Fiji Trip Report

Regaldive guest John Campbell was one of the first to take advantage of the addition of beautiful Fiji Siren to the Regaldive programme. And what a trip he had - accompanied by his wife and another couple, the four of them were fortunate to be the only guests onboard!

"So it was off to Fiji this February and early March to dive the self-styled “soft coral capital of the world.” To avoid the indignities of US Homeland Security we chose to fly via South Korea rather than LA. Korean Air London to Incheon took 10 hours followed 3 hours later with an 11 hour flight on to Nadi. Then a 3 hour road trip across the island to the Volivoli Dive Resort, the departure point for the Fiji Siren that was to be our home for the next 10 days.

The trip itinerary was “Out of the Bligh” meaning the vast majority of the diving would take place well away from the main island and focus on less well known sites amongst the smaller islands. The Fiji Siren normally takes up to 16 divers but on this trip there were only the four of us on board and thanks to all the crew the trip took on the style of a bespoke private charter.

Over the course of the 10 days, diving 3/4 times a day we filmed several fish and invertebrates we had not seen before. Missing, with the exception of White Tips were the various other shark species we had hoped for. Being near the end of the winter/wet season water temperatures were at their peak (29/30c) and this had led to the pelagic sharks heading out to deeper water.

The reefs were in excellent shape with no obvious bleaching of the hard corals, however there were Crown of Thorns on several sites that could cause problems in the more remote areas where any control would be unlikely.

The soft corals are indeed some of, if not the best we have seen in 19 years of tropical diving and make the long journey from the UK well worth it. Finally it would be a serious omission not to confirm that the people of Fiji are some of the truly friendliest we have visited, from the staff at Volivoli, the entire crew of the Siren and the village people of Navatalevu where we all “enjoyed” participating in the traditional Kava ceremony!"

Thanks to John for sharing the memories of his holiday and also this fantastic video below!