Fiji Day 3 - Dive and Relax

We woke up early this morning, in part because of jet lag, and in part because we had plans. We ate an early breakfast at the hotel buffet. This place has such a good breakfast buffet, right up there with the best international breakfast buffets we have ever had. I will also go on and on about the hospitality in Fiji. It is unmatched. Everyone we meet, at the hotel, or around the islands, is friendly, helpful, and happy. What makes it so great is that they all seem genuine. The hospitality is really the cherry on top of this beautiful island paradise. 

After breakfast, the dive shop, Deep Blue Diving & Watersports, picked us up at our hotel and drove us to the dock. We stopped by their office to fill out some paperwork before boarding the boat. The boat was a small speedboat, in line with most dive boats we have seen around the world. In total there were 3 instructors and 5 divers on the boat. The 3 other divers were working on certifications. Two teens from England were working on their PADI certification and the other diver was working on a free diving certification. While they all did their instruction, Alison and I, along with our dive master, Jacob, focused on exploring the reefs. 

Our dive sites were near Namotu Island. Namotu Island is considered world-class for surfing, diving, sailboarding, kite surfing, fishing, and standup paddle boarding. This island is ~45 minutes by boat from Denarau. Our first dive site was the fish market. The name was apt because there were multitudes of fish. It was amazing. The reef here is vibrant. The water in Fiji is warm 80+ degrees. It was nice because we didn't have to wear wet suits or any protection to stay warm. The visibility was also excellent. The water was crystal clear on this dive. We saw a plethora of sea life, including a large Walu, a stingray, two moray eels, and a shiver of sharks. The three sharks were resting on the sandy ocean floor near the reef and one took off as swam by. Our dive time was 48+ minutes with a max depth of 65 feet. We have become much better divers. To put this in perspective on our first dives in Australia I struggled to make it more than 25 minutes on a tank of air and we weren't even that deep. Now we nearly double that initial dive time on one tank of air. That improvement comes from more experience and practicing our dive skills. 

In between dives, we hung out on the boat for our surface interval. We sat in the sun to warm up and dry off. The reefs in this area gave the water a beautiful turquoise hue. We marveled at the water as we floated between two picturesque sandy islands. Deep Blue Diving & Watersports is a fairly new company to Denarau. One of the ways they try to set themselves apart from the competition is by providing a high level of service. One of the most visible manifestations of this was the food that they provided between dives. They were quite proud of the bacon roll, which was a bacon and egg sandwich in a bun. It was a tasty between-dive snack. 

Our second dive site was also near Namotu Island. This site was known as Coral Garden. This was also an apt name there was abundant beautiful coral in this area. We were diving with the current throughout this dive, which made for a pleasant dive. Rather than being an out and back dive, we swam out and the boat picked us up at the end. The visibility wasn’t quite as good on this dive. It was still mostly good, but a bit murkier. The highlight of this dive was swimming through a large school of angelfish. This dive was 45 minutes with a max depth of 54.8 feet. It was another great dive. 

When we finished diving they dropped us off back at Port Denarau. We opted to walk back to our hotel. We enjoy the walk and like to try to stay a little bit active each day. At the hotel, we got cleaned up and headed over to the pool to do some relaxing. Today we checked out Koro, which is the adults-only pool. It was pretty amazing. They have a white sandy beach area between the pool and ocean with tons of lounge chairs. This was where we liked to hang out. 

We had an appointment for a beachside couples massage. It was an excellent massage. Our masseuses took us out to a cabana by the ocean. It was such a relaxing setting for a massage. The sounds of the ocean and birds and everything else made it so pleasant. We enjoyed it so much that we scheduled another session later in the week. 

After the massages, we headed out to the beach to watch the sunset. It was stunning. Both of the sunsets we have seen in Fiji have been spectacular. We hope this trend continues. 

Alison taking a picture of me "in the wild"

After sunset, we walked back to Port Denarau for dinner. Tonight we ate at Cardo. It is a steakhouse right by the ocean. Tonight they also had live music. So we enjoyed good food and entertainment before calling it a night.