Diving in Fiji September 29, 2019 by lukesheppard

Our latest blog post is written by our very own Simply Scuba Retail Team Leader James Brown.

Having recently got married in the Spring this year we decided to go to Fiji for our honeymoon in the summer. What an amazing place! For the first few days, we stayed on the main island, Nadi, in a resort right on the water and spent our time exploring the sites and relaxing. It was the perfect environment to recover from the jetlag but it wasn’t long before we took a pre-booked water taxi from Port Denarau to a much smaller island resort within the stunning Mamanuca Islands.

Once settled at the resort I set about organising a dive trip and find out more about snorkelling in the area. After booking up a two-dive trip for later in the week we hit the beaches to get in some much-needed snorkelling.

Knowing that Fiji was going to play host to an underwater nirvana I decided to invest in some decent snorkelling gear to take with us so we could both enjoy the experience to the fullest. My wife had snorkelled before with a separate mask and snorkel but wanted to try something different this time so we got a new full-face snorkel, the SEAC Sub Unica. The silicone skirt fit well around her face and was comfortable, there was also no leaking and it didn’t fog up due to the constant flow of air in and out. For myself I bought and new mask, the APEKS VX1 because my old mask had started to leak due to my beard. The new mask was great because it was frameless, meaning it sat closer to my face, and the soft silicone seal moulded to my dace really well. I didn’t have any leaks during snorkelling or my dives.

To accompany my new APEKS VX1 I was using the XS Cargo snorkel which rolls up small so it can be stored easily. It worked well and I thought it would be great to use when diving on the surface to stop wasting my air but could also be put in my BCD pocket when not needed. I had prepared my mask before the snorkel trip to stop it fogging up, first with Sea Buff to clean the glass of any silicone or dirt which when using Scubapro anti-fog made it work brilliantly.

From our location, we were able to snorkel straight from the beach and there were heaps of fish around the dock as the staff would feed them there once a day. The reef in front of our resort was fantastic and we saw lots of fish and corals.

After we had been snorkelling and relaxing, for a couple of days, it was time for my dive trip. A small boat with three people and three staff picked me up in the morning and we went out and round the island, stopping twice to pick up two more pairs of people. We then headed out to the first dive site, Castaway Wall. This was a nice dive site with lovely tropical fish. It was a wall of reef, so we dropped down to about 27m and worked our way along looking at all the coral and the fish. Personal highlights were seeing Clownfish (Nemo!), Palette Surgeonfish (Dory!), Bannerfish and many more.

After we had finished the first dive we got back on the boat and sailed over to the next dive site. While we were waiting to get back in the water, we spotted a Turtle on the surface coming up to breath which was really great to see.

Once ready we went down for our second dive, another amazing dive site called Gotham City. Here we spotted the Turtle from before down there eating! We also saw a big Crayfish hiding under some coral and again more fish, too many to name. What an amazing dive and what an incredible day!

Our trip to Fiji was truly unforgettable and the Islands stunning underwater utopia played a big part in our trip. We feel so lucky to have experienced both snorkelling and scuba diving at these gorgeous tropical reefs and ticking off a big box on our bucket list!