A fantastic week of snorkelling, learning and exploring in Fiji.

The reefs around Vanua Levu provide some of the most rewarding snorkelling in the world. If you don’t want to dive the reefs, this week will give you the chance to see sharks, rays, turtles and many species of reef fish and corals.

In the evenings, an experienced marine biologist will give talks on the marine environment and brief you on the next day’s snorkel. He will come with you to guide the snorkel and point out some of the wonders of the ocean on an all-day field trip.

Below the water is definitely the centre of the week, but we’ll also show you a lot of Fiji above the water. Visits to schools, farms and villages are included.

This is a week of learning and a fabulous holiday as well.

And you are welcome to arrive earlier in the week or stay on later – we’ll just charge you at regular room rates less 15% if you’re on the course.

Itinerary:

Saturday
You should book your flights to arrive in Savusavu. In the evening there will be a traditional welcome ceremony.

Sunday
Field trip day with Johnnie Singh, marine biologist, to Lighthouse and Cousteau Marine Reserve.

Monday
Morning: Snorkel to Split Rock.
Afternoon: Town Visit.
Evening: Lecture on Conceptual Coral Reefs

Tuesday
Morning: Snorkel to Nuggets.
Afternoon: Snorkel to Charlie’s Reef.
Evening: Lecture by Robin Irwin, former Government Minister, on Fijian politics.

Wednesday
Morning: Snorkel to Mystery Reef.
Afternoon: Excursion to Pearl Farm
Evening : Lecture on ‘Cities under the sea’

Thursday
Morning: Snorkel to Lesciaceva Reef.
Afternoon: Excursion to school at Urata village.
Evening at Yacht Club and dinner at Surf & Turf Restaurant.

Friday
Morning: Snorkel to Lighthouse.
Afternoon: Visit to Vivili village
Evening: Lecture on Coral Critters

Saturday
Leaving Ceremony and departure to Nadi.

And you can snorkel off our beach whenever you want – we have a small but pretty reef right outside the front of the resort.

Cost: F$1615 twin share. F$1615 is approx AUD$1050 / US$850 – we take payment in Fiji dollars and your bank will advise you the rates they charge.Single supplement F$400.
Includes accommodation, all meals, excursions, equipment.

Not included: Travel – but we are happy to help book your domestic flights if you’d like, and we’ll pick you up from Savusavu airport.

Bookings: This week can be booked directly with Daku Resort on reservations@dakuresort.com

Sites in more detail

Split Rock
Split Rock is 200 metres off shore; a large coral head, it is named for the distinctive split down one side. At the bottom of the split you can see purple gorgonian fans and pale yellow soft corals. At the entrance to the split a fierce clown fish defends her anemone and the male takes refuge in its fronds. When a female clown fish dies, the male changes sex and becomes female, and he next male moves up the hierarchy. There’s a large school of inquisitive black and white sergeant fish nearby; they will come right up to you and often give your fingers a gentle nip. There is a glorious abundance of orange and purple anthias and golden damsels near the surface; a little deeper, parrotfish can be seen nibbling away at the coral, and a large brown spotted grouper glides shyly away. There are two large clams on the rock, and several small green fern corals. Split Rock is one of the most colourful and enchanting sites of the bay, and endlessly fascinating in visit after visit. The top of the coral head is 3 foot deep, and the base is about 30 foot deep.

Golden Nuggets
Some 700 metres past the point of the peninsula, the twin pinnacles of Golden Nuggets offer anther magnificent display of smaller fish. The first pinnacle has purple and orange anthias, the beautiful iridescent blue sapphire damsels, Moorish idols with their lazy grace, and the blue damsel fish guarding his garden against intruders – human or fish. On the second pinnacle you will see schools of surgeon fish and snapper fish. Quite often a white tipped shark is around, utterly arresting in its fearsome power – but not aggressive to humans and very well fed on the fish life. You will also see magic coral which turns from bluey-brown to white when threatened and is hardly known outside Fiji.

