Unlike driving a car or flying a plane, there’s no age limit associated with SCUBA diving. Max had been wanting to join me on a dive for years, but I kept telling him he needed to be able to equalize his ears diving with a snorkel before I’d consider it. The Rainbow Reef in the Somosomo Strait between the islands of Taveuni and Vanua Levu is world famous for its array of soft coral and more than 4,000 species of fish, couldn’t think of a more memorable spot for Max to experience his first dive!
On our third day on the garden island of Taveuni we’d organized to spend the morning on the Rainbow Reef with Taveuni Ocean Sports. It was an incredibly well put together day: the dive boat ran like clockwork, shuttling between Kevin and me on our SCUBA dives, Max on his introductory dive lesson and the rest of the crew snorkeling along the shallower portions of the reef. The array of coral and fish was mind blowing, and our guide Soni was an absolute gun at finding an identifying unique ocean inhabitants during our two dives with him. Soni mentioned the 4,000+ species of fish and more than 400 distinct types of coral is an order of magnitude more than one can find around other Pacific islands like Hawaii due to the healthy state of Fiji’s reef systems. Pretty cool to see a couple of fingernail-sized pygmy seahorses as well as unique creatures like translucent popcorn shrimp. It had been 14 years since Kevin dove but he picked it back up like riding a bike. Max also took to SCUBA like a fish to water, tearing through his brief instructional dive and then spending 40 minutes 40 feet below for his first fully fledged SCUBA adventure. He came out of the water so pumped, hooked instantly. “When can I get certified, Dad?!”
We also ventured to the southern tip of Taveuni one day to explore the barrier reef surrounding Vuna. I’d asked the dive guides from Taveuni Ocean Sports about accessing the reef: they mentioned we’d need to take an offering to the chief and ask to snorkel from the village. After quite the adventure in Somosomo trying to find someone who’d be willing to sell us a bunch of kava to take to the chief – I’m not entirely sure whether the hallucinogenic root is legal to exchange for money in Fiji – the boys and Lisa trekked south along the coast road to Vuna one afternoon. The chief wasn’t around, but his cousin welcomed our donation of a bunch of kava and proceeded to spend the entire afternoon with us touring us through his village: he showed us the freshwater spring emptying into the ocean where the villagers bathe, had one of the teenagers climb for coconuts for us, even escorted us through the jungle to a secluded beach where we embarked on our snorkeling swim. The village kids were all so flippin’ cute, excited to have some visitors with weird-colored skin and very interested in my camera.
I think the best shore-based diving we had on the island was right below where we stayed at Green Fiji Plantation in Qacavuio. The array of coral only a few feet below the surface was incredible, was also quite cool to see a handful of crown-of-thorns starfish feasting on the hard coral here and there (according to Soni our dive master the crown-of-thorns starfish are actually necessary to balance out fast-growing hard coral in Fiji, unlike in Australia where they’re blamed to consuming the reefs too quickly…). I think Max would still be there snorkeling if we’d let him stay!
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