Dive Review of Nai'a Fiji in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Fiji

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Nai'a Fiji: "Nai'a, THE way to do Fiji", Oct, 2016, by David E Reubush, VA, US ( Top Contributor 68 reports with 35 Helpful votes). Report 9166 has 1 Helpful vote.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Fiji and the Nai'a, had been on my radar for a long time. When Burt Jones of Secret Sea Visions and Hegen Spalink of Got Muck jointly announced 2 trips for September and October of this year I signed up. The trip started out with 3 days of shark diving in Pacific Harbor with 2 different operations, for which I will do separate reports. After the shark diving I did 2 week long trips back-to-back on the Nai'a. The first week was a transition week from the long-time cruise directors, Joshua and Amanda to the new cruise directors, Chad and Vanessa. The second week was Chad and Vanessa's first week going solo, although, Rob, the owner of the boat, was on-board for the second week. IMHO the Nai'a is perhaps the best run dive boat I have ever been on and Chad and Vanessa showed clearly that they will continue the tradition. The crew is friendly and very well organized. Pictures of both the guests and crew are posted around the boat so it is easy to learn the names of the crew and of your fellow divers. The crew prides themselves on knowing your name by the second day. I shared, what is probably the smallest cabin on the boat, but there was still plenty of room to stash clothing etc. The mattresses on the bunks were some of the most comfortable I have ever found on a dive boat. The food was also the best I have ever experienced on a dive boat. I typically lose weight on live-aboard trips, it didn't happen this time. While alcohol is not generally free, beer and wine are included with dinner and Suli, the purser, kept everyone's wine glasses full through the meal. The boat had a large camera room with plenty of space and power outlets, which could accommodate both US and Australian type plugs. There was ample space on the dive deck for everyone to gear up at the same time and then proceed to the stern to get into the 2 RIB's. The RIB's were a bit on the tight side when nobody skipped a given dive, but are probably as big as the boat has space for since they take them out of the water and stow them on the top deck when making long crossings. Both have ladders which means that you don't have to do the kick like mad and try to pull yourself over side like a beached whale routine unless you really want to. The water was a bit on the chilly side for me, ranging from 75 to 80 F. I wore a 5 mil with a 5/7 hooded vest and did OK. Fiji definitely has currents, which can be ripping. The currents the first week were stronger as it included a new moon. The second week the currents were significantly less. That said, the strong currents brought more sharks and other big fish. Visibility was good, but not the 100+ feet you typically find at some other destinations. The diving was also good, but Fiji is not Raja Ampat or Komodo. The attractions for me were the sharks and trying to get good photos of endemic fish that I had never seen before. A lot of the hard corals, particularly in shallower water, had been significantly damaged by the February cyclone. The white wall and a number of other soft coral dives were still spectacular. Fijians are very friendly. We visited a different village each week, both of which had been impacted by the cyclone. In fact, the Nai'a was the first boat to reach the village we visited the second week after the cyclone. The village had exhausted its water supply and the boat supplied them with water and spear-headed an effort to collect relief supplies. Both villages put on a show for us, followed by a kava ceremony. After all I had read previously about how kava tastes I was a bit hesitant to try it, but you can't help but get caught up in the festivities. It's really not bad and I partook freely, both at the village and later back on the boat where the crew entertained while the guests sang along and joined them in kava. Fiji is also one of the cleanest destinations of any type I have visited. Traveling about the main island we saw very little trash along the side of the road and we saw no plastic trash in the water in contrast to Indonesia where you will find tons of plastic on island beaches out in the middle of nowhere. All in all, I had a very good 2 weeks and would highly recommend the Nai'a.
Websites	Nai'a Fiji
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Australia, Belize, Bimini, Bonaire, Caymans, Curacao, Fiji, Galapagos, Indonesia (Wakatobi, Raja Ampat, Komodo, Lembeh, Bali, Banda Sea), Philippines, Red Sea, Solomon Islands, Southern Bahamas, St. Thomas, Turks & Caicos
Closest Airport	Nadi, Fiji	Getting There	Fly to LAX and connect to Fiji Air to Nadi
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, dry	Seas	choppy, currents
Water Temp	75-80°F / 24-27°C	Wetsuit Thickness	5
Water Visibility	40-60 Ft/ 12-18 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	yes
Enforced diving restrictions	Don't go into deco.
Liveaboard?	yes	Nitrox Available?	yes
What I Saw
Sharks	Lots	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	> 2	Whales	None
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities	N/A
UW Photo Comments	Big camera room with lots of outlets for charging batteries and lots of storage space. Two rinse tanks for cameras, but there were so many cameras on-board that the cameras just got dunked after each dive. Before a dive you got your camera ready, put it on the deck by the rinse tanks, and the crew carefully took it to the RIB you were in, handed it to you once you back-rolled into the water, took it from you at the end of the dive, and brought it back from the RIB and dunked it in the rinse tank for you.

Report currently has 1 Helpful vote

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Dive Review of Nai'a Fiji in Fiji and Tuvalu/Fiji

Nai'a Fiji: "Nai'a, THE way to do Fiji", Oct, 2016,

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Dive Review of Nai'a Fiji in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Fiji