Fiji’s amazing Coral Coast runs along the bottom of the main island, about an hours drive from the airport at Nadi. There are many great resorts and beaches along the coast, most of which are affiliated with a scuba diving outfit.
I was staying at the five star Warwick Fiji, which is home to Spad Fiji, a Padi Diving outfit that specialises in Coral Coast diving. I booked my shark dive with them at the resort, paying $395 FIJ for two dives. Diving in Fiji is not cheap, averaging around $125 AUD per dive, but in this case well worth it.
The shark dives are on Monday’s and Wednesday’s, meeting at the shop front at 7:15am. We sorted out gear then were transported ten minutes to a nearby pier where our dive boat awaited.
If you have been following my Fiji trip you will know weather has not been the normal tropical bliss you would expect in October, in-fact it has not been good at all. It has been windy and the sea was choppy to say the least, which made for a rough 40 minute ride out to the site. Worse still for most people is when the boat stops, especially the one hour stay between dives, the swaying got the better of most of the divers aboard our boat. If you are prone to sea sickness, then you will want to select a calm day for this trip.
Once at the site, we were given our dive brief.. basically 18 metre dive for forty minutes, with a safety stop. We were told to stay behind the line and not to approach the sharks.
The water was a warm 24 degrees, our party of six entered the water and met on top of the coral bommie at 10 metres, before descending to the lookout area.
This is a fairly inactive dive with minimal swimming. We were led to the viewing platform, which was a roped off rock wall overlooking the feeding area, and motioned to stay put, which was fine by us. A team is on site that feeds the fish and sharks and we basically looked on.
The show was exciting to say the least. The video I compiled below gives a very good idea of what you see, so you can make up your own mind by watching below.
