Two Weeks' Worth Of Jazz Hands

Bula vinaka everyone! 

Welcomes Valerie’s intrepid divers from Y-kiki divers and company!

We are more than happy to have you on board for the next 14 days!

The first evening already went off with a blast; laughs, music, big big bulas; and reminiscent stories from those who have been already on board. 

Valerie herself, Eric and Carol!

And what stories they had in store. It is always fun to hear them two decades later!
Carol was ecstatic to learn and see Big Mo, not as a skiff driver or as a dive guide anymore, but as her captain!

Dwarf hawkfish ~ Peggy Harrison

“I already saw three endemic fish on the first dive!” - Peggy; bicolor rabbitfish; Fiji tomato anemonefish; and Fiji fangblenny. 

First day of diving is always an adjustment. Weights, new wetsuits (yes, new 5 and 7 mm wetsuits to keep everyone nice and cozy), and new arrangements. 

Even through all that, we had a lovely day of diving; through swimthroughs, around golden soft corals, and inside schools of fusiliers. 

Amazing fuchsia flatworm ~ Peggy Harrison

Soft corals and hard corals continued during the next day, as well as so so so many fish. 

“That was like an aquarium; with too many fish!” - Peggy

“Coral corner is a very special place.” - Andrew

While enjoying the iridescent scallops, a sea spider walked past ~ Peggy Harrison

Mounts and mounts of hard coral with all our favorite suspects: long nose filefish, lemon coral gobies rolling around on table corals, and leopard blennies playing a game of hide and seek. 

Jump in the water, go down, and have thousands of fusiliers raining down on you, intertwined with longjaw mackerel munching on “stuff”(?) in the water column. 

Lemon coral gobies ~ Valerie Elliot

“Ok everybody, today is Peggy’s birthday. When she comes up we have to properly embarrass her.” - Valerie… Peggy did not come up that day… joking! She had to dive to see the big flappy flappies. 

Lovely morning at the cleaner station; Delilah, Shirley, Hlla, Humbolt, and Mickey Manta came around to get cleaned, so divers were thoroughly entertained. 

“I live here now.” - Melissa 

Hlla and Humbolt are big melanistic females which we (Chris and myself) haven't had the pleasure of meeting until this trip. 

Scalloped hammer head shark that made Melissa and Tiffany go WILD ~ Melissa Kay Stein

The group on the secondary cleaning stations enjoyed two hammerhead sharks, a white tip shark, grey reef shark, and a school of barracudas. 

So many scrawled filefish all over the reef this morning!

White leafy scorpionfish ~ Valerie Elliot

The shrimp manipetties made many divers giggle and the leafy scorpionfish were perfectly positioned to get their portrait taken. 

Twinspotted lionfish ~ Sara Lynne Grabowski

The day continued with another close hammerhead shark encounter that left the ladies high fiving underwater and Tiffany effusively celebrating underwater. 

“I saw what I came to see! I can go back home now!” - Melissa

Barracuda! ~ Scott Lewis Wright

Huge, and I mean, m a s s i v e, spiny lobster at the end of our night dive. His antennae were so long: a whole diver with fins included long. 

It was not only the big Bulas at the village, or the big pregnant sharks in the passage, not even the huge beautiful green cabbage patch: it was all that and more that made the day so fun (and busy) and spectacular! 

Juvenile leopard wrasse ~ Valerie Elliot

We are doing the channel once more; “What? YES!” - a happy Betty, and squealing one as well as we enjoyed a sea krait’s presence just at the end of our dive. 

Napoleon wrasses in the area (shy but still there), three lovely big spadefish trying to be inconspicuous, feisty punching anemonefish, and a near paralyzed cornet fish (as it prepared to strike). 

Morrison's dragonet ~ Valerie Elliot

Schools of different species of barracuda, a lonely yet social remora, white tip sharks (babies and adults), a tawny nurse shark that scared me (Clau) twice as it pingballed between the two groups of divers, pregnant grey reef sharks and small juvenile greys (with eyes too big for their faces). 

Bill Jones is the king in finding moray eels, as every dive he comes out asking “Did anybody see that eel?” What eel Bill? You are the only one seeing these mythological creatures. 

This time at the bleachers we had a big pregnant white tip hiding (sleeping we guess) right inside the formation. How could she sleep with such a bubble ruckus around her?

Say hello to manta M597, also known as Anchora! ~ Melissa Kay Stein

Teensie weensie baby rock mover wrasse, BOOP! He was basically a head and fish skeleton. Had all the ladies lined up to inspect him. 

