Volivoli Beach Resort
Diving in Volivoli means away from the crowd, major cities, and bull sharks diving in Bela Lagoon. Volivoli is located about 2-hour bus ride from Nadi International Airport, in a town called Rakiraki, at the northern tip of Viti Levu. All the diving are done in the Vatu-I-Ra Channel, translated as "Rocks under Water". Diving here is no less than expected: magnificent, vibrant, robust hard and soft corals on the reef walls, bommies, and slopes. Schooling of barracudas, jacks, trevallies, fusiliers, surgeon fish, etc are everywhere. Scallop hammerheads, reef sharks, and manta rays are residents in the channel. For underwater photographers, there are also plenty of macro opportunities: blue ribbon nudis, hairy ghost pipefish, winged pipefish, Saron shrimps, orangutans, decorated crabs, etc.
If you think that great frigate birds, shear waters, and masked boobies are only found on Galapagos Islands or the Northwestern Hawaiian Island Marine Reserve, think again. The nesting sites for these birds are on the bird island, right in between the major dive sites of Ra Divers. Ra Divers makes surface interval stop on this island for surprise land visit. For the bird enthusiasts, inquire ahead so you can bring an extra camera for topside photos (instead of rising to flood your UW camera or getting sands and dirts on O-rings).
The Ra divers who are part of Volivoli resort are a bunch of nice DM and captain, although some of the DM are better than the others. They can definitely use a little more training and dive gears supports. I do not recommend this place to novice or newly certified divers, for two reasons: 1. The remote location from the closest hospital and decompression chamber; 2. The potential strong currents within the channel, especially during big tidal change. So buyers beware.
Another drawback at Ra Divers is for the underwater photography. When we were there in September, there was not a separate rinse tank for camera gears or table/bench to set down the camera after the boat dives Eventually we solved this problem: first rinse off our dive gears and body, then walk a 100 yards distance to the swimming pool where the housing/camera could be totally submerged for a good cleaning and manipulation of button. It's definitely inconvenient! Good news is that a brand new dive shop with camera stations was under construction adjacent to the existing dive shed, and the projected finishing date was around Christmas of 2014!
Volivoli is run and owned by the Darling family, who are real darlings and nicest people. The father and sons team was present on site everyday and were very receptive to any feedbacks and suggestions. The Fijian staff was amazing and friendly. When people try their best to remember every single guest's name, room number, and their meal preference, even though they might not see the guests ever again in a million years, that tells a lot to me!
This was my land based dive trip preceding the Fiji Siren liveaboard 7-day dive trip, which the Darling family is the partial owner. I highly recommend spending some time at Volivoli before the Fiji Siren, or even just doing the land base trip alone. Fiji Islands are very diverse and rich in term of culture and history of Pacific Islands. There are many surprising facts and stories of this mixed of Melanesian and Polynesian people. Whether you are the minimalist in activity or enthusiast of cultural exchange, Fiji Islands has it all.
