Bula! from Fiji

Bula is the common greeting in Fiji, usually said with hearty exclamation.  We spent a week at a dive resort on one of the smaller islands, Taveuni, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.  The resort was very up-market for us, and I reveled in the space, luxury and awesome food (and cocktails!).  We had originally booked only 4 days of diving, giving us 2 days to explore the island.  However, we were loving the diving so much, that we bagged any idea of going to see "yet another waterfall", and opted to dive every day we could.

Teardrop butterflyfish

The water was definitely colder than nearer the equator (duh!), and was 78 degrees, where it had been 85 degrees in Papua New Guinea.  Both the hard corals and soft corals were very healthy.  The red and lavender clumps in the picture above are soft corals.

We're going to try and set up a Google folder of pics, for those who want to see more, and leave links within this blog, but Steve just told me that we'll have to wait until we get back to the States to do this.  So be watching for a blog with links, to come!

Longnose filefish

So, in the meantime, I'll send on more interesting fish pictures and videos.  The fish above is pretty uncommon, and looks like no other fish we've seen yet.

In the next video, note the unicorn fish in the middle, with the white tail. (what a cool shape, and very apropos name)  We don't remember noticing this species before, but they were here in large enough numbers to make schools  You may want to watch the video a few times and see all the variety, as well as density of the fish.

The next fish, a Yellowtail Coris, when it is a juvenile, looks like this:

... and as a teenager, it looks like this:          (the adult is pretty bland)

In the next video, watch the color change of the Cornetfish (the long, narrow one hanging above the coral).

A Blue Ribbon eel is one of the most colorful to be found:

He says "Vinaka" (thank you) for tuning in today.  I'll post another Fiji blog in a few days.

I can't resist closing with a sunset shot.  These are the true colors we saw (there was no enhancing or editing done to this picture)!