Diveaway Fiji Scuba Diving [dive sites]

Mango Bay Dive sites

RAZORBACK
When we started diving from Mango we immediately discovered some great dive sites. Virtually the first dive we did was Razorback, straight out from Namatakula channel on the corner of the main reef.

This dive site is a long ridge that runs out to sea at right angles to the main reef. The ridge is narrow with big dropoffs on either side, starting at around 18 metres by the main reef and sloping down and away until it disappears into the deep blue.

Because of its angle to the main reef currents bump into it and push up and over it, meaning a lot of marine life likes to hang around here and enjoy the scenery.

The very first dive we did here two big schools of 40 – 50 barracuda, chevronned and blackfins, were lurking around and we quickly became the epicentre of a barracuda vortex as they swirled curiously around us. As they streamed off, 5 eagle rays zoomed out of the depth, flew by in formation line astern before peeling off and gliding away.

Then we noticed that all the while a big old barnacle encrusted turtle was sitting by a bommie down on the ridgeback, observing all this with a somewhat sardonic eye.

Since that first dive we have frequently seen sharks here, grey reefs, white tips and nurse, and discovered a series of swimthroughs tunnelled through the reef, from the really quite small (Claustrophobia) to much bigger (waterslide).

WONDERWALL
A big feature of Mango’s diving are the walls and coral caves– Wonderwall is covered in a snowdrift of white soft coral (much more than the famous great white wall according to a former aggressor fleet captain) with caves and overhangs down deep hiding some damn big fish – GT’s and giant grouper who are occasionally unwary enough to let us spot them.

MANGO DOWN
Right in front of the resort also features big drop offs, and in September and October 2006 we had the unbelievable bonus of humpback whales migrating past.

We never saw them underwater, but throughout the time we would regularly hear whalesong under water and see them from the boat (and the beach!).

On one particularily memorable dive our bodies were vibrating so much with the song that we were spinning round in circles underwater, expecting a singing behemoth to appear out of the blue at any second. When we surfaced, the two whales had gone past and were a hundred and fifty metres away, entertaining the boat crew.

BOMBAY
At Bombay we have a well protected shallow inner reef site, ideal for Scuba training and for PADI Discover Scuba dives.

As well as frequently seeing white tip reef sharks, this site is also notable for the numbers of blue spotted stingrays hiding in the sand with just their eyes protruding.

More often than not you don’t spot them before they explode out of the sand and zip off at a high rate of knots.

Diveaway Fiji

Hideaway Resort Dive Sites

GUNBARREL– Not for first timers!
An adrenalin dive for the first part of the dive as you fly through an underwater canyon, herding the schools of snapper and surgeon fish through the narrow underwater gorge.

Graceful grey reef and white tip sharks glide up and down the walls through all the swirling fish. The canyon then opens up to an underwater beach where the current suddenly stops and we pause and wait for the sharks to return single file past us back into the channel. Then a short swim through takes us out into the clear blue of the Pacific.

The second half of the dive is very different – a leisurely meander over hard coral gardens and though a long, sunlit tunnel with a wavy sandy floor, before we drift up through the sun pierced blue to surface by the boat.

BIGFOOT & SUNDANCE
A wall dropping down 60 metres, with curling encrusting corals, waterfalls of fusiliers scattered by predatory trevally and snapper and a cave with a balcony frequented by hawksbill and green turtles.

Shallower, the reef is pierced by crevasses and gullies that we can swim through into a pool of light where there is prolific hard coral growth, then a tunnel through the reef to ‘Sundance’. Here, as we swim under the lip of the reef, the sun pours through holes and cracks, producing swaying, shimmering beams of light through which swim reef surgeonfish, sweepers and trumpetfish, illuminated by the glittering rays cutting through the blue.

PURPLE HAZE
The walls of this dive site are thickly carpeted with soft corals which blossom in the current. Whilst there is a rainbow of different colours, here it is the purples, plums and violets which dominate, hence the name of the site.

There are also big gorgonian sea fans, bright red in the glow of lights, white and black fans and sea whips. Around and amongst the coral there are an array of reef fish such as golden and purple anthias, zebra angelfish, clown triggerfish, oriental sweetlips, unicorns, bannerfish and an incredible variety of butterflyfish.

Off the walls, under the overhangs and in the swimthroughs there are white tip and black tip reef sharks, nurse sharks, spotted eagle rays and much more.

No matter how many times you dive the Haze, you always want to come back.

STINGRAY
Perfect for beginners, great for the experienced diver, Stingray includes what must be one of the shortest boat rides to a dive site anywhere in the world – under 20 seconds at low tide! (High tide does add an exhausting 15 second extension to the trip)

Starting very shallow, there is a resident school of barracuda in the bay, so many lionfish spotting and stalking their prey that after a while you can start ignoring them and concentrate more on the snapper, trevally, angels, butterflies, goat fish, flash coral and white tips.

We have also been lucky enough to see the prehistoric-looking shovel nose ray here four or five times. The dive ends on a bommie called ‘Nemos’ – covered in anemones and clown fish, as the name suggests, but also home to stonefish, leaf scorpionfish and a school of particularly dozy looking vermiculated rabbitfish. No idea what vermiculated means, mind you.

BORDELLO
A reef wall that drops down to 30 metres, covered in colourful soft corals, sea whips and fans, strangely reminiscent of the paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. OK, maybe not, but it’s a lovely dive and you have to call it something.

There are shallow caves underneath that often shelter a sleeping nurse shark, morays in holes on the cliff face, banded sea kraits and , yep, the usual colourful array of reef fish and corals.

These are just a few of the dive sites we can visit along this short stretch of Fiji’s Coral Coast. I could carry on and describe Casbah, Three Amigos, The Edge of the World, or any of the others, but I’m running low on descriptive phrases and praises of undersea beauteousness, and I’m pretty sure not many people read these dive site descriptions too closely anyway.

Come and dive them and describe them yourselves – we’ve already stamped many teeming logbooks.