Sam Snaaps

Simply the best.

In my last blog, I mentioned how I felt that the ocean was blessed for me last Friday. Now that I have had time to recount the experience in my own head, I am ready to try and do it justice with my words.

We had enjoyed one day of diving at dreamhouse and turtle alley, where a Canadian and I spent slow and relaxing dives, with an ocean boiling with life. It made for the perfect conditions for our shared passion; photography. I had planned the next day to begin at purple garden, a site he had not visited before.

The boat was quiet, only three divers including myself, and the ocean was almost flat barring the odd leftover peaks from the wind the night before that were given a sharp edge by small coughs of irregular wind. Captain Lai took us out beyond the reef which protects our dock, however, in the wrong direction to purple garden, which I immediately questioned.

In denial, firstly as we usually only take large groups there in order to cover the fuel costs, and secondly because I couldn’t believe the plan hadn’t been explained to me, the real plan which had illuded me till then became clear. We were three experienced divers, one of whom had an awesome camera rig, heading to Namena.

One of the divers, a veterinarian who lives in Savusavu, and knows the Namena sites well. Colin doing Colin things in the background.

Frantically waving my phone around above the canopy of the boat to find even the slightest blip of sufficient internet connection, I checked the tide times to work out the best time to dive grand central station. Chimneys turned out to be the ideal first site, as a late flood tide which promotes the maximum productivity at grand central meant we stood the best chance to see it at its best after a few more hours.

Part 1: Chimneys

We arrived on the surface, regulators in our mouths, and ready to descend. My first impression was that the current was going a different direction than I’d ever experienced, northward instead of southwards. This direction interested me because to the north, lies an expansive and shallow reef as part of the Namena atoll, which the water must pass over before arriving at the chimneys. Flowing from the south however the water is immediately arriving from the pelagic ocean, where shallow reefs were yet to influence the composition of this water.

As usual, the sessile (attached to the seabed) organisms, mainly soft corals, sea fans, and gorgonians were showing candyfloss pinks, royal purples, and sour yellows as their whiplike structure hoisted their feeding polyps as far into the water column as possible. Perfectly named crinoids, called feather stars perched as close to the reefs edge as they dared, extending their feathered wings out like rays of lights from the sun catching as much food as possible.

Amazingly, feather starts can release their grasp on the rock, and begin swimming freely by beating their feathery arms. I have seen this only twice, as they usually take flight at night.

The shapes and colours were on par with the most highly regarded dive sites in the whole world, and usually the corals are enough to elevate the repute of this wonderland higher than the chimneys stand tall, but this time, more megafauna than I’ve ever seen here took the show to a new level. The sharks must’ve finished an almighty lunch as they swam lethargically – the way I stumble to the sofa after christmas lunch, toward small cleaning stations where little cleaner wrasse swam into their mouths, picking off any uneaten scraps from the banquet and cleaning the sharks’ teeth in return for an easy meal.

Back on the surface, our debrief of the dive amounted to a unanimous decision that this was the best we had seen this site, and withholding any freak encounters of a giant manta ray, or pod of dolphins, this dive had everything! How on earth could you top this? Let me tell you…

Humphead wrasse are one of the largest fish we commonly encounter here. This individual, a long way away from me (hence the unclear photo) was about 2 meters from mouth to tail! This one is also a survivor, that scar looks like evidence of a spear gun trying to turn this beautiful behemoth into dinner.

Part 2: Grand central station.

I don’t know how it is possible but whatever magic was sprinkled on those chimneys, was also delivered in enormous quantity over grand central.

Firstly the current which usually hits perpendicular to the reef wall was this time running parallel, so I didn’t have to swim while we drifted along hanging over the blue drop-off. Secondly visibility was immaculate, like swimming in gin. So, I wouldn’t miss any fantastic beasts through lack of vision. That said, the wall was so crowded with fish, nearly all of which were larger than a medium sized dog, that they sometimes inhibited my vision so much that I felt like I was inside a forrest of fish.

This must’ve been the scene of the feast that those earlier sharks came from, as the rest of their population were also navigating their way through the walls of fish, sometimes getting close enough to us to bump noses, but were totally unbothered by our presence.

Somehow I made it out of the chaotic crowd for a brief moment, looked out into the blue, and cruising past about 20 meters from me were a group of 15-20 hammerheads. Swimming directly against the current, but moving with equal effort to me who was swimming with the current. They matched my depth and I’m sure they were there to observe me as much as I was them, and then off they went right as I was engulfed back into the silvery, fish-scaled curtains.

Proceeding onto a sloping, sandy ledge, a group of small fish the size of carrots, but thousands strong cut my path so I waited, like a pedestrian waiting for a break in traffic. Looking left and right like said pedestrian, I noticed that these fish were more like sheep than cars, their shepherds brushing shoulders with me as they herded their livestock into a rocky corner.

