PARADISE

TRAVELLER
Top 13 diving sites
OUR REGION
PICTURE: DIVEPLANIT.COM
This narrow
waterway is
like fish soup.
Rays, big
dogtooth tuna,
barracuda,
grey reef
sharks and
loads of other
fish can be
seen on almost
every dive.
by many of the dive resorts on
Taveuni, including Taveuni Dive
Resort. It is also on one of the
itineraries of the small cruise ship
Reef Endeavour (owned by Captain
Cook Cruises Fiji), which allows
divers to visit a number of different
sites throughout Fiji on a single trip.
See taveunidiveresort.com,
captaincookcruisesfiji.com.
VANUATU
8
USS Tucker,
Espiritu Santo
Vanuatu is known equally for
its wrecks – big and small –
and its easily dived colourful reefs.
The USS Tucker was a World War
2 destroyer that struck a US mine
and sank near the west point of
Aore Island, off Espiritu Santo. At
104-metres long, both the stern
and bow are clearly recognisable
as the wreck is standing upright on
the flat bottom.
There are lots of places where
you can shine a torch into the
nooks and crannies, the beam
lighting up a myriad of very
surprised and colourful fish –
momentarily held captive by the
light. Diving the USS Tucker, it’s
possible to envisage, that fateful
moment, the explosion and violent
aftermath that transitioned quickly
to a silent, watery world.
Visibility: 20m
Depth: 24m
Ability level: Advanced Open
Water.
Stay: Santo Island Dive is based
in Luganville, has three boats
and access to all the best dive
sites around Santo – which is
also famous for the SS President
Coolidge and Million Dollar Beach
dive sites. See santodive.com.
INDONESIA
9
USAT Liberty Wreck,
Tulamben, Bali
Indonesia’s 7000 islands span
one eighth the way around
the globe and represent the base of
the Coral Triangle. Indonesia has a
dozen different diving regions, each
with dozens of dive sites, some
more challenging than others.
The USAT Liberty is an easily
accessed shore dive on Bali. With
hardly any current, it’s suitable
even for the absolute beginner.
No longer recognisable as a
124-metre ship, it’s more like a reef
built on a metal, rather than rocky,
substrate.
Fun to explore, every section has
its own special marine inhabitants:
sweetlips and batfish hover
motionless in every sheltered spot,
potato cod have their own cleaning
station, bump head parrotfish
roam the surrounding sands, and
even two turtles have taken up
residence. You can dive it four
times in one day – and still want to
go back and explore more.
Visibility: 20m
Depth: 5–20m
Ability level: Open Water,
beginner
Stay: There are a number of
resorts in Tulamben, within walking
distance of the site, but as Bali’s
sites are spread all around the
island, a better way is to take a
dive safari with Aquamarine Diving
Bali or Bali Hai Diving Adventures.
See aquamarinediving.com,
balihaidiving.com.
10
Sardine Reef, Raja
Ampat
Raja Ampat, the large
area of ocean to the
War wreck … the 104-metre USS Tucker went to the bottom after hitting a
mine at Espiritu Santo.
PICTURE: DIVEPLANIT.COM
east of West Papua’s Bird’s Head
Peninsula, contains over 600
islands, and probably even more
dive sites. Picking one is hard, but
Sardine Reef – an oval-shaped
underwater hill on the east side of
Kri – makes for an easily accessible
and representative ‘sampler’ of the
Raja Ampat experience.
Soft coral, gorgonian fans, black
coral bushes and slopes of coral
heads populate the entire Sardine
Reef area, and large schools
of fusiliers, sardines, damsels,
bannerfish, butterflyfish, sweetlips
and snappers frequent the site,
picking tasty morsels out of the
current.The pelagics often visit too,
with barracuda, giant trevallies
28 Paradise – Air Niugini’s in-flight magazine