The Sea of Cortez - Dive Fiji

Sea of Cortez Scuba Center

Fiji

November 2006
$ 2223.00*
(7 nights/6days)
(Round-trip airfare from LAX to Fiji included)

fiji1.gif (45522 bytes)

fijiresort.jpg (11837 bytes)

Fiji Lagoon Resort is a retreat for people who appreciate - and expect - elegance. It is located within the Pacific Harbor complex adjacent to the river on one side and a Trent-Jones golf course on the other, with spectacular mountain and tropical views.

The quiet elegance, privacy and top security make this resort a must for the discerning diver.

You'll be staying at the elegant Fiji Lagoon & Golf Resort, nestled between the river and the golf course at Pacific Harbor - close to Beqa Lagoon's world class diving. Enjoy 5 days of 2 tank dives with Beqa Divers. Beqa Divers Fiji has two boats - the 'Fiji Diver' and the 'Beqa Diver'. Both are registered with the Fiji Marine Board, are substantial vessels, have two engines, toilet facilities and full cover from the elements. At the Fiji Lagoon each of the guest rooms have been exquisitely furnished - more like a luxury home than a hotel room. The designer's choice decor specially imported from the Orient, in-house video and TV, air conditioners in every room to give you your own choice of comfort level, tea and coffee making facilities and more space than you could ever want in a hotel room. An oversize swimming pool is a central feature. The Resort is 'themed' towards divers and golfers, with separate, specialized bars catering particularly to these two interests. The Resort, boat berth and dive facility are secure, up market and exclusively private. The Resort is a short, but scenically fascinating "jungle" river trip upstream from the river's mouth - from where it's just minutes to some of the world's best dive sites. Not only is the Fiji Lagoon Resort adjacent to the 5 star diving and the Trent-Jones Golf Course, but is only a couple of minutes away from the Cultural Center and Dance Theatre of Fiji - the Fiji Visitors' Bureau's choice for overseas promotions. Big game fishing, island cruises, white water rafting trips and horse riding are also available. There is a wide choice of restaurants, from low-cost curry houses to a top-of-the-range Japanese Restaurant for sashimi lovers.

General Dive Information

There are hundreds of dive sites in Beqa Lagoon. Daily dive trips are conducted to the Lagoon by Beqa Divers, whose attentive staff have been diving this area for nearly 30 years.

Dive trips are 2 tank dives, with the surface interval usually spent at Yanuca Shallows. All sites are suitable for underwater photography and are suitable for novice or experienced divers. The dive boat then moves to Yanuca Shallows for the appropriate, unhurried surface interval, during which a picnic lunch is served, along with cold drinks, tea and coffee. Enjoy some great snorkeling or a leisurely walk on the sandy beach. Then it's time to re-board the dive boat for a short trip to the second dive site. Night dives can be arranged.

Water Temperature: A low of 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 degrees C) in our winter months of June, July and August, and high of 83 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees C) in our summer months of December, January and February. Normal water temperature range is 78 degrees (winter) and 82 degrees (summer).

Dive Map of Beqa Lagoon

Side Streets - At this site you will see more than a dozen superb coral heads with lush canyons of gorgonians in vivid reds and yellows, tunnel walls festooned with multi-colored soft corals and ancient black coral trees. Imperial angel fish patrol through the stands of sea whips, while white tip reef sharks and coral trout lazily circle the coral heads. Days could be spent at this one great dive spot. Even the living clam shells are lavishly decorated with brilliant soft corals!
	Caesar's Rocks - Ten spectacular coral heads honeycombed with tunnels and caves. The walls and roofs of every cave and tunnel are covered with soft corals in every color of the rainbow; shades of red and yellow, purple and maroon. Huge gorgonians ('sea fans') and black coral trees hang from every coral head and ensure excellent photographs. This is surely an underwater photographers' paradise with schools of batfish, amberjack and shimmering schools of silver pelagic fish merge with turtles and rays.
Soft Coral Grotto - Located in the north-western area of Beqa Lagoon, this is one of the top spots in Fiji for soft coral in a kaleidoscope of brilliant colors; orange-and purple-and white-and red. Multi-hued crinoids add to the explosion of colors while Spanish Dancers perform their acts in time to some invisible orchestra. Reef Cod and Coral Trout roam the canyon-like gutters in these heads while pelagic fish hunt the reef fish on the periphery of the divers' vision. A lucky diver may be fortunate enough to see the Garden Eels swaying like living metronomes. And divers who hasten slowly through this underwater wonderland will take the time to notice the many varieties of nudibranchs in their diversity of shapes, sizes and colors.
	The Coral Gardens - Beqa Lagoon's best display of hard corals and tropical fish. Fiji is on the eastern extremity of the largest area of hard corals in the world - and in these 'gardens' one can see most of them represented. Corals, of course, attract the tropical fish that hide in their spiny protection. The twinkling colors of clowns, damsels, butterflies, regal angels, fire fish and Moorish idols shimmer among the stands of fire coral, stag horn, Elkhorn and mushroom coral formations. Schools of batfish disport on the deeper edges of the heads while the packs of Pacific barracuda are always in the background, hunting a juicy lunch of tropical fish. This area is also prolific in fluted and giant clams and other members of the clam family. There are squirrel fish, triggerfish, trumpet fish - the many varieties of the surgeon fish - they're all here. In fact you would be hard pressed to name a Pacific Tropical that you did not see at the Coral Gardens!
Wreck of the TASU No. 2 - In September, 1994, a 200-ton Taiwanese fishing vessel was intentionally sunk at 75 feet on a flat, white sand bottom, just adjacent to the very pretty dive site called 'Yanuca Shallows'. The site is well protected from current and wind chop, and the crystal-clear water means that the divers can usually see the full length of the vessel from the bow! As the years go by, the wreck gathers more fish (both tropical and pelagic) soft and hard corals, sea fans and other tropical underwater scenery. The vessel sits upright on the sand bottom and it's a great photo opportunity for still or video.

bottle.gif (14064 bytes)