Fiji Day 5 - Another Day of Diving

We woke up to another glorious morning in Fiji. Today we returned to Nuku for the breakfast buffet. It really is better, especially because one waiter, Etaute, is always so excited to see us and gracious in ensuring we have an exceptional breakfast each day. He is too kind. 

After breakfast, we walked to the port. We met up with Deep Blue Diving & Watersports for another day of scuba diving. Today there was only one other diver with us. Our dive master was Jacob again, which was great because we thought he would be off today. We were glad he wasn't off - we liked Jacob. 

Our Dive Master Jacob

We took a ~45 boat ride to our dive site. We were in the same general area as Monday, but we dove two different sites. The first dive site was Tavarue Wall. This dive site started with a dive through a coral tunnel before following a sea wall covered by a coral reef. This area was brimming with sea life. Once again we had excellent visibility, which made the coral all the more beautiful. We saw several interesting sights during our dive. Jacob pointed out a flatworm also known as a Spanish dancer because of the way it twirls through the water. Jacob also showed us magic coral, which changed color with the brush of a finger. We also saw a couple of reef sharks and many anemone fish, including a baby clownfish. It was tiny and cute. Alison and I both felt really comfortable on this dive. We bottomed out at 56.6 feet and dove for 49 minutes. 

After an hour surface interval, we started our next dive. This dive site was known as Masa Cave. It wasn’t actually a cave but started with a coral dive through, similar to the last dive. Then it follows a sea wall on the left side and a coral formation on the right side. We would cross between these points of interest a couple of times during the dive. This may have been our best dive of the trip. We saw multiple sharks (including two baby sharks) and a plethora of fish. We also came across two turtles. One was mid-way through the dive. It was a big one and was a little bit distant and was swimming away from us. The second turtle was at the end of the dive. This turtle was hiding in the coral and took off as we approached. I also saw a large area covered by anemones and lots of clownfish. Right as we were doing our safety stop we saw a huge barracuda in the distance. What a great dive! This dive was also 48 minutes. I bottomed out around 61 feet, which was a little lower than Alison and Jacob because I hung out below them to get a better view of the sealife in the coral formations. 

Coming back in the wind picked up, which made for a bumpy ride back. 

Back at the hotel we headed to the pool and spent the afternoon lounging. We visited the Koro pool, which is adults only and was less crowded than the other pool. Alison and I lounged on the in-water loungers. We read books and relaxed. 

Tonight we had dinner reservations at Maravu. This is the signature restaurant at the Hilton Fiji Resort and Spa. We were excited about this meal, but it would turn out to be our most uneven dining experience in Fiji. When they first seated us we were loving it. Our table was in a lovely beachside location. It is hard to beat that view and ambiance. Just based on our initial impression we thought we might want to eat here again. The food was also very reasonably priced. We started off with some shredded duck pancakes that were quite delicious. Then things went downhill. The service was painfully slow and not very good (this is the only place we experienced in Fiji without exceptional service). The food also wasn’t great. Alison ordered fried rice and I had beef short ribs. Both were too spicy. So all in all it was a disappointing experience. We will not be eating there again. 

A nice dinner view