date: Jul 20th - Jul 27th, 2024 - Comments

Author: Bel&Mike

Welcome Back: Marilyn

Congratulations: Hazel and Marilyn on their birthdays, and Marilyn&George on their wedding!

We have had another outstanding week of diving around Fiji’s best dive sites, and we cannot believe the weather we just had! This was another full charter and we had amazing sightings throughout the week. Our incredible healthy reefs once again impressed our divers, who cannot stop raving about the colors and diversity. Fiji is at its best, and how lucky we are to be able to dive it at this point. We saw mantas, turtles, sharks, schools upon schools of several different species and a few hammerhead, even if a lot of guests only saw their butts. And if that all wasn’t enough, we finished the last day with crazy humpback whale encounters! The most we have ever seen in Fiji, and the friendliest.

Our journey started with the Sea Mounts E6 and Mount Mutiny, so right from the get-go our divers understood the amazing colors of our reefs were going to be something to talk about for years to come. The water was calm, the current was mild and the sun was shining. We saw a friendly turtle, a few sleeping sharks, a variety of nudibranchs, funky scorpionfish and many clams. What a way to start this fabulous journey!

Photo by Brent: Top of Sea Mounts

Photo by India: Soft coral on the Rainbow Wall

Next we dived Vatu-i-ra Marine Reserve and shared with our guests the best of Bligh diving. Mild to moderate currents provided for dives very distinct from each other, but all absolutely marvellous. We saw reef sharks, more nudibranchs, moray eels, a turtle, schooling trevallies and snappers and so many fish. We had the good old complaint about not being able to see the stunning corals because of too many fish. We’re always happy to hear that one!

Photo by Brent: Vatu-i-ra

Photo by Brent: More Vatu-i-ra energy

Photo by Brent: Vatu-i-ra colors

Photo by India: Reds

The following day we moved to Wakaya and spent the morning with manta rays (Rusty, Shirley, Geo and Johnny) as well as hammerheads (even if some only saw their butts), leaf scorpionfish, barracudas, moray eels and a huge blotched stingray. An added bonus was that we did all this to the clear and loud sound of humpback whales, probably a mom and a calf. And that was just our morning. In the afternoon we headed over to Makogai for a gorgeous bommie dive with more leaf scorpionfish, sea stars and redfin anthias. Jose was our fierce chief for the village visit and we all enjoyed the tour given by bill as well as the songs by the villagers and mekes by the kids. Always a heartwarming way to end our manta day.

Photo by Mike: Wakaya sunrise

Photo by Bel: Shirley

Photo by Mike: Makogai

Then we went to Namena Marine Reserve for two days, and right on the first morning we had a humpback surface right next to us. The wind didn’t allow us to search for them further, but we did hear them on our dives again. Our South dives had squarespotted anthias, a turtle, orangutan crabs, golden mantis shrimps, barracudas getting cleaned, a few reef sharks and a hammerhead. On the first day, the swells forced us to do a dive in Namena bay where our guests found an octopus and 1000’s of bigeye barracudas.

On the North, the currents were a little stubborn, but The Arch in great visibility is always a great sight. Finishing Grand Central with palette surgeons was also a big hit. Kansas was absolutely beautiful and calm, but Schoolhouse took the prize for best dive. Several sharks, hundreds of barracudas and trevallies, fusiliers and surgeons everywhere, plus so many snappers. 4 hammerheads joined Lefty on the morning dive, and a big humphead wrasse posed getting his mouth cleaned. What a dive. Our kava party revealed a loud wolf and a crazy monkey. And our night divers were happy with their many hermit crabs, small pleurobranch and a friendly white tip shark.

Photo by Brent: Squarespot anthias

Photo by Brent: Toothy little goby

Photo by Brent: Morisson's dragonet

Photo by India: Wire coral shrimp

Photo by Brent: Can you get any closer?

The last day of this adventure featured Cat’s Meow and Humann Nature in absolutely no wind and very mild currents. These are such amazing dives, and in perfect conditions they are only enhanced. The dives were, however, almost forgotten once the divers surfaced to find out there were playful humpbacks on the surface, two of them had been swimming with Mike and Nikki. Never has an ear issue been so welcomed as it was by these two. As everyone surfaced, we got back out and got another encounter, this time with 2 adults and two calfs. The swims were amazing, but even just the display they put on the surface for us, waving and splashing… We called the last dive and headed towards the channel in the hopes to get another swim, and despite seeing another two of them close to the boat, that was all we got. Knowing there were over 10 of them around us was amazing, and our best humpback day in Fiji, by far. We hope they keep coming, and that the weather keeps cooperating!