Lighthouse
At the edge of the reef which runs out from Savusavu Bay is a lighthouse, which gives its name to the site. There are numerous plate corals, soft spaghetti corals with tentacles swaying in the currents, and many fish – trumpet fish, pale green damsel fish, humpbacked wrasse and maori wrasse. We sometimes see a turtle at this sight,
always a treat – and occasionally a shark cruising deep below.

Charlie’s Point
About half a kilometer past the end of the peninsula, Charlie’s Point offers reefs in two directions. One way is a relatively shallow reef with coral heads on a sandy sea bottom; the other way goes out towards the deeper sea and there is a wall dropping down to about 50 metres. There are mainly hard corals here, with many of the blue-tipped corals. You will see clouds of blue damsel fish; trumpet fish, wrasse, damsel fish – and possibly cuttlefish who are likely to disappear, leaving only a squirt of black ink as evidence of their presence.

Mystery
This is an isolated reef out in the bay, a bit further than the other sites. It’s scattered with coral heads covered in multi- coloured soft corals. You’ll see Spanish mackerel, coral trout and unicorn fish.

Coral Gardens
The Coral Gardens are best dived at mid to high tide as they are in relatively shallow Water. They are a reef running along the shore line near Split Rock – you’ll see many types of coral including staghorn coral, brain coral, finger coral, table coral and cabbage (lettuce) coral. Fish life is abundant. One of the pleasures of this area is the sense of swimming through the maze of interlocking coral heads – and if the tide is low, be cautious as you can easily cut yourself. And because its shallow, you’ll also see mushroom corals and sea cucumbers on the ocean floor.

Our dive offer has been a very popular one, and we’re extending it into the first half of 2010. It’s a special package that will allow you to come to Fiji and dive our fabulous coral reef at a fraction of the usual cost.

Known as the soft coral capital of the world, the reef around the Fijian Island of Vanua Levu provide a once in a lifetime experience. Diving in the South Pacific is a wondrous experience, as you swim at some of the world’s most abundant coral reefs teeming with multi-coloured fish and other forms of sea life. There’s easy access to a wide variety of sites: shallow reefs with spectacular plate corals, coral pinnacles topped with clouds of purple anthias and damsel fish, deeper reefs with steep walls dropping away to 800 feet and more where you may see some of the larger species. The joy of Fiji lies in its clear, warm waters and the easy access to the sites; most of them are 15 – 25 minutes in a boat. It’s no small wonder that the world famous Jean-Michel Cousteau has a dive base here, and have helped establish the Savusavu Marine Protection Park.

It’s a week of diving you could not usually get at this price, and covers:

• Five days of diving
• Seven nights accommodation

- all for only F$1680 (approx US$890/ A$1380/ NZ$ 1680) twinshare.

• A single supplement of F$400 applies.
• Airport transfers included. Price does not include air fares or meals.

Every morning at 8.15 you’ll be taken by taxi (included in the price) down to The Jean Michel Cousteau Resort. It’s just 15 minutes down the road. The boat will go out at 8.30 for two dives on our world famous reef. All the sites are within 30 minutes of the resort and you’ll be back at the resort in time for a late lunch.

Afternoons can be spent lazing by the pool or going on a number of cultural or sporting excursions.

Testimonial
What rainbow colours there are in the fish world and the coral gardens! Don’s favourite fish was a gorgeous purple one called Anthis. Mine was the tiny cobalt blue fishes that live in the coral ‘bushes’ – they hide when they see you coming but if you stay still enough they will come out and play again before long. Another of my favourites was a stripy Nemo mother with six or seven tiny little Nemo babies around their coral nest. I also enjoyed floating amongst a fluttering cloud of “butterfly” fishes who hang out over the edge of the big drops. They don’t seem to notice the oversized blue fish with white pants and yellow flippers that has suddenly joined them from above. Then there was the pulsating coral – looks like a cauliflower but has a soft furry surface which waves in electrical pulses across the surface. Don found a Magic coral which fakes dead coral, going white as soon as it is touched and then comes back to life again after the threat has gone. Dan, our divemaster, told us about a segmented nudibranch like a little train with carriages which breaks apart into separate pieces when threatened – once the danger is passed it reconstitutes itself again! He also told us about a certain fish family that is all males except one. If the female dies or goes away, another male turns into a female and then they are complete again. Perfect population control. Ain’t Nature grand? What a lovely holiday it was. We felt cleaned and refreshed by all that wonderful ocean and the warmth and dignity of our hosts the Fijians.
Thanks Daku
Bridget McKern, November 2008

