During the period 18-30 May, 2004, Karen and I took a trip to Fiji to attend the wedding of a daughter of some very
good friends, Jerry and Mary Joyce May. Their daughter, Heidi, went to Fiji on a Christian mission. She met a Fijian
man; they fell in love, became engaged and were married on 22 May. We also did a week of SCUBA-diving on the island of Beqa
(pronounced m-ben-ga). Trip pictures will follow after a brief discussion of our activities.
We left Albuquerque and Los Angeles on 18 May in the late evening and arrived in Nadi, Fiji, 10.5 hours later on
20 May, at a little after 5:00 in the morning. After clearing immigration and customs we were greeted by Uma, our taxi
driver, for the transfer to the Lagoon Resort (where the wedding would be held) in the town of Pacific Harbour. After about
a three hours drive on the Queen's Highway we were finally there and totally exhausted. We rested a little and then Uma took
us to meet the Mays in Suva, about a 45 min. ride. After an informal wedding rehearsal and dinner, we were returned to the
Lagoon Resort by Uma, but now the ride seemed about 17 hours.
Thankfully the next day was totally restful as the wedding participants came to us at the Lagoon, rather than
vice versa. Karen and I walked into Pacific Harbour and accomplished the required shopping and then returned to the resort
to help with wedding preparations. This was a day without Uma.
On 22 May, 2004, in an impressive, joyous, and Christian ceremony, held on the grounds of the Lagoon Resort and
starting at 2:00pm (actually about 2:35pm Fijian time), Heidi Clara May was wed to Christian Naidu. A reception in the
resort meeting hall followed immediately with a banquet that was absolutely outstanding!
On 23 May, our trusted manservant and faithful taxi driver, Uma, picked us up for transfer to the Pacific
Harbour pier and ultimate transfer to the Beqa Lagoon Resort (formerly the Marlin Bay Resort). [These resorts seem to be
hung up on using "Lagoon" in the title somewhere.] After a 25-minute boat ride we stepped off the launch into Paradise...but
Paradise with overcast skies which hung on for most of the week. After a mandatory welcome drink and a short briefing we
went to our beachfront bure and our diving vacation began.
Now all the days merge together so I will hit only the high points.
First of all Beqa Island is the "Island of Firewalkers", the only place in Fiji where firewalking is
traditionally done. There are 9 villages on the island and everybody knows everybody else. Two of the villages are close to
our resort (there are two other resorts on the island); just north of us was RaviRavi and just south was Rukua. Rukua was
bigger, but RaviRavi had the local school (1st-8th grades), which we toured, but only after an entertaining singing and
dancing presentation by the school children. Children must go to the main island of Viti Levu for higher education. The
resort personnel were mostly from those two villages and were all multi-talented as singers, dancers, and workers. It's
nothing special for them - it's just part of their customs and traditions.
I'll first talk about non-diving activities. You could walk to a waterfall, which was a delightful experience
for you and all the mosquitoes lying in wait along the path. You could walk to either, or both, villages, by yourself or
with a guided "tour group". You could go sea-kayaking or snorkeling. You could have a gazillion and one uses for a coconut
tree explained to you and demonstrated for you; you could attend a kava ceremony (like drinking mildly-intoxicating
dishwater, in accordance with some serious hand-clapping protocols and chugging rules), and you could experience the singing
and dancing demonstrations by the local villagers. You could even hang out in your own private hammock for two, sleeping or
reading. There was even deep-sea fishing. Then there was the SCUBA-diving...
I am NOT a terribly experienced diver, but I have dived a few places and seen a few things, but NEVER the likes
of the fish and sea life as we saw and photographed in the Beqa Lagoon (the resort was renamed after the lagoon we dove in).
The color and variety of the sea life was breath-taking! The photographs below will never do it justice! Instead of diving
reef walls, as in Cozumel and Belize, we dove huge coral heads, equally as impressive. In most cases there was a mild
current to swim in (fight or enjoy, depending on which way you were going); in one or two cases it was significant and truly
affected the quality of the dive. If anything could have been a tad better, it was the visability, which was nominally about
50 ft.; I was expecting double that.
Here are the sites we dove: