Copyright: Jurgen Brauer, Augusta, Georgia, USA

1. As fortune had it, I signed up with a group from the Indepth Scuba dive club in Canberra, Australia, to travel to Fiji for a week. The picture above is an open flame illuminating the beach of the Seashell Cove Resort where we stayed. "Bula" means "welcome."
2. I had gotten up early that day, around 5am, took a taxi at 6:30am to the Canberra bus station and then a bus to the Sydney International Airport where I arrived at around 10am. The others came in by car or air, and by 1:30pm or so we flew off in an Air Pacific Boeing 747-400 aircraft. The picture below shows our arrival at the Nadi airport in Fiji.

3. Arriving after dark, we were met by resort staff, our luggage was heaved through the bus' rear window, and off we went south of Nadi, half an hour on an asphalt road, half an hour on a dirt road. We arrived pretty much tired out. Seven of us slept in this dorm-room (below). Hot water for the shower was sparse, as was at times water itself, but it was all taken in good spirits.

4. Next morning we took a "get-to-know-you" stroll around the resort (frequented mainly by surfers and divers) and the adjoining beach. I was delighted to see plentful mangrove stands, vital nurseries for young fish and invertebrates.

5. Coconuts ripening ...

6. Mangroves in the tide ...

7. Beach-combing ...

8. A first find yields a curious hermit crab ...

9. A lone mangrove seedling ...

10. Sugarcane is still a major industry in Fiji. Here, a train is bringing several cart-loads for processing to the mill.

11. While some of us strolled along the beach, others joined the kids in the resort pool ...

12. The scuba dive shop was next to the bar, convenient to be sure.

13. And, finally, on the afternoon of our first day, the first drop into the ocean. Excellent visibility and great relief. This is what we came for. We did a little drift dive along a reef wall ... 

14. ... and came upon a big puffer fish, ... 

15. ... a (poisonous) banded sea-snake (handled by Api, our dive guide), ...

16. ... and, sadly, the trash of civilization (below) twisting in the current.

17. Our group leader, Erin, tries to blow bubbles under water ...

18. ... but dive guide Api can do it to perfection.

19. When the tide is out, the mangroves stand dry ...

20. ... the boats lie stranded, ...

21. ... locals collect shells and sea cucumbers, ...

22. ... and children play in the mudflats.

23. When the tide is in, it's easier to get to and from the dive boats.

24. Underwater once more, dive buddy Erin picks up a hermit crab. Usually shy, this fellow took a peek (note the eyes on the two white eye stalks).

25. This is what in the Caribbean I would call a rock hind. My camera flash didn't function underwater, necessitating a switch to taking a lot of black & white photographs.

26. A view back to the dive boat with a diver ready to roll over the side into the deep blue. Most of the time, the ocean was fairly calm, on the last day even completely flat with almost no wave action at all.

27. Colorful Ms. Melinda, the lone teenager in our group, walks ashore (below).

28. Each day, the dive shop would post details of our dives. Shawn and Michelle Adamson and Sam Wainimokomoko, the owners of Scuba Bula can be reached here.

29. If unconventional, our dorm room served us well, for napping, recharging batteries, and much merriment and laughter ...

30. Since we only dove in the morning (save for the first day), we used the afternoons for trips. Here we took a tour of Korokula, the village from which a good number of the resort staff are drawn.

31. From tin to cement blocks (plastered and not), a variety of building materials are used for the homes ...

32. ...

33. The minister's house had no doors. Everyone was welcome to just stop in. What, with a TV there, the children weren't shy to do just that.

34. Jacqui and Mark, a couple from New Zealand, inspect the minister's place more reverentially than the kids.

35. Our beloved local entertainment guide ...

36. ... had a market place all ready for us in the community hall.

37. A good opportunity to take some candid photographs.

38. Women and children ...

39. Women and children ...

40. With a ready smile and a fleet hand this woman makes a customer a special bracelet on the spot.

41. And then it was "kava time." Kava, it appears, is a tranquilizer made from the pepper-plant. Mixed with water in the wooden kava bowl, ...

