Shark Dive

Pacific Harbour Dorm. The other person that was there was leaving when I arrived
see all photos »

Once again up nice and early because I wasn't really sure where I was going and what time I needed to be there. I found the dive shop easy enough and had to wait a few minutes for the staff to show up.

Got all of my gear and ready for the dive. A group 3 older Aussies were also diving. There were about 6 staff members also diving with us so I felt quite safe. The big bins with the fish were a bit smelly so I was glad that I had taken my motion sickness meds.

Some big bull sharks came in

view from my window of the Safari Club
see all photos »

The shark dives are pretty easy dives. You go down and hold onto a rope and watch the fish all around. I had trouble with my weighting on the first dive. I was too light and kept floating up a bit. My dive buddy, which was one of the staff, took me over to a part of rope that was a bit more secure so I didn't have as much chance to float away!

Once down on the bottom the staff take the bins a little ways from us and open them up. So many fish come swimming in to feed. All shapes and sizes. A few small reef sharks were around and they were beautiful to watch. I got to see a moray eel too! ugly things!

Sunset at Pacific Harbour
see all photos »

The second dive I had my weighting right and was able to relax even more and just stand on the bottom looking at all the fish around me. Some big bull sharks came in on this dive and I was just amazed with them. Such beautiful animals! When we finished the dive I was quite surprised with myself for being as calm as I had been. These two dives had been the most relaxing and fun dives I had been on. Although now I'll have to see some pretty exciting stuff on future dives for them to be any good.

Once back at the dive shop one of the guys asked me if I would like to go out for drinks when he finished work. I said I would as he seemed quite nice and not as full on or blunt as some Fijian men can be.

I walked back to my dorm and I was soon very tired. My motion sickness medicine really knocks me out sometimes. So I decided to take a nap instead of going shopping. I had set my alarm for 2:30 to give myself and hour to sleep. My alarm went off  and I vaguely remember turning it off. I tried to wake myself up a few times but it just wasn't going to happen.

After awhile I heard my name called. It was Seffo,from the dive shop. it was almost 6! He had a taxi and we went to a house down close to the beach. He walked with me to the beach since I hadn't seen it yet. What a beautiful place. Sand and coconut trees as far as you could see.

We went back to the house and I was introduced to the young people there. Everyone was sitting in one room around in a circle just as they do during kava ceremonies. Instead of everyone having their own drink a single cup is passed around about half full. You down the drink and pass the cup back. It was quite a different party than what I'm used to seeing. It was a really nice atmosphere there. Everyone was friendly and talking. They had Bob Marley and UB40 playing on the stereo. One of the girls got up and was dancing in the circle and she got me up to dance too.

It was starting to get late so Seffo said he would have a taxi take me back to the dorm. I told him I would be at the dive shop in the morning before I left to stamp my dive log and to order a DVD of my shark dive (which I haven't received yet). What an awesome day in Fiji!!