L'Aventure Dive Boat

How to make a booking:
To book, let us have your details as follows:
Name
Telephone and email
Twin / single
Dates of arrival and departure in Savusavu
Credit card details for payment of F$1680 (+ F$400 single supplement)

And if you need to know more please let us know by email at paradisecourses@iinet.net.au or call us on: AUSTRALIA 02-9969-4753
FIJI (679)8850 046

Diving at the Dream House, Savusavu

We dove in the SavuSavu area during one of our weeks in Fiji, and were delighted to see such pristine reefs and so many critters.  The dive master’s desire to show us the best of what SavuSavu area had to offer left us awed at all the underwater beauty.  A number of dive sites had fabulous swim-throughs; especially beautiful when the suns rays flowed in and illuminated large schools of sweepers, squirrelfish, and soldierfish.  There were many dives with impressive colors and diversity of both soft and hard corals.

The variety of brilliant colors of the soft corals became mesmerizing; like looking at the most gorgeous flower gardens.  Our favorite dive site was Dream House.  We saw a hammerhead shark, a school of barracuda, 10-15 large batfish, two white tip reef shark, along with a plethora of beautiful smaller reef fish swimming amongst the corals.

On other dives we saw; anemone fish of all varieties popping in and out of their host anenomes, leaf scorpionfish, popcorn shrimp, lion fish, nudibranchs, shrimpgoby, eels, sea snakes, schools of grouper and sweetlips, turtles, and blue-spotted rays.

To say the least, we had a tremendous dive experience and cannot say enough wonderful things about the Daku Resort staff in creating the perfect dive vacation.

Vicki, October 2008

Diving with the Cousteau team

Whether the micro world of nudibranchs and miniature shrimps is your thing or you prefer the big critters- Hammerhead sharks and Manta rays- diving in Savusavu Bay has something for everyone. Selo, Dan, Ezra and the others know these reefs like the back of their hand. They can find the favourite resting places for the sharks, the sandy bottoms where the Sting rays hide out and only their eyes can be seen and the coral overhangs where turtles might swim past

The names of the dives sites are enticing- Alice in Wonderland, Mystery Reef, Grand Central Station. Towers of corals, pretty swim throughs and beautiful coral walls that drop away to infinity – this place has it all. Large schools of barracuda keep some distance while the Wrasses and Angel fish swim in and out of the soft corals and friendly Bat Fish keep a close watch on your activities- hovering around nearby.

If you are lucky enough to get a day out at Namena Marine Reserve, you are guaranteed an unforgettable experience. In this underwater wilderness there are so many fish that it is a wonder you don’t actually bump into them in the water. There is an enormous array of Gorgonian fans, soft corals, Bubble corals and many more that I cannot name, in every colour imaginable. I wish I had eyes on stalks to take in all the action around me.

Common Lion Fish at Namena Marine Reserve

Back on top of the reef doing a safety stop, was a riot of colours. Anemones form homes for all the variety of clown fish and psychedelic Christmas tree worms pop in and out of their holes. I saw my favourite tropical fish several times- the Clown trigger Fish. Who thought up a fish with black and white spots on its belly and orange lips? I am sure all its friends laugh at it.

It may have been 10 years but I will not let that much time elapse again before I get back into SCUBA gear and go swimming with the fishes.

Margie Welsford, Melbourne, VIC, Australia.