42. ... the chief (below) is given to drink first, ...

43. ... whereupon we tourists could photograph ...

44. ... other tourists drink kava. I don't think anyone of us much enjoyed the drink but we all partook in the ceremony and offering, and we survived it in good health and spirits.

45. A girl at the farewell ...

46. And back to the water it was ...

47. Many swim-throughs ...

48. ... and "chimneys."

49. Api was our trusted dive guide much of the time.

50. Here's Pete ...

51. ... and Melinda, whiling time away.

52. After each dive, a surface interval on the boat affords time for cookies, tea, fellowship, and then ...

53. ... back into the water.

54. Patto made his 200th dive, and in true Aussie fashion took heartily to a can of Fijian beer. (Well, ok, the can is closed!)

55. A Giant Clam ...

56. ... a blue-spotted (really!) stingray ...

57. ... and more anemone fish.

58. One afternoon, some of us went to visit the Garden of the Sleeping Giant. We were welcomed with a wonderfully refreshing glass of fruit juice and a little comfortable rest in high-backed chairs.

59. Then it was off to see the magnificent garden ...

60. ...

61. ...

62. ...

63. ...

64. ...

65. My favorite orchid ...

66. In the evening, the garden group met up with the others at Bula-Festival in Nadi, a county fair. The smoke from the hundred open cooking fires was so thick, I had a hard time getting even one photograph of the scene.

67. Movement: people, carousels, giant wheels all spun and spun and spun, music blared, lights glared, ...

68. ... and kids posed ...

69. ... and posed ...

70. ... or had to be captured unawares.

71. At the end of a LONG day, we sit exhausted on a bench by the bus station.

72. Surprisingly, although the weather was good, we had but one day that offered an unimpeded sunset ...

73. ... tilt the camera toward the water and the mood chances.

74. Speaking of mood change, this is Erin competing in the long-awaited coconut race. As may be seen, she is cheating - you are to swing the coconut from the hip, not guide the string by hand ... It was a riot, anyway ...

75. ... calling for more of Aussie's favorite pastime, the drink.

76. Erin, in one inspired moment created Ezza's Ssschnappi Pants, a concoction Brendan (who is in fact a hotel and bar manager) mixed up on the spot. And THIS is Patto with the resulting trial drink ...

77. ... a photograph that should win me 1st Place in some competition. The bar manager was so impressed that the drink appeared on the bar menu the next night, priced at F$9.50. Next day, off we went on another field trip, this one to Sigatoka. It was a LONG bus ride, mostly over dirt roads and occasional strange-looking bridges ...

78. ... that crossed broad rivers.

79. ... looking behind us - would the bridge hold?

80. Actually, that bridge was much safer than this one, in town, which I would not want to walk across at night.

81. A street scene ... Fiji is a mixture of native Fijians and a large population of Indians, the latter dominating retail trade and professional services such as lawyers', doctors', and dentists' positions, at least as judged from the store personnel and store signs.

82. Souvenir shopping ...

83. ... required frequent cash withdrawals.

84. The police station sat reassuringly right across the road.

85. The town was full of people, crowded around the big market place by the bus station ...

86. .. while a gaggle of children enjoy a cooling-off in waist-deep water.

87. On our last night, a Saturday, we were regaled by indigenous Fijian song and dance.

88. ...

89. ...

90. Of course, tourists needed to join.

91. A musician plays his one-string bass ...

92. ... a warrior prepares to dance ...

93. ... and fellow diver Garran enjoys the show.

94. On our next-to-last dive, a group of us went down "Deep Throat" where I clocked a depth of 157 feet. Down a big chimney, then horizontally along a "subway tunnel," and out into the deep void who knows how many feet (or meters) below. What a ride that was. And on the very last dive I found my very first lion fish (it was sleeping in a crevice) and this beautiful flat worm. What a nice set of good-bye dives.

95. And so we come to the end of our lovely stay. Vinaka - thank you, Fiji.

96. A bonus picture: that's me having a tea and cookie break between dives (with a white-tipped reef shark cruising somewhere below me). Truly something to smile about.

The end.