Fiji: November 2007

[LouwPhotography]

BULA!!! This is our second "Journeys" thread... trying to add more pictures this time. Hope it isn't overkill!

We decided to break-up our flight to Australia with a stop in Taveuni, Fiji... tough decision! :D After lengthy flights & connections from the east coast, we hopped into a little propeller plane to this Garden Island of Fiji. Along the way we crossed over the main island of Viti Levu.
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/234263600-M.jpg.

The Maravu Plantation and Beach Resort picked up our bags and after lunch we immediately set out for our first dive trip together with Jewel Bubble Divers.
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We took it easy the first day with one afternoon dive since we were still a bit jet lagged. But that night we were treated to a show from a local dance group. :barb
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[LouwPhotography]

The next day we did 2 morning dives and a night dive. The diving in Fiji is AMAZING with 80+°F water and 100+ ft. visibility. The first dive was at the Somosomo Straits -- we were pretty excited since we had heard how great Taveuni's diving is. We saw a few cool things off in the distance -- barracuda and a black tip reef shark.
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The second dive was at Jerry's Jelly and was pretty nice -- saw 2 white tip reef sharks, a blue ribbon eel, spanish mackerel, trevally and more soft coral.
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Our night dive was at Matei Point. The dive was relatively shallow (only got down to 7.5 meters) but we saw some cool things -- white tip reef shark that came out of nowhere, sea snakes, moray eel, giant clam and blue starfish.

The next day, the divemaster treated us to a dive site called the Great White Wall. We descended down to the site and it was truly ASTONISHING! Large fan corals...
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/234264372-M.jpg

small swim-through caves...
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vibrantly colored fish...
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and a wall full of soft coral that went down as far as the eye could see.
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Everywhere we looked there were tons of things to see. We were completely in awe after the dive and knew we had seen something very special.

Our final dive was at The Ledge, which was our second favorite dive site. We saw tons of fish -- damselfish, angelfish, triggerfish, moorish idol, parrotfish, more soft corals...
http://www.smugmug.com/photos/225982440-M.jpg

.. and pufferfish.
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[LouwPhotography]

We spent our last day on Taveuni topside. After a stroll on the beach with a carefully placed shell :D...
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... we got on a van that took us to the Tavoro National Park just past the village of Bouma. The lower Bouma Falls was easy to reach and we went in for a swim.
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The upper Bouma Falls was much harder to reach. Although a path had been cleared, the grade was fairly steep and being the garden island, the ground was occassionally slick from all the rainfall. At one point we had to cross over a creek over some rocks as we clutched onto a rope for balance. (Boy did I wish I had a DryZone bag at that time!) Once we arrived, we jumped in for another much needed swim!
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Afterward we headed back to our hotel for a quick meal, flew back to Nadi, Fiji to spend a night on the main island before our next flight to Sydney.
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Hope you enjoyed the Fiji pictures! More photos can be seen at our website (http://www.louwphotography.com). We'll try to finish with an Australia thread in the next couple days. Thanks for looking and C&C is always welcome! Bula!

[Chrissiebeez_NL]

:clap

very nice photos! like the aerials and by personal interest the diving ones! :wink:thumb

thanks for sharing

[Jet]

Nice Job! these pics bring back the memories from when I went to Fiji 6 months ago.. the reefs, local dances etc. It is a great place. Thanks for sharing!

[ian408]

Looks like a worthy place to stop over :thumb

[LouwPhotography]

Looks like a worthy place to stop over :thumb

Definitely! Only wish we had more time to explore other islands and spend more time out of the water too! Guess I'll have to go back someday! :D

[Awais Yaqub]

Very beautiful series thanks for sharing :lust

[Cuong]

Magnificent photos. What did you use for the underwater pics?

Cuong

[ChrisJ]

I really want to make it to Fiji some day. Your underwater shots are terrific. Looks like a great trip!

[LouwPhotography]

Magnificent photos. What did you use for the underwater pics?

Cuong
Thank you!

I went a little overboard on the equipment for the underwater pics. Ikelite housing for the 30D, Sigma 17-70 Lens, and a couple of Ikelite strobes for good measure. (Airport security people had a blast with that in my carry-on!) We also had a Fujifilm f31d + Fujifilm housing which also worked very well.

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