Angela's World: Nai'a

Nai'a means dolphin in Hawaiian and that was the name of the dive boat I spent 7 days on in Fiji. This was the most luxurious liveaboard I have been on (they even offered turn down service). I had my own cabin which was about the same size as the one I share with 3 other girls on the boat in Australia. The crew was great, all were very nice people and they were singing and playing for us in the evenings. Of course they also arranged a kava party which is absolutely necessary when in Fiji. Kava is the local alternative to alcohol which they seem to consume enormous amounts of although no one actually likes it. And it does taste awful.

Kava party.

The boat was very spacious and we were only 13 divers onboard. We were divided into two groups and dove from two skiffs which went to different dive sites. This was very nice compared to the Spirit of Freedom in Australia when 25 divers were dumped in the water at the same spot.

The diving was very similar to diving on the Great Barrier Reef with three exceptions; the colors were more vibrant in Fiji, there were lots of soft corals and the fish were generally smaller (everything in Australia seemed to be on steroids). What I enjoyed the most were the colors, I have never seen anything like it. By the end of the dives I often backed off from the reef a little to just watch the colors and the enormous amounts of small fish on the shallower parts of the reefs.

Lovely soft coral. Photo: Marcus Carlberg.

Kansas. Photo: Marcus Carlberg

We dove in general four times a day (three day dives and one dusk dive) and were fed with the most amazing food in between dives. I easily got used to the second brekkie, what a great thing...

Me! Photo: Marcus Carlberg.

Once again I had great luck with my buddy, Marcus, an instructor with a lot of diving experience and a camera. :-) He was travelling with friends, Hana and Harry, and we had lots of fun during the entire week. Thanks, buddies! All underwater photos posted here are taken by Marcus.