Fiji 1st September 2005

This time we had a properly early start and were on the boat by 8:30am heading out to our dive site , Jimmy’s Reef. This dive site is part of the reef surrounding Beachcomber Island and was another fantastic experience! Yet again, fish in abundance and magnificent colours all around us. We spent a lot of the dive completing exercises required as part of the training, but still had plenty of time to just swim around looking at all the abundant life that exists on the reef.

After surfacing we went straight into shore, grabbed new tanks, logged our dive and headed straight back out! Our next dive was the best of the holiday. We were at a place called Jackie’s Reef, located at the opposite end of Beachcomber Island, and this place was just overflowing with life. If we thought we’d be amazed by the variety and sheer volume of colours, fish and coral branches we had another thing coming - Jackie’s was just vibrant!

As well as all the fish we’d seen before there were other, less common species including vivid blue schools that lived in a single coral and exploded out at you on mass when you approached to make themselves look bigger. As well as larger fish swimming around with two smaller fish almost attached to it’s mouth whether this was a symbiotic relationship or parasitic I don’t know.

The only fish we’d hoped to see was the Titan Triggerfish which Keli had nicknamed Tyson as it had "kicked the crap" out of him. These things are vicious when nesting and even sharks avoid them. They can grow to nearly half a metre in length and are an approximately circular shaped fish, so it would have been a monster to see!

After the most exciting dive so far we headed back in and, because of other dives heading out, we ended up having lunch before our next dive. I won our little mini-golf championship in the mean time so they day just kept getting better!

We returned to the dive shop for our last dive just after 2.00pm and headed out to another apparently empty spot of ocean at a location called Passage Reef. After completing our final skills underwater, navigating underwater with a compass and hovering (a bit of a challenge in the mild current!) we spent our remaining half hour or so taking in as much of the reef as we could as this was our last dive of the holiday. The whole experience learning to dive with Keli and Subsurface Fiji was fantastic and without a doubt a recommended holiday activity to absolutely everyone. If you ever have the chance to learn to dive, especially in tropical waters, I strongly encourage you to give it a go. The experience is like nothing else and has be felt to be believed! We finished off our last dive following Keli through the short cave that gives Passage Reef its name.

After returning to the dive shop we went straight into our last theory exam. Since both Mike and I had just finished university exams 7 or 8 months earlier this was nothing challenging to us and we succeeded in getting the highest results Keli has ever had under his training – 48/50 (Mike) and 50/50 (Myself). Feeling thoroughly chuffed with ourselves we went down to the bar for a drink and then spent the remaining afternoon discussing our dives and relaxing from a full on day.

In the evening, after dinner we watched a tug-of-war competition between teams of different nationalities and then went and had an evening drinking Karva with the guys and girls from the dive shop to celebrate our new qualifications. For those of you who are not acquainted with Karva it is a traditional Fijian drink made from the root of a plant similar to pepper. It was a similar effect to alcohol if drunk in excessive quantities but is entirely non-alcoholic and tastes like peppery dishwater – not exactly a sweet sensation but sitting around looking at new photos taken with a professional underwater camera was a great finish to a great experience.