“Precious Moments Beside Dear Paradise”

Looking to relax? Looking for rich gorgeous coral reefs? Looking for warm friendly people? Do you love singing? Looking for a resort with onsite management? In December, I spent 3 weeks at Paradise Taveuni and I’d return there again and again. Why? “Flo Knows” and “Go with the Flo”: All islands ... lisää

Looking to relax? Looking for rich gorgeous coral reefs? Looking for warm friendly people? Do you love singing? Looking for a resort with onsite management? In December, I spent 3 weeks at Paradise Taveuni and I’d return there again and again. Why? “Flo Knows” and “Go with the Flo”: All islands tend to be on island time where 11:30 is noon. Let’s lead with meeting Paradise’s local leader Flo. With her natural heartfelt smile, Flo will keep you on track for all your spa appointments, dives, meals and excursions without missing a beat. You can simply relax and, “Go with the Flo.” The Paradise team includes several delightful personalities: Eta, Illi, Selia, Nani, Eleanoa, Kimali, Wai Niu, Rosa, Rina, TeFoto/Ashley, Dory, Isiteri & Sefo, Gina and Lawa (my apologies for all of the names I cannot remember). I had the bonus opportunity to hang out with visiting Marine Science coral expert Noah and intern Collin, who were SO FUN to dive and talk with! This team has embossed their love and care onto my soul and I miss them all very much! Paradise Taveuni Resort has expert reef & geography knowing divemasters. The shop is managed by a gem, (King) Solomon who is a joy to work with every time. The professional dive leadership is led by Manasa, who is both extremely experienced with the local Fiji reefs and heavenly to dive with. I had a fantastic bang-up time diving with Uli, Sio and AP, both day and night. They absolutely know where they are and where you are. They know how to find and show you the coolest critters, from large to tiny macro life while still protecting the coral. When Scuba diving, a good captain is critical. Captains Apex and Michael were both very knowledgeable. They really know the reefs and can drop you in exactly where you’re supposed to be. The resort has 3 boats (2 larger aluminum catamarans and a skiff). Paradise might be the only Taveuni operator to dive Vuna reef. The diving was remarkable, and every dive name was LITERALLY as specific and awesome as their namesakes. Vuna Reef and Rainbow Reef (Paradise is approximately a 30-40 minute boat ride to Rainbow Reef): Pilot Whales—Though I read about Pilot Whales in the island description, I was not expecting to come across a large pod of pilot whales with babies on the way to Rainbow Reef. For safety, the captain did not want any divers to jump in. However, I later found out that another diver who chartered the resort skiff privately, that guy DID jump in and he captured an amateur Go-Pro video of a TIGER SHARK watching the pilot whale pod for stray babies! Now we know why the captain didn’t want us to jump! Manta Rays—I thought I hadn’t seen anything big in the water until I did! On the way to dive Rainbow reef we came across surface-visible groups of manta rays feeding. We jumped in and snorkeled with them for 5-10 minutes, then we did our dive there where we could see them from below as well—it was a beautiful dive. It got better during our surface interval, like the famous Hawaiian manta dive, when we were snorkeling our interval, and we were surrounded by them (I counted 9 of them). Divemaster Uli and I swam very far from the boat to greet them, and it was memorable to see him just being still and surrounded by the mantas. Divemaster Uli said he had only seen that once on the surface before! Rainbow Reef-The Great White Wall: I got in THREE perfect dives at the White Wall, which were FANTASTIC! Rainbow Reef-Cabbage Patch: (Uli can find the hairy ghost pipefish at that site!) Rainbow Reef-the Zoo: this site had dazzling fishy pelagic views and literally a zoo of all sizes of fish in the water column, including a few white tip sharks. Rainbow Reef-Purple Wall: delivered lots of purple soft corals, just like the name. Rainbow Reef-Fish Factory: a favorite that you must see—so fishy! Vuna Reef-Coral Gardens: my dives at Vuna Coral Gardens were just as described. The hard coral at Coral Gardens is in excellent shape. I LOVED the resort’s house reef. It is a deep-water entry species-rich reef that hosts a few blue-ribbon eels, a banded sea krait, frog fish and a LOT more. The entry is a ladder from the dock so you can dive it anytime their dive shop is open. The entry can be accessed during both high and low tide, so if the shop is open, the