General Info

My Holiday

April 2013 I flew in 26 hours to Fiji Islands and stayed the first week on Beqa Island, just 30 minutes by boat from the main island of Viti Levu and within sight of Fiji's Capital City, Suva. Surrounded by one of the world's largest barrier reefs, it pops up on lists all over - including the top 10 dive destinations in the world, and one of the "1,000 Places to See Before You Die." Surrounded by over 190 miles of hard and soft coral reefs, this amazing living aquarium delights both novice and seasoned diver alike.
Twice a week, it is possible to join the world-famous Beqa Shark feed dives directly from Lalati Resort & Spa. One of the resort's dive boats will take you and your dive guides to a special site inside the lagoon where numerous bull sharks, silver tips, grey nurse and the occasional tiger shark meet to be hand-fed by dive masters.
The second week I went to the island Taveuni which lies about one hour flight from Nadi airport. Taveuni is the third-largest of the Fiji's 300 Fiji islands after Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Its fertile soils gave rise to the name the "Garden Island". Taveuni actually straddles the 180 degree meridian and is separated from Vanua Levu by the Somosomo Strait, rich in world class dive sites. Here you can dive the amazing Rainbow Reef, The Great White Wall, The Purple Wall, The Ledge, The Zoo, The Fish Factory and countless others.

Location

Fiji (sometimes called the Fiji Islands), is a Melanesian country in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about 2000 km northeast of New Zealand North Island and consists of an archipelago that includes 332 islands.

Geography

Fiji covers a total area of some 194,000 square kilometres (75,000 sq mi) of which around 10% is land. Fiji is the hub of the South West Pacific, midway between Vanuatu and Tonga. Fiji consists of 322 islands (of which 106 are inhabited) and 522 smaller islets. The two most important islands are Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, which account for approximately three-quarters of the total land area of the country. The islands are mountainous, with peaks up to 1,324 metres (4,341 ft), and covered with thick tropical forests.

Language

Fijian is an Austronesian language of the Malayo-Polynesian family spoken in Fiji. It has 350 000 first-language speakers, which is less than half the population of Fiji, but another 200,000 speak it as a second language. The 1997 Constitution established Fijian as an official language of Fiji, along with English and Fiji Hindi

Climate

The climate in Fiji is tropical marine and warm most of the year round with minimal extremes. The warm season is from November till April and the cooler season May to October. Temperature in the cool season still averages 22 °C (72 °F). Rainfall is variable, the warmer season experiences heavier rainfall, especially inland. Winds are moderate, though cyclones occur about once a year (10–12 times per decade).

Diving conditions

Labeled as the "Soft Coral Capital of the World" by Jean-Michel Cousteau, Fiji offers some of the World's best scuba diving with a comprehensive range of excellent dive locations. Spectacular hard and soft corals, caves and grottoes, amazingly diverse marine life that includes large pelagic species such as sharks and tuna, turtles and fish of all hues and sizes. Beautiful Beqa Lagoon is a great spot for snorkelling and diving. Beqa's fringing coral reef is famous worldwide for its superb dive sites. Along with dolphins and turtles, there are many colourful coral species and a wide variety of fish to be seen. Well known dive sites include Side Streets (soft corals and gorgonian fans), Caesar's Rocks (coral heads and swim-through's) and Frigate Pass, a 48km (30 mile) wall with pelagic fish, including white-tip reef sharks. Over the years, the nutrient rich waters powered by the strong currents of the Somosomo Strait have combined and made Taveuni one of the soft coral capitals of the world - the amazing vibrance of colour underwater just has to be seen to be believed along with the abundance of all form of marine life. At times, diving these reefs is a bit like being in an aquarium - it just seems too good to be real! The water temperatures are between 23°C - 30°C (74°-87°F)



Time difference

+12 hrs GMT