After being desperately depressed and suffering abandonment issues for a couple of days post the loss of our new friends we found a pick-me-up in the form of diving. After our pool dive at the start of the trip we knew we were going to love Scuba and signed up to do our Open Water Qualification, it was here that we met Elias our Fijian Afro sporting side-show Bob and the most chilled out man under the sea.
Day 1 : Pool diving skills. We spent the day flopping around in fins being gawked at by confused onlookers, however we took to diving surprisingly naturally as we practiced mask removal, air sharing, emergency ascents and buoyancy in preparation for our first open water dive - which was to be nothing like the pool at all!
Day 2 : Open water dive at South Sea Island. Our first dive session was awesome!
We did both beach and boat entrances to the sea. We did shark feeding which involved five black tip reef sharks circling within fin distance of us. Compared to our preconceived ideas of ferocious sharks we found them to be incredible agile creatures under the sea, nothing like the monsters from 'Jaws'. We made it back to land with all limbs intact.
Day 3: We experienced our first wreck dive, a fishing boat destroyed in the cyclone of December 2012. Despite the relatively recent sinking of the boat, it was thriving with life and supporting its own mini ecosystem of fish, algae and jellyfish. This was our deepest dive to date with remarkable visibility. This is one dive that we won't be forgetting for a long time.
On our final day we had to sit the open water exam, and neither dickhead had done the homework uh oh! We still managed to do the exam and pass with full marks.
We said fair well to our lovely dive team Elias, Andy, Jimmy, Nat and Robin and entered in to what could only be 'Dive Depression.' As we passed through the stages of grief : denial, anger, acceptance, we decided that the only sane way to move forward was to book our advanced open water qualification.
We joyfully rang up Andy to book in and looked forward to another week of sun and scuba on South Sea Island.
Day 1 : first thing in the morning we headed out to do our deep dive at the wreck reaching a depth of 30 meters (the maximum depth for recreational divers.) This dive was nothing like our first visit to the wreck, the water was murky and visibility at times was less than a meter, this showed us just how crucial underwater navigation skills are and we had to stick close together as we swam around the boat.
As we made our way up the sandbanks to the coral in shallower water we had the pleasure of seeing lion fish, sea cucumbers, starfish, jellyfish, squid (and so much more). Although the morning dive was fun there was work to be done in the afternoon with advanced buoyancy skills to practice where we did the limbo under poles and tested out a variety of fin kicks.
The rest of the first day was left to us, we were able to sunbathe and hang around annoying the team and helping out where we could with serving the guests snorkelling equipment or taking some time for ourselves to play on the kayaks.
The lunch on South Sea island everyday was delicious, BBQed meats, fresh salad, rice and lovely entertainment too with traditional dancing and singing.
Day 2 : on our second day we 'penetrated the wreck' much to everyone's amusement. It was our first dive without Elias, our underwater guardian angel, although we were reluctant to dive with a new instructor, Andy was wonderful and we enjoyed his strict teaching methods, he kicked our asses in to shape. We would never have got away with not doing our homework when Andy was charge.
In the afternoon we had a sneaky extra exploration dive checking out astonishing reef formations and more beautiful sea life with Nat the marine biologist guiding us with what to look at along the way, we even saw a deadly sea snake!
The whole advanced course had been building up to the pinnacle point in our dive careers : THE NIGHT DIVE! As we anxiously waited for the sun to set, one of the islands staff members decided that he wanted to tag along to do some spear fishing. We donned our extra layers for warmth and waded out into the black abyss with only our torches and the moon for light with our incredibly lovely but notoriously grumpy guide Andy.
Within minutes of spear fishing we realised that dead fish blood attracts white tip reef sharks - the larger and more inquisitive variety of reef shark who trailed us throughout our dive competing for their dinner. One of the sharks even dared to dart in and wrestle the spear for a freshly caught fish. We were all in awe when we saw the silhouette of a white tip pass above us highlighted in the moonlight.
As we settled on the sea bed and turned off our torches we were able to see the glowing phytoplankton in the water all around us, glistening like stardust.
Day 3 : we had our final dive on day 3 which saw us achieving our advanced open water diver status.
We were nearing the end of our stay in Fiji, as we reflected on our time here we realised how much we had achieved as how much fun was still to be had in our last couple of weeks...
Peace and Love,
Jan and Sooz.
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