July 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 7   What's this?

Lalati Resort and Matangi Resort, Fiji

dive luxury living: a tale of two islands

from the July, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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Dear Fellow Diver:

After two decades of liveaboard dive vacations exclusively, my spouse and dive buddy decided she was ready for less diving and more onshore relaxing. (Is that what getting older does to you?) Fiji has a number of picture perfect resorts, so we booked two six-day stays at resorts that appeared to combine luxurious accommodations with excellent diving -- Lalati Island Resort on Beqa Island (pronounced "Benga") and Matangi Resort on Matangi Island, near the much larger island of Taveuni.

After a 12-hour red-eye flight from LAX to Nadi, I slumbered through a twoand- a-half-hour van ride and a thirty-minute boat ride to Lalati. Only the beauty of the tropical layout and the staff harmonizing a traditional Fijian welcoming song cleared my foggy brain. On-site managers Chris and Sarah, a friendly English couple, got us quickly settled into our non-traditional bure -- no thatched roof, but a sturdy tin one, on which the rain beat a noisy tattoo. (This is the rainiest region of Fiji; rarely do divers report week-long stretches of dry weather.) Our sizeable bure was about 40 by 18 feet, with the bedroom, bathroom with composting toilets (a fan might have reduced the bathroom dampness) and a side room. High ceilings, hardwood floors, plenty of seating and ceiling fans over the beds (no A/C). While the treated rainwater is considered drinkable, other drinking water is available in the main building, and bottled water is for sale. Towels and sheets were changed mid-way through our six-day stay.

Paul and Kirsty, another friendly English ex-pat couple, serve as the divemasters and also manage the dive operation, which has two compressors, a selection of rental gear, rinse tanks and lots of space for storage and hanging up suits. They offer aluminum 80s, and three smaller tanks for smaller divers. Bottom times were at our discretion, based on our computer limits, and the one-hour surface intervals were spent on the boat. Water temperatures in December averaged 77 degrees, with air temperatures in the mid 80s.

While most of Fiji is seriously fished, reef life is rich and diverse. On my first dive, Paul pointed out blue ribbon eels, a black juvenile eel and even dwarf lionfish. I marveled at a field of garden eels, clownfish wriggling into their anemones and an eightinch scorpion fish. On another dive, I spotted a green turtle, and a few four- to five-foot reef sharks appeared on many dives. Once, a big manta ray swam near the boat. Paul, who had never seen a manta in the shallows near a dive site, thought its fin tips were trevally dorsal fins, so we were all slow to don our mask and fins and jump in. On our one sunny day, we came across a small pod of spinner dolphins that rode our bow wave, leaped and pirouetted. My dive buddy slipped in to get an underwater sighting, which, to the surprise of the crew, she did. I followed her in and spotted several dolphins below, with shafts of sunlight bouncing off their backs....