day forty-five: november 13, 2015: travel day
Today we caught a mid-afternoon flight to Nadi, Fiji to meet Jonathan's parents for a week of relaxing at a timeshare trade they were able to get. Since we were staying near Pacfic Harbour on the south side of the main island of Vitu Levu, we had to take a van for a two and a half hour drive from the Nadi airport. We stopped for some corn at a local stand by the side of the road on our way. Being in the same time zone as New Zealand, but much further east on the globe, the sun set a few hours earlier than what we had gotten used to. By the time we arrived at the hotel it was already dark.
day forty-six: november 14, 2015: beqa shark dive!
Wasting no time, Jonathan's dad booked them for the famous shark dive with Beqa (pronounced Benga) Adventure Divers or BAD for short. BAD has worked with the Fiji government to establish the area as a Shark Reef Marine Reserve. Much of the money paid by tourists, like us, goes to local fisherman in exchange for them not overfishing the reefs to help encourage sharks to stay in the area, their natural habitat.
I stayed in the safety and comfort of the hotel while Jonathan and his parents did two morning dives to see the sharks. On their first dive they started at a depth of 30 meters to watch the bull sharks, which are the larger of the sharks typically seen in this area. Sometimes tiger sharks are seen, but the dive masters told them that the bull sharks typically keep them away. The second half of the dive is spent at 10 meters with grey, white tip and black tip reef sharks, which are much smaller. The second dive was only down to 25 meters, but they got a closer look at the bull sharks.
Upon leaving the dive masters and the owner sang a farewell song to everyone.