Tinkle Bells, Stone Hopper Penguins & Gorilla Antics

BULA VINAKA!

It is always great fun to get to meet people that have been on the boat, from whom we have heard reputation (good or bad haha) and/or stories!

It is even better to greet those divers that we know and love once again!

And adding to all this, welcome on board our four newbees to the Nai’a family!

Spoiler alert! We felt like a little outlier family! 

Fantastic 10 days!

Amazing table corals ~ Audrey Garbacik

Leopard blennies were already stars of the show on the first day. 

Alongside schools of fish; rainbow runners, long jaw mackerel, fusiliers, and trevallies!

Anemones are in tip typo shape: so many babies from all three anemonefish species. 

Orange finned anemonefish ~ Audrey Garbacik

Fiji tomato anemonefish ~ Audrey Garbacik

Pink anemonefish in yellow anemone ~ Richard Henry Salas Levu

Damsels in their mating colors and behavior. 

Precious scorpionfish just striking a pose in front of a fan. 

And a wild Chuck counting fish. 

Halloween pumpkin smiling clam, resident at Mellow Yellow ~ Audrey Garbacik

Missy had a private session while snorkeling with a beauty of a hawksbill turtle. 

Little white pygmy sea shoes jumping from hydroid to hydroid; in between two spotfin lionfish and four bright purple orange flabellinas together (flabellina orgy). 

Common lionfish ~ Audrey Garbacik

Family of brightly colored lemon coral gobies inside the hard corals on the top of the pinnacle, surrounded by fusiliers, unicorn fish, surgeonfish, and anthias. 

Sheer cut walls, plates and plates of hard coral and vibrantly colored walls. 

Don't forget to look under hardcorals! ~ Audrey Garbacik

Neon drapey soft corals at Rainbow wall ~ Audrey Garbacik

All that alongside calm ocean and bright sky! 

The fish were out to play, the turtles were out to play and even an occasional white tip swam by. 

Hawksbill turtle ~ Audrey Garbacik

“I just had the  most amazing dive with Richard.” - Richard Levu: a magical dive, father and son, and all the fish and coral around them. 

Cluster of hardcoral ~ Audrey Garbacik

Such a fishy morning; sea fans everywhere, soft corals, and anthias vibing off the pinnacles!

Two grey reefs started hunting alongside a big grouper for their breakfast. They were really pounding the reef in search for what they had found appetising. 

Wheat field at Kansas & pink anemonefish ~ Audrey Garbacik

Pygmy sea shoes flying, pipefish swimming on the reef, shy octopus, lionfish posturing and posing for the photographers and sexy shrimp moving their backside. 

“It was exciting.” - Gloria. Quite the current at GCS but everyone came back smiling! 

Coral grouper in front of a lovely sea fan ~ Audrey Garbacik

Richard Lailai found a juvenile rock mover wrasse for Chuck; both so excited! 

“There was so much to see down there!” - Lailai

Cluster of leather coral ~ Audrey Garbacik

Gloria had been practicing her rock hopper penguin for the Kava party, and when she showed off her penguin talents… I can understand why she is so obsessed with these little bird creatures!

Penguin mating call; FANTASTIC ~ Richard Troon-Salas Lailai

Namena kept on giving for the next day; big great sea fans, soft corals, crevices full of ringtail cardinals, little feisty mantis shrimps in holes, ghost gobies, and anthias being swarmed by blue finned trevallies. 

Pink anemonefish ~ Deborah Steward

You could equate the conversations (TMI) on this boat to being almost as interesting as the underwater world… 

From different forms of mating calls to nightly bathroom adaptations to the art of dominatrixs… you can find subjects for everyone!

“Find the outlier? I thought all of us were outliers.” - Audrey: very true my dear, in the best of ways. 

Cabbage patch at Gau ~ Audrey Garbacik

Lailai has been our honorary night diver and he has enjoyed some really cool things underwater. 

One certain experience had myself (Clau) screaming as never underwater as a sea krait scared the bijesus out of us and came around for round two while we enjoyed seeing a small minute bob tail squid trying to cover himself in the sand. 

“I was sure that snake wanted to eat the poor squid!” - Clau

Papuan scorpionfish ~ Richard Henry Salas Levu

Chris found the blue ribbon eel to be craaaazy! 

Pregnant canary fangblenny.. Or she ate too much for lunch.

Crinoid ~ Richard Henry Salas Levu

Full rock mover wrasse family; juvenile, teenager, and adult; all moving rocks together. 

Lucky lefties back from diving! ~ Missy Coombs

All the sharks were there; “it got to a point that it was… ugh, another shark.” - Deb

An eagle ray swept in on some divers and glided through as all appraised the beautiful flappy flappy. 

Blown up soft coral surrounded by anthias ~ Richard Henry Salas Levu

Chris and Joan even got a glimpse of the local leopard shark (zebra) in the area! 

Fat decorated dartfish; flabellinas lining crevices and hydroids; small feisty ribbon eel next to a big fat devil scorpionfish; and a miniature anemone with an even smaller anemonefish. 

Beautiful sea fan scenery ~ Audrey Garbacik

Lovely Mickey Manta came to say hi to divers, as well as two hammerheads followed by even more mantas passing the divers. 

Johnny was there as well, another melanistic male, and a new manta! Beautiful medium sized male; APOLLO, last seen as a juvenile and now a grown adult manta. 

Apollo ~ Deborah Steward 

It is always nice to go out with a BANG!

“That was F******* fantastic!” - Chris coming back from the Whole Shebang. 

Last day’s dives were full of fish swarming divers, hard corals and sea fans amongst them, vibrant yellow soft corals; all under blazing sun!

Such an amazing sunrise ~ Missy Coombs

Funny enough, we started the trip showing our little favorite uderwater puppies, the lemon coral gobies, and we ended the trip in the same way!

Wetsuit sagas; peanuts everywhere; rebels and rule followers... all very deep, not flat at all ;)

Oh, and let us not forget about penis fencing... a worthy topic of conversation on any diving trip!

Audrey had to pay with the most vocalized charades! She had to work out Eclipse Butterflyfish... how would you do it?

Audrey at her daily best ~ Richard Troon-Salas Lailai

Vinaka vakalevu!

It has been so much fun!