Looking Through The Lense

Bula vinaka!

Welcome to Adriana Basques Photography group!

It is so interesting observing divers being reunited on Nai’a after a decade! 

What did Jeff tell Big Mo when he apologised for not remembering everyone? Oh yeah, “Big Mo, don’t worry, our faces are also ten years older!”

The salon is filled with a mix of English and Brazilian and a lot of excited faces! 

Emry’s last time was in 2003 and he still remembers being quite a handful…

It can be difficult at times to compete with the good memories from the past; fortunately for everyone involved, Fiji does not disappoint and just creates new ones.

Amazing ~ Jeff

“Every time I come out of the water I think; that was the best dive yet!”- Paulo after the Cathedral

“So much fun swimming around in there.”- Phil (Cathedral)

Explosion of color ~ Emry

A mutiny was conducted at Mount Mutiny (haha) and both dives were set up for the gorgeous Rainbow wall, with the quantity of drapey neon soft corals.

Even more explosion of color ~ Emry

We even had two beautiful, deep, silver tips at the start of the second dive. That was a first for me (Clau!), at last!

Reference photo from past guest ~ Silver tip Shark

Rainbow wall ~ Jeff

On one night dive they had a green turtle swing around to say hi, not a common occurrence.

And at Cathedral at night divers enjoyed an upside-down slipper lobster; they spent time hunting for marble shrimps; huge spooner crab (found by Paulo); as well as a funky undetermined orangutan crab. Chris was ecstatic! 

Decorator crab at night ~ Jeff

And so many, many scorpionfish (both during the day and night).

Everyone had a goal and they accomplished it.

Endemic anemonefish ~ Jeff

Namena… dear Namena…

Such a combination of sea fans, overhangs, and quantity of fish in a non-existing current; everything just seemed to stand still in time.

Leopard blenny with eggs in her/his mouth! ~ Jeff

Continued by an action dive with hunting grey reef sharks, full blown-up soft corals, fueled by the current; drifting from one marvelous bommie to an even crazier one!

Big eyed trevally and barracuda ~ Emry

Mr. David was clapping his hands away when he got a glance at our two resident leafy scorpionfish… he is so serious underwater as per norm so that was greatly appreciated. 

Decorated dart fish; octopus; Morrison’s dragonets all around; pipefish; Pontoh’s pygmy horse; boulder coral housing a colony of Midas blennies; blue ribbon eels; spotted crouchers; juvenile Dorys…

Decorated dartfish ~ Jeff

Morrison's dragonet ~ Jeff

Reference photo from past guest ~ " Zombie" crab or Blue eyed coral crab

Blue ribbon eels ~ Jeff

Schools of unicorn fish; surgeon fish; oceanic triggerfish; and black snappers. 

AND… another first for us here in Fiji: a school of handsome hammerhead sharks off the wall at Schoolhouse, including a much smaller one in the group! They even sent out a scout to take a look at us in case we were something interesting. 

Manta day was diverse and absolutely lovely. We had a very nice combination of interesting encounters with not as commonly seen fish. A shy porcupine fish that stayed while it cleaned; a very active octopus; intermediate peacock razorfish; school of barracudas; hammerhead shark, and a devilfish comet that made Fatima and Dani go crazy. “It looks like a disco ball!” - Fatima

While the experience at the cleaner station was beyond compare. 

“That was maybe the best dive of my life; in the top 5!” - said Mr. Emry as he cracked open a beer at lunch time. “It makes no sense to go in after that!” 

Geo and Dorothy ~ Emry

We got to enjoy big magnificent Dorothy, little feisty Mickey Manta, Geo (aka Llama), and a new manta, M492. She is now named Dri, after Adriana, this group’s fearless trip leader. 

Another beautiful shot of these amazing creatures ~ Jeff

Passage was sharky; cabbage patch was green and fishy, especially sergeants all around!

Jim's Alley ~ Jeff

Bei was so invested on her night dive to get the shrimps in focus: “I got the party complex shrimp!”.

Reference photo from past guest ~ Marbled shrimp

Bei was also Emry's model throughout the trip ~ Emry ~ That was her part time job after her full job being a sparkling personality

Meanwhile, MaryAnn and I got beat up by fish pingballing off us; and small little shrimps swimming all around, getting way too close for comfort.  

Amazing full blown pink soft corals ~ Emry

Mellow yellow, mellow yellow; all the trip has Phil sung that song. And when he gets out of Howard’s Diner he has the nerve to say “This could be my favorite place.” Where is the loyalty Phil?

So crazy yellow ~ Emry

Kidding, Mellow Yellow is still his favorite but Vatu-I-Ra has so much to offer, who can blame him?

The days at Vatu-i-Ra were just better and better and better: golden yellow soft corals; sharks, Spanish mackerel and snappers; exercise dives full of fish activity, and a calm walk in the park through hard corals. 

Mellow yellow ~ Emry

Robust ghost pipefish found by MaryAnn! 

Reference photo from past guest ~ Robust ghost pipefish

Some of us enjoyed a humpback whale breaching the surface on our last day!

Hard corals! ~ Emry

"That was the perfect dive to end this trip!" - Emry (after the Whole Shebang)

Last evening Adriana gave out a bubble award to MaryAnn for completing all dives and breathing more nitrox than anyone else on board! 

Vinaka vakalevu everyone!