My Dream Vacation- LOOONG Overdue Pics

[gofor100]

Hey Guys,

"Saltyg135er" posting pics of his trip to Bali reminded me that I should share with you the absolute BEST trip I have EVER been on, which took place last summer. I posted this in another forum, but I know that many of you don't venture too far from this one too often, so here you go .

So it all started when my wife and I (while having some cocktails at Javier's in the Irvine Spectrum- a great mix whenever coming up with a great idea... alcohol and awesome food) were talking about what we wanted to do in the upcoming summer. We knew that we wanted kids soon, so we came to the conclusion that we should enjoy our "kid-less lives" while we had them and go out with a bang. We wanted to go somewhere that, once we had kids, wouldn't be a great place to bring them and/or couldn't bring them at all. A place that we could relax and be away from it all.

With that in mind, as well as the fact that I've been scuba certified for a number of years now, and my wife is a big trooper when it comes to snorkeling (and was planning to get certified before the trip), we decided it would be somewhere tropical with good diving. Although we've been lucky enough to have already traveled to a number of places such as Australia, Cozumel, Belize, and Hawaii, none of them really gave us the feel of being truly remote and away from everything else.

So after quite a bit of research on my part, we decided to travel to the South Pacific... to a place called FIJI!!!

Here's a map for those of you not too familiar with it's location...

Hopefully I can do the trip justice by showing you just a few of the images we captured on camera (knowing that there were hundreds if not thousands of other images not captured on camera that will stay with us forever!).

Thanks,

Chad

 

[gofor100]

So after researching all of the different islands and resorts (there are actually over 300 islands in the Fijian archipelago), I narrowed down my search to an Island Resort on Namenalala Island, located in the middle of a Marine Reserve. It only allows guests over the age of 17 and feels like you stepped right into Jurassic Park. They even pick you up in a little electronic golf-car looking four-wheeler to take you around the island... pretty awesome.

Here's all 110 acres of the island... the cool thing was that there was the island's reef (immediately off shore), and then the "outer-reef" which you can see in this pic.

As you can see, the island itself is extremely lush, which was indicative of what lied below the water's surface...

Also, the island was unique in that it was completely eco-friendly and self-sustaining... meaning all of the water used was from rain water, most of the foods are grown on the island itself, and the only electricity used was from solar and wind generators.

You can even do what they called "Chair Snorkeling"... which included sitting in your villa and looking down at the fringing reef below, sometimes seeing sea turtles and baby reef sharks...

'Course, "Chair Snorkeling" wasn't nearly enough for me, so within an hour of getting on the island, I took a dive in the beautiful waters right off of our beach...

What follows is a collection of pictures that I took over the next 10 days (averaging roughly 2 dive or snorkel trips per day)...

Hope you guys enjoy this half as much as I did!

Thanks,

Chad

 

[corpse_grinder0]

lucky man! im gonna go to javiers tonight and try and come up with a good plan for myself

 

[gofor100]

lucky man! im gonna go to javiers tonight and try and come up with a good plan for myself

Hahaha! Good luck!

-Chad

 

[ChefZilla]

Looking very nice.. When i win the lottery tonight im going there..LOL

 

[gofor100]

To be honest, many of our trips were simply snorkeling trips because most of the stuff we saw were within 5-20 feet from the water's surface. But here is one of our joint scuba diving trips...

And here are a few pictures we got on one of the many beautiful days we were there...

Enjoy!

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

Looking very nice.. When i win the lottery tonight im going there..LOL

Yeah, the airfare sucks, but once you're there, it isn't too bad. Too bad you won't be winning the lottery though since it'll be me!!! Kidding... good luck!

-Chad

 

[wishntoboutside]

Thanks for sharing. Those wild eflos are just sick!

 

[lidofishieboi]

Very nice!

 

[Aviad B.Z.]

You don't get a "like" from me....

"love" is more suitable

Great location, looks like the place to be!

Thank's for sharing.

 

[gofor100]

Thanks for sharing. Those wild eflos are just sick!

Yeah bro'... it's amazing the growth forms and sheer size you see in the wild. I think it helps that this diving was all done inside of a marine reserve several miles away from the nearest island because I've been other places and did not see anything near these sizes.

Very nice!

Thanks!

-Chad

 

[ChefZilla]

Yeah, the airfare sucks, but once you're there, it isn't too bad. Too bad you won't be winning the lottery though since it'll be me!!! Kidding... good luck!

-Chad

If i win ill hire you as my guide and we can go back there and you can teach me how to snorkel (with our wife/gf as well)

 

[gofor100]

You don't get a "like" from me....

"love" is more suitable

Great location, looks like the place to be!

Thank's for sharing.

Haha... thanks! Definitely the place to be... can't really imagine a better place for a coral/fish/ocean-lover.

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

If i win ill hire you as my guide and we can go back there and you can teach me how to snorkel (with our wife/gf as well)

Deal!!!! :beer:

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

Here's some fish pics for you guys...

I think this is a yellow dogface puffer... can't find a frontal shot to show it's face better.

Some sweetlips...

A Lionfish lying in wait for its next meal...

A Hawkfish perched, checking out what's going on around the reef...

And some different Groupers (I think)...

More to come!

-Chad

 

[Superman24]

Nice trip!

 

[gofor100]

Nice trip!

Thanks!

-Chad

 

[gofor100]

And some more fish...

There were a ton of Sunburst Anthias... here's one of them.

And some butterflies that will never make it in my tank because of their diet...

My favorite trigger of all-time... this was a HUGE clown trigger...

And I couldn't go diving without getting a pic of some "Nemo's" for my wife

More fish pics soon, then onto the corals!

-Chad

 

[vsco]

Chad - My future wife and I are going to Fiji for 2 weeks in September for our honeymoon. I'm already as excited as can be, but you're pictures make me even more so! We are going to two different areas, first to western Fiji about a hour from Nadi and then over to the eastern side near Taveuni.

Neither of us are scuba certified, do you think it is really necessary? What kind of camera did you use for the underwater pictures?

 

[gofor100]

Chad - My future wife and I are going to Fiji for 2 weeks in September for our honeymoon. I'm already as excited as can be, but you're pictures make me even more so! We are going to two different areas, first to western Fiji about a hour from Nadi and then over to the eastern side near Taveuni.

Neither of us are scuba certified, do you think it is really necessary? What kind of camera did you use for the underwater pictures?

Oh man... you guys are going to have soooo much fun!

My wife and I only stopped briefly in Nadi, and it has a pretty big Indian (middle eastern) influence. So if you like Indian food, you'll love Nadi. Didn't really get to venture out too much though since we were catching a flight, so I don't have much more input than that.

Taveuni is the place you'll most likely get some great snorkeling/diving though. If you look up Nakia resort, they will actually certify you there if you want (they're a dive resort).

But worst case, I don't think you'll be disappointed in the snorkeling. The only thing you might miss out on is the soft corals, which are typically found deeper where the water is higher in nutrients.

The camera I used is a SeaLife digital camera... as you can see, it takes pretty decent pictures and it didn't cost as much as some of those "big-time" cameras out there.

Let me know if you have any other questions... I'd be happy to help!

-Chad