The heavy tension between the school of fish and the 10 or so sharks equal or greater in size to me suddenly shattered, and something, I don’t know what, triggered the most amazing feeding frenzy I’ve ever witnessed. Infront the fish were being ravaged by the sharks who herded them into the cove of no escape, and this break in tension was detected by almost every other predator on the reef. From behind me, an uncountable number of sharks raced at shocking speed towards this food, ruthlessly attacking. The speed at which these animals moved through the water was one of the most captivating aspects of this ordeal, as their movement is totally unlike anything else seen on land.

As well as sharks, tuna. Some of these tuna must’ve weighed well over 200kg and they threw their entire body weight in and out of this hopeless bait ball. I have never seen a feeding event quite as intense as this, and it would’ve easily made it onto David Attenborough’s to-narrate list had we filmed it.

Mesmerized, and euphoric, I was replaying this scene in my head and was a bit distracted from the dive for the next few minutes while I swam toward a swim-though (open cave) on autopilot. I had got halfway into the 10 meter long cave when I was quickly brought back into reality by the most almighty nurse shark I’ve ever seen. Easily 4 meters long, she was fast asleep inside the dark cave, resting on the sand and taking up all the remaining space. I put myself into reverse gear and went out backwards to call my dive buddies over for a look. So peaceful and relaxed was her disposition that had I not been pumped full of adrenaline moments earlier, I could’ve fallen asleep there too.

It may take most divers hundreds of dives to experience each of these individual events once in insolation, but somehow we got all of them, in sequence, all within the same hour. It was a dive I will never forget. Without a doubt it was a privilege to see the fulfilment of the ocean’s true potential on this day.

Orange is the new gold…

But the old gold is also sweet, and juicy, and grows right outside in my garden…

Just as the ocean was brimming with life, the rain has revived my garden with vibrant colour once again. The pineapples have been released from their green prison, and their first drink in weeks has allowed them to grow plump, golden, and fragrant. I’m currently harvesting at least one pineapple every day, almost too much to handle if I didn’t have any help from the divers on the boat desperate for a taste of Fiji once they resurface.

The juice spillage from the chopping board after some serious slicing is a key-hole sized view into just how juicy these things are. My favourite moment about finishing a tub is being able to drink the cup of fresh juice left at the end, tasting as sweet as honey.

My fridge space is in short supply with all of this fruit, and helping the pineapple take as much room as possible is the papaya. The knife glided through the flesh like warm butter, and the crystal beads of sugary water immediately appeared on ripe orange fruit. I couldn’t stop eating as I was cutting, yet a whole tub of chunks somehow evaded my greed by the time I was finished. So I went back for more… and more… and more.

$2 at the market, or 2 minutes from tree to table. I’ll never be bored of papaya.

The avocados are slowly but surely inflating like balloons. Only at about three quarters size, so I’m told, they are already bigger and rounder than any I’ve seen at a British supermarket. They might take a few more weeks to reach their full size, but once they turn from lime green into dark chocolate brown, I will finally be able to eat an avocado and poached egg on toast, just like at breakfast with my grandparents. I cannot wait!

These are two of many. Hard to count but to estimate I would say the tree has 30 fat green decorations dangling proudly.

For some strange reason, my bananas are still as the pineapples were, stuck in unripe jail. They have had plenty of rain and sun to help kickstart the ripening process, but I have seen no change since the drought. Perhaps they require a lot more water, due to their great size but the banana shoots and flowers surrounding them are quickly sprouting. Have they given up on these two bunches, focusing their efforts on new shoots? I hope not because I have banana recipes to experiment with. Only time will tell…

Maintaining the garden is tough but extremely rewarding. The tropical climate favours fast growing shrubs which quickly overcome any small fruiting plants, so even when I am tired from a week of solid work, I must go out into blazing hot sun and humid air to control weeds, tidy up loose palm leaves which come crashing down with an almighty crash and smother anything below, and replant pineapple heads. I have saved up a lot of heads to replant and made an afternoon out of it now that the ground is a bit more damp and manageable.

In two years from now, there will be even more of a goldrush!

One more high note…

This week, I met some wonderful people who share very similar interests to me, particularly regarding the rabbit whole world that is underwater photography, and I feel really inspired to keep the fire of my dream well lit moving into the future.

Kindly my Canadian friend has agreed to share some of his photos from our Namena trip which I hope to share with you, dear reader, as soon as I can. I have included a few of my own shots in this blog while I await those final edits. I expect the photo material from the PADI trip to arrive soon too, so in the imminent future, I should have some fabulous photos to share with everyone!

Finally, to end on a very positive note; my nightmares are officially over! As I get ready to publish this article I just received news from Fiji immigration that my visa has (at last) been granted. It feels like a weight off my shoulders to not have this looming over me like a storm cloud any longer.

I hope this was an entertaining account of my fabulous day on the ocean, I was not easy to put it all into words, and I think I used lots of them this week, so if you made it to the end, I truly appreciate your time. It means so much to be able to share these experiences. I look forward to telling more stories next week, vinaka, and sota tale!! ❤