ocean is open. The requirement to dive the house reef is to dive it guided first and divemaster Alosio was able to show me my first blue ribbon eel straight away! Paradise boasts a perfect ocean view spa with exceptional deep massage practitioners, Katarina, Rusilla and Selia. They are caring, intuitive and healing. They have several other offerings that you can see on their spa menu. Paradise is a relaxing environment, super clean, lovely landscaping, and such an easy place to be. You walk a few steps to meals, a few steps to dive (or to the boat), or a few steps to the spa. As an “aquaholic” (thanks Eta), I appreciated the abundant fresh drinking water. The bures have both good air flow and screened windows. There was always hot water in the indoor and outdoor bure showers. YES you get that iconic outdoor Fiji shower that is both outdoors and with full privacy. FIJI NIGHT! Do not miss the fun spirited song and dance Fiji night. Fiji night is both educational and fun fun fun. You can sing along or dance if you want to, or just chill and observe. I miss Fiji night! Sefo serenaded many meals and special events with his lovely soothing voice. Sefo also plays both guitar and ukulele. He knows a variety of different Fijian songs; quite the set list! Note that I require a special vegan diet of green plants and no-oil. I was delighted with the varied and interesting meals that met my requirements. I send so much gratitude to the kitchen staff. It was wonderful to be able to communicate with Chef Allan Gortan directly. They came up with some very cool delicious favorites such as Curry and Dahl, Mixed Vegetables with Potatoes or Roti, Vegan Shepherd’s Pie, Potato Vegetable Cakes, Papaya Cakes with Jeera and Lemongrass Vegetable Soup with Rice Noodles. I loved the giant soups with greens they made for me because when SCUBA diving, hydration is best practice! The outstanding, friendly, Fiji-passionate, kind staff has been nurtured by the Paradise owners Terri and Allan Gortan. The Gortan’s are present, visible, and easy to communicate with. Terri is a resort superwoman and Allan is both the resort Chef and an avid SCUBA diver. A tour of the marvelous resort garden showcases their self-sufficiency! On dive days and excursions, Flo and the team made sure that I had all my vegan snacks and vegan lunch. I embarked on 4 excursions during my stay. My first excursion was a visit after diving (by boat) to Kioa Island. This encounter was beautiful, educational, powerful and I would love to visit them again. A special highlight of my trip, Kioa Island was filled with dancing, singing, and more wonderful warm people. I doubled up the waterfall tours, visited the Lavena Coastline, the international date line, swam in a waterfall, visited Bouma waterfall and the natural waterslide. This tour was led by fun, informed and efficient tour guides Dan and Nani in an air-conditioned van. We drove around almost the entire island! The resort sent lunch and we were back in time for dinner. On Christmas, per my request, I was blessed to visit Vuna Village’s Catholic Christmas mass accompanied by Flo. This was memorable with more lovely people and more singing. It was also very cool to see the Vuna reef that I already dove from the village. Do not miss a visit to Vuna Village! I have wholehearted gratitude for this special holiday visit. The resort decorated and provided a special Christmas dinner with visiting carolers from another Vuna church. More singing! Bobby’s Farm, Nabogiono Farm, was my final excursion and what an important visit. Bobby is a true steward caring for his 100-acre agroforestry botanic garden of endemic Fijian fruit and spice trees. He has mature trees that you are familiar with and many you’ve never heard of. His food forest farm also grows vegetables such as Taro and Cassava. The Fijian birds know that Bobby loves trees, and his agroforest is the place to be. Bring your binoculars and don’t miss early morning or evening sightings of some very colorful birds at Bobby’s Farm! Beyond the exceptional diving with Uli, Sio and Manasa, and food, I will fly all the way back to Fiji to hear Sio & Eta’s announcements accompanied by the Fijian lali drum, to hear Eta’s laugh, see Illi’s smile, adventure with Flo, sing with Sefo, chat more with Wai and Rosa, and to dance dance dance as the sun sets with Isiteri, Selia, Nani, Eleanoa, Kata, Kimali, King Solomon, Gina, Lawa, Rusilla and TeFoto/Ashley. Isa lei, na noqu rarawa, Ni ko sana vodo e na mataka Bau nanuma, na nodatou lasa, Mai Paratisi nanuma tiko ga.

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