And boom! Manta came in to steal the show!

Orangutan crab away from his bubble coral ~ Valerie Elliot

And low and behold, the manta had no name! Until now. She has been named by the Lucky Ladies Anchora, for the anchor she has on her belly. 

Nonchalant hawksbill turtle; Carol came all of two feet away from him and he just posed elegantly. 

Rare fourspot butterflyfish, fighting that mighty shallow surge as much as we were to get a glimpse of them.

Crinoid shrimp but ~ Peggy Harrison

Johnny made a late in the dive appearance. 

Start of the day: hammers for us, pygmy sea shoes (horses) for them. 

Pipefish for us, sweetlips for them. 

And sunshine! Winds calmed down just enough for us to actually walk around in t shirts and shorts!

Big tummy on a small Pontohi pygmy sea horse ~ Valerie Elliot

“Is that what you think Kansas looks like? Cause that was MUCH prettier than Kansas!” - Gina 

Shy octopus' eye ~ Valerie Elliot

Black ribbon eel tried to take a bite out of a shrimp goby. 

Black snapper showed us the inside of his body as he opened wide for a cleaner wrasse. 

Andrew found a longnose hawkfish, as did Jean! Look at our little fishie learning the lay of the land. 

Long nose hawkfish ~ Peggy Harrison

Fantastic dives, yet sporty as well. Namena has so much life to offer, thanks to the currents, yet you do earn your food at the end of some of those gnarly ones. 

“It was raining down fish!”- opened mouth, ecstatic Peggy (Schoolhouse). 

Magic dive sites; big fish, small fish; grey reef sharks to zebra dartfish and tons of Dorys!

Palette surgeonfish or Dory ~ Peggy Harrison

Our travels brought us all the way to the north, at the third marine protected area, Taveuni. 

Different in ways than areas we had been diving; tons of three spot angelfish, pyramid butterflyfish, and sloping topography. 

Saddle back toby or mimic filefish? I would bet money on it being filefish ~ Valerie Elliot

Lucky divers ended their afternoon dive soaring around the famous humongous cabbage patch, which dwarfs that one at Nigali Passage. 

The Great White Wall is Ice Blue! Those amazing “white” soft corals are gorgeous, and we were super lucky to do it once on a much more mellow current and then an intense drift down the wall. 

Schooling bannerfish ~ Peggy Harrison

The schools of pyramid butterflyfish and schooling bannerfish are fantastic to look at. 

“That was such a noisy reef!” - Scott; the fish were so busy munching on everything and the dascyllus just kept talking. 

Zebra dartfish ~ Peggy Harrison

“That was one of the best dives of my life!” - Jean, returning from a fishy fishy reef; scrawled filefish, cornet fish looking into divers' eyes; five species of sweetlips having a meeting; and the school of black snappers, who no matter the current, just seem to panic if you ever get 10ft away from them. 

Chris did a fantastic job in not only spotting a resting ZEBRA SHARK in the shallows but also getting the attention of both groups of divers to enjoy the rare and exquisite sighting. 

After two individual sightings of this lovely shark, we had almost 20 divers enjoying it! 

Zebra (leopard) shark ~ Melissa Kay Stein

“I ticked off two sharks from my list on this trip! Hammer and zebra!” - Tiffany (I hadn’t even thought about ticking off zebra this trip!)

The wind picked up generously on the last two diving days, so for day 1 we took advantage of Makogai’s hospitality; both underwater and on land. 

Lovely elusive flame hawkfish, found by Peggy at the Great White Wall ~ Peggy Harrison

Reefs were full of flabellinas, pipefish, nudibranchs, baby tobies, juvenile leopard wrasses, leopard blennies, sea krait and a sandy stingray. 

The current that was braved for this porcelain crab was not small... and the angle  ~ Valerie Elliot

And in the midst of the wind, we got the opportunity to dive VoliVoli’s house reef. 

Such cool stuff in a very different environment: juvenile spadefish basking in the shallows, baby blue spotted sting ray, bubble coral garden with sexy shrimp, pajama cardinalfish, and bizarre leaf shrimps. 

Leafy shrimp ~ Carol Sue Roedder

Let's hear a big round of applause for these divers; for their enthusiasm, for their humor, for their laughs, for their spirit, and for their generosity! 

Vinaka vakalevu everyone for these lovely two weeks!