It’s midnight and we are boarding the plane in Melbourne Australia. We are exhausted after having only been married the night before, and already I’m becoming nervous that we have made a grave decision for our ’tranquil’ diving honeymoon. The seats in front of us, behind us and next to us are filled with a type of Australian normally reserved for fake watches and braided hair on Kuta beach in Bali. You see, depending on where you finally set up camp on your holiday, Fiji can be a completely different place. For us Australians, it can be a quick, cheap holiday catered for by ‘all-you-can-eat/drink/do’ resorts filled with kids clubs and wacky-tacky cocktails or as we were soon to discover, if you are happy to brave the extra leg of the flight in what is essentially a 19 seater flying tin-can, Fiji is a true example of paradise. 

Unlike many dive destinations we have visited, Rainbow Reef offered a long list of different dive sites but with a unique difference: the majority of the sites were actually different! Mini-cabbage patch was filled with huge cabbage-shaped plate corals extending from 18m almost to the surface. The famous White Wall provided a spectacular high-speed drift dive filled with endless white soft corals forming an ice-covered reef with a blizzard-like snow storm of particulate matter whipping through the water. ‘The Zoo’ was filled with fantastic zebra patterned sergeant-major fish along with hundreds of other species speckled with different colours and textures. This reef system is really a wide-angle photography haven with lots of coral formations, fish covered bommies and endless reef. Whilst there are macro opportunities, the current on the reef generally means you are drifting, making it hard to hang around too long with a single critter. 

Rainbow Reef is the well regarded highlight of the diving here and as beautiful as it was, I think the reason it is advertised as the pinnacle of diving is because none of the other resorts have access to what lies at the font door of Paradise Resort. Paradise we are told, is the only resort on the island to have a house reef and easy access to Vuna which is on the south west side of Taveuni.

Just around the corner from the resort is Dolphin Bay, accessible from the resort by car on bad-weather days and home to a black-sand muck dive. To be honest, bad weather or not, this is a must for the underwater photographer. The photo opportunities here are amazing and I would highly recommend bringing your macro lens and a diopter for this one, with many of the critters squaring up at around 1-5cm long. Amongst the small rocky outcrops hide mantis shrimp, nudibranchs and all the weird and wonderful macro critters you expect from an underwater landscape as diverse as the South Pacific’s. We also had a turtle visitor on this dive as well as the resident leafy scorpion fish.

Lastly the resort is only a 10 minute ride to Vuna reef, which juts out around two and a half kilometres or so from the coastline to the south of Paradise Resort. This reef system is dived almost daily at the resort, balancing the longer morning trips to Rainbow with shorter boat rides for the afternoon diving. This site provides protected dive sites no matter where the wind is blowing, and has a very similar landscape to that of Rainbow. In fact, on one day we had the privilege of diving the reef from the local Vuna Village. As a group of 4, we were the first people in history to dive this reef on scuba and aside from the amazing reef system, the fanfare from the locals was an experience we won’t soon forget. Vuna reef put on her best for us with a number of spotted eagle ray sitings as well as crystal clear water with thirty meter plus visibility. 

Sight-Seeing

After diving for the first three or four days we reminded ourselves that we were not on a dive trip but our honeymoon so we should get out and explore a little. We thumbed through the welcome book in our room, frequently stopping at spa treatments we would book later during our stay and found two daytrips that sounded right up our alley: the Cannibal Cave Tour and the Lavena Coastal Walk. The Cannibal Cave Tour saw us set off in a torrential downpour accompanied by our guide Suli. We traversed towards the mountains along a winding dirt road dotted with local houses and small villages. Upon arriving at a fairly innocuous patch of neck-height grass, Suli looks to us and declared "I think this is it." Turning into the grass, we started to create the trail to the caves, brushing aside all of the plants Suli had described to us along the path. 

Normally when I book a tour with a resort I sadly expect there to be handrails, lights and a range of OH&S posters telling me to watch my step even though the site is lit up like christmas. This tour was a refreshing surprise, as Suli reached into his pack and handed us each a head torch and a set of industrial knee pads and said, “you will need these." The cave entrance was down a slippery overgrown drop-off and completely pitch black. “What a real experi- ence,” we both said to each other. Inside the caves we were on our bellies, on all fours and contorting in all sorts of shapes to squeeze through the tiny openings into the cavernous old lava tubes. Suli talked us through the history as we quickly realised that there was in fact no connection to Cannibals. These caves were spectacular and a real adventure I would recommend for those who are comfortable with small spaces and seemingly untouched history.

The food at Paradise Taveuni was a brilliant mix of local and international cuisine, often with a hint of the Chef’s own indian heritage showing through. The menu works on a rotating system giving you plenty of variety and choice for meals each day. Couple this with a nicely stocked bar and the restaurant at Taveuni really catered to everyone, with plenty of local seafood options for those truly getting into the island spirit.

Each night, we were greeted in our rooms with flower petals scatted from the door to the incredibly large and comfortable four-poster bed where the abstract petal art transformed into a patterns of words, shapes or simply ornate geometrical arrangements. The service of our rooms was truly worth a mention as each morning we would wake up to our personalised chalk board on the front of our bungalow wishing us a happy day in whatever activity we had planned. A particularly attractive aspect of the resorts design is that the resort only caters to a maximum of around 35 people, with the family rooms located away from the private bungalows in an equally beautiful setting, separating any potential noise. This made it particularly friendly for couples or families alike whilst not compromising on the beauty of the island setting. 

Fiji has many faces and each island tells a different story. Taveuni for us was a beautiful balance between diving, site-seeing, relaxing and tranquility. We avoided phones, computers and internet, soaking up the island life and settling into island time. The diving, whilst not knocking Sipidan off the number one spot, was diverse and beautiful, and the people of Taveuni really made the trip a warm experience that is perhaps lacking in many resorts across the world. Alan and Teri have built this resort in the feel of the island taking into account personal space, open communal areas and traditional building techniques to create a genuine feeling of isolation from the outside world. Here, you will not find a party, nor will you be able to get Fiji shaved into the side of your head or have your hair braided with 'traditional' fluoro beads. Here you will find quiet and it is truly one of the only places I’ve ever been where every aspect of the resort not only lived up to but out-shone the website photos.