Richard Levu Part III - The Goats Return to Scream

Water temperature: 77-79F/25-26C

What a pleasure it is to welcome back return guests, and our last trip had plenty of those! Richard Salas (AKA Richard Levu) returned with many guests who were here with us in 2022, and some in 2017. Out of 17 guests, 15 had been on NAI’A before and were ready to have some more Fiji fun! They photographed Fiji above and under water, had some incredible dives and transformed the boat into a living barnyard, screaming goats and all. Nothing like great attitude and a touch of madness to make a trip memorable!

This 10-day journey started at Vatu-i-ra Marine Reserve, where we did our checkout dive on the sloped fringing reef by the island. The hard corals in that area are absolutely stunning, shining bright in many colors. A few turtles and white tip sharks gave the dive a special touch. Then we moved to our regular sites, where the grown-up diving began. Mellow Yellow was evaluated as nothing short of perfect, abundant with just so many fish, and so much of it! The point at Howards Diner was like a dream, and we could just relax and “be one with the fish”. We then took advantage of the high tide and low wind to do a bird walk on the island, where we saw chicks and birds, boobies and frigates, turtles and blacktip sharks. To finish the day, a night dive with plenty of weird decorated crabs.

Photo by Gloria Freund: This is Fiji!

Photo by Guy: A visit to the island

Photo by Mike: A walk on the beach

Photo by Mike: Cute little chick!

The following day the wind was even lower, and the “fish fart” event occurred: the water was so still, we could tell if a fish farted. E6’s cathedral drove the photographers crazy, and the calm surface meant coral reflexion photos in the shallows, a rare and beautiful event! We saw a robust ghost pipefish, schooling barracudas, humphead wrasses and rockmover wrasses. At Mount Mutiny’s Rainbow wall, more photoghapers dream landscape with the chyronephthyas soft corals. And on the hard coral wall, a hammerhead, hunting trevallies, white tip and grey reef sharks, big tunas, a turtle and a huge moray eel. Wow. The night divers encountered more decorated crabs and a slipper lobster.

Photo by Audrey: Richard Levu at the Cathedral

Photo by Audrey: Reflexions

Photo by Audrey: Rainbow Wall

Photo by Guy: This is a serious boat. And we love doing the hammerhead dance!

We moved to Wakaya and enjoyed the last half day of still waters. The mantas teased us but never gave us a show at the cleaning station. We saw Django being courted by Firefly, but Django being so shy never stayed with us, only passing by a few times. All the same, our guests enjoyed the dive sites, the gorgeous wall, the reef sharks, longjaw mackerels, leaf scorpionfish, several other scorpionfish, orangebarred garden eels, moray eels, humphead wrasse, turtle and a halimeda ghost pipefish. Incredible how much you can see when not distracted by too many mantas! Wiped out, our guests decided to skip the night dive and sip terrible gin.

Our crossing to Gau was smoother than expected, and we started our day there with dives at Jim’s and Anthia’s. The current picked up but we still saw nudibranchs (some mating), huge sea fans, scorpionfish and schooling surgeonfish. But Nigali was the star, and it delivered enthusiastically. We saw a few dozen grey reef sharks, including several juveniles, big schools of barracudas, black and midnight snappers, a lonesome African pompano, a turtle, humphead wrasses and a friendly octopus, who posed for pictures on both dives! We finished the day with a heartwarming village visit where we drank some kava, played with some dogs and ran after a few pigs. Nothing more fun than dancing with the locals though, even if they were mostly just laughing at us.

Photo by Joan: Grey reef shark

Photo by Guy: Bel and the octopus

Photo by Charlie: Gloria at work

Photo by Guy: Somosomo children

We moved to Makogai and spent our first three dives exploring the macro critters around the bommies. We saw sea spiders, wirecoral shrimpgobies, redfin anthias, several different species of shrimpgobies (including randall’s and whitecap), nudibranchs, a bluespotted stingray, seastar shrimps, longnosed hawfish and filefish and hunting lionfish. We finished with a very surgy but incredibly fishy dive at Vatu Vula. We saw a few grey reef sharks, several white tip sharks, barracudas, spadefish, several species of snappers, titan triggers, surgeonfish and schools upon schools of fusiliers. The brave night divers saw some huge bluntended seahares, two octopuses and a friendly squid.

We moved to Namena Marine Reserve, our rockiest crossing of the trip. But it’s Namena, so it was worth it! Our two days there were incredible, despite the relentless current, brought to us by the super full moon of days prior. Grand Central Station was busy with sharks, eagle ray,  tunas and barracudas, Schoolhouse was busy with, well, everything (trevallies, barracudas, pinjalos, snappers, triggerfish, bannerfish, fusiliers, grey reef sharks, palette surgeons) plus two hammerheads. Kansas was the photographers favorite, even if they couldn’t shoot the two pygmy seahorses with their wide angle lenses!

The south of Namena may have been the photographers favorite side, even when the soft corals refused to come out (despite the strong currents). The insta360 from Lailai captured a magnificent video of a curious turtle. We saw ribbon eels, juvenile and adult. We saw golden mantis shrimps, and more shrimpgobies. We saw barracudas, and a few more sharks. We saw silverstreak and squarespotted anthias. Our snorkelers got to go out near Namena island, and they had a great time until “it turned into a Hitchcock movie”. They were attacked by boobies, or not attacked, but definitely inspected by them. On the night dive we saw a sea krait and a friendly turtle. And at the kava party we let all the animals out, and had as much fun as we could. This group really is spectacular!

Photo by Charlie: Barracudas

Photo by Richard Lailai: A cooperative turtle

Photo by Gloria: Kansas and grouper hole

Photo by Mike: The trouble maker

Photo by Missy: The birds were cool

Photo by Missy: Until they weren't

At Vuya and UndeNAI’Able, we had strong currents for our first 3 dives. But… current brings beauty, and the soft corals at Cat’s were in full bloom. The hard corals at Humann Nature were covered in anthias and chromis, as well as fusiliers. UndeNAI’Able Reef once again mesmerized our guests, photographers or not. “Just wow”. And the pinnacle was having a special nudibranch day, 30 for the price of 5! More than two dozen, and those were the special ones! The last dive of the day was by far the mellowest. We cruised as we pleased, enjoying the views.

We returned to Vatu-i-ra for our last day, as our lead goat just had to go to Coral Corner! The inside of Charlie’s Garden (one of the jewels we discovered over the last few years) was perfect to shelter our guests from strong current and still shower them with fusiliers, stunning fans and superb hard corals. Coral Corner was fabulous, if a bit too currenty on the first dive. The second one was just the right level for the best conditions the site can offer. And Mellow Yellow and Maytag were both perfect aquariums for a blissful last dive for both skiffs. It has been an incredibly enjoyable and fun trip for us, and we’re sad we won’t be here for their return in 2026. The Mo-ettes did one last performance before departing on Tuesday, and it was memorable! May you drive the future cruise directors crazy with all that barn noise.

Photo by Jerome: One of many nudis

Photo by Deb: FAN-tastic!

Photo by Audrey: Home

A superb group of people!