Travelling North to South, Right Through Misfit Island

We welcome on board Donna and her posse of adventurers.

A nice mix of returning guests and new comers; all in for diving, island visiting, kayaking, and just a jolly good time. 

Diving and laughing throughout! 

“Fantastic long two weeks.” - Cindy, the perfect description! 

We had the most amazing moon rise (full moon) on our second night. That in sailor’s jargon is not the best omen, yet the trip's weather could not have been better, as we went into Lau waters. 

Not full moon sunsetting but an amazing red sky sunset ~ Donna

We started off with gorgeous sea fans, soft blown up corals and anthias all around. This equals happy divers. 

Big David was enchanted by the xenia soft coral. 

Fire leather coral ~ Castle underwater by Steve

Beautiful curious hammer head shark came to say hi; two (two!) robust ghost pipefish right  under the arch (thanks Semi!) and massive eagle ray. 

Honeycomb toby! ~ Lisa

Next step, surviving a rocking crossing, the longest yet, to the most northern point of Lau: Wailagi lala. Clear beautiful waters and gorgeous bright white sandy island. 

The outer reef reminded us of the outer reef at Gau. The second dive divers did enjoy a field of leather coral and cabbage patch, quite shallow, alongside a school of tiger trevallies and a few sharks. 

Turtle resting and side eyeing Donna ~ Donna

We spent an afternoon walking around the island; collecting empty shells, resting on top of the paddleboards and kayaks. 

Clayton and Semi went out with the machetes and brought us fresh coconuts (yummy!) as we chatted on the beach. 

Gorgeous team photo by Fred on the beach of Wailagi Lala

The water was so crystal clear we saw a marbled ray, turtle and eagle ray from the surface. 

Jason walked around the island and came back with photos of a very old and huge turtle carcass; full of hermit crabs inside. 

Pink anemonefish in their purplish anemone ~ Donna

Orange-finned anemonefish on carpet anemone ~ Donna

Endemic tomato anemonefish ~ Donna

Trigger Rock at Vanau Balau: strong current yet amazing visibility. So many schools of fish and once on the current side it was quite easy to keep in front and enjoy the show. So many unicornfish: sleek unicornfish, white margin unicornfish (first place I have seen them and in numbers), orange spined, and big nose unicornfish. 

Oceanic triggerfish and red tooth triggerfish. Schools of schooling bannerfish aggregating on one side with pyramid butterflyfish. 

School of barracudas ~ Fred

Lots of white tips patrolling the area, as well as grey reef sharks.

When we drifted with the current from the sloping depths upward, we had a never ending garden of pocillopora corals with spotted crouchers, leopard blennies, flame hawkfish and all the crabs that live in those corals. Whitetips still patrolling the shallows and big moray eels. 

A spectacular dive. 

Lovely grey reef sharks ~ Donna

Never Ending Story; schools of barracudas, cornet fish, hundreds of spadefish, grey reef sharks hunting, and schools of different types of sweetlips. 

School of spadefish ~ Donna

“That was such an amazing dive!”- Big David

They got to enjoy the yellow soft corals in full bloom!

Mantis shrimp in his hole ~ caught by Cindy before it retreated 

The few anemones in the area were a startling neon blue! 

Right before sunset, exquisite wrasse (males) displaying their colors in all their splendour. 

Scorpionfish ~ Danny

“I feel like I’m in Avatar.” - Fred, during our skiff drive inside the Bay of Isles. 

Magic Roundabout at Katafaga was extremely fishy. Dive site compiled by coral heads all around, with snappers, unicornfish and fusiliers in constant motion, plus white tip sharks, nurse shark and big napoleon wrasses. 

A big star puffer fish was really the star of the show! 

Star puffer fish ~ Donna

HUGE nurse shark just swam over Cindy, a very perplexed Cindy ~ Danny

For Jen’s birthday at Ogea, we had a beautiful chevron manta ray spiraling around us when we jumped into the water. 

So many table sized spiny lobsters and lyretail hogfish. 

Typical Fiji scene ~ Danny

Three more mantas the next day, as well as an eagle ray!

And… so many pipefish! On the night dive, during the day, hanging around on sea fans…

Pipefish dangling around a sea fan ~ Steve

Blue spotted stingray ~ Steve

Danny swam into a tornado of barracuda: “So much fun and it's not even 11am!” 

I believe this is why I came here ~ Mr. Danny

Fulaga was absolutely amazing: pink and purple candy soft corals on all of the structures, leading to a channel lined up by hard corals and fields of staghorn coral with ranging colors and even floating anemones at safety stop level.

When you finished travelling that high way you ended up in a huge cabbage patch. 

Cabbage patch and Lisa ~ Danny

Banded sea snake, so many in the area ~ Jason

Last stop and back to the known area: passages and fish. The vis was not good, yet the amount of fish made up for it!

White tip shark hunting a free swimming octopus; so many giant napoleon wrasses; school of big eyed trevally and barracudas surrounding us. Fantastic!

White tip chilling ~ Steve

“Steve, look!” And four eagle rays pass under us in the lagoon and Steve is busy with his camera… ay ay ay. He did see the chevron manta that soared on top of us though. 

At the bleachers we had all the fish swirling around, yet we had to cross over to find eight huge grey reef sharks coming and going, plus white tips that looked quite pregnant.

Gorgeous hard coral garden ~ Lisa

“I’ve never seen color like this!” - Lisa (Mellow Yellow) 

Sea fans and golden damselfish ~ Steve

“That was stunning!” - Cindy (Coral Corner) 

Finished with a bang with our drapey soft corals! 

Rainbow wall ~ Lisa

Successful adventure, even if we had some bumps along the road (ouchies and scratchies, nothing we won’t survive! And that is why… misfit island!)

Vinaka vakalevu everyone!