Volume VI ..................................................................June, 1999
Dive into the New MilleniumSail for the 180th meridian, dive the planets true dateline and be the first to say Happy New Year 2000. Still looking for the perfect way to celebrate the earths turn into the new Millennium? Would you like to be the first diver to experience the start of a new era? Its not too late to join the worlds biggest party. NAIA has an exciting and most unusual expedition planned, sailing for the 180th meridian - the planets true dateline - as it slices through the remote islands and reefs of Rabi in Fijis north. Be among the first people to say Happy New Year 2000! And say it in a particularly beautiful and exotic location in the South Pacific. Dec 27: Arrive Nadi airport 3:30am; Short bus transfer directly to NAIA; Rest, breakfast and unpack as NAIA heads for the first days dives at Nukurauvula - awesome macro diversity. Dec 28: Bligh Reefs - Robs Knobs, Cats Meow and several new and spectacularly pristine dive sites exclusive to NAIA. Dec 29: The world-famous twin pinnacles of E6 and Mount Mutiny - 3000 feet of sheer ecstasy all the way to the surface! Dec 30: The lavish soft-coral color and myriad fish schools of Namena. Dec 31: Great White Wall and Somo Somo Straits; Cruise to Rabi Island right smack dab on the 180th meridian; Party like its 1999 or dive at midnight to greet the next 1000 years underwater. Jan 1 & 2: Rest and Recover! Wake up offshore of the idyllic white sand atoll of Wailagilala; Dive the clear virgin hard coral barrier reef around Duff Reef a rare remote haunt of nesting green and hawksbill turtles during January! Jan 3 & 4: Northern Laus magnificent Vanuabalavu; Dive channels, sheer walls and ocean pinnacles; Kayak deep fiord-like bays surrounded by jungle-covered cliffs; Skiff-ride through the maze of mushroom-rock islands in the shallow protected lagoon or hike to a stunning view. Jan 5: Our old faithful favorites at Gau Island including Nigalis curious gray whaler sharks and zillions of anthias at Jims Alley. Fight against grouper and morays for the right to have cleaner shrimp scour your gums for breakfast tid bits! Jan 6: Arrive 8am in Suva, spend the day sightseeing on shore. Have an early dinner onboard NAIA before taking the bus transfer to Nadi in time for the evening flight home. This special voyage costs US$7999.00 per person and includes all diving, accommodation, sumptuous gourmet cuisine, alcohol and beverages aboard NAIA, round-trip airfare LAX-Nadi, transfers and tax. For this charter we will take only direct bookings! Contact Alexx or Lisa at explore@naia.com.fj or more.
Ray Berch, a frequent NAIA diver and favorite of our crew boys, may seem meek and mild-mannered. But challenge him in a photo competition and you are likely to come off second best! Rays beautiful NAIA shots have won him several awards in US and international contests, including places in the Beneath The Sea, Our World Underwater, OCEANZ and Seaspace competitions. Ray also encourages and assists several other talented award-winning NAIA photographers from the Ford Seahorses Underwater Club in Michigan including Michael Kennedy and Tony Gramer. So it is with great pleasure that we congratulate Ray on his latest prize first in Seaspace 99 for a gorgeous arc-eye hawkfish close-up with a high-tide bilo of Kava from Fiji!
True, it would be simpler for NAIA to stay in Fiji and run only our regular and popular itineraries throughout the countrys lavish coral reefs and passages that we have come to know so well. But we share our passengers insatiable urge for adventure and discovery and we have this big, comfortable and capable ship. So, lets explore! NAIA has oft stretched her sea-legs over the past six years, but this coming year will be her most ambitious and exciting yet. In between her usual 7 and 10-day Central Fiji charters, she will again host a couple of special journeys into the remote Lau Islands of Fiji. In her fourth year in Tonga during the humpback whale mating and birthing season, 1999 sees NAIA sailing, diving and researching whales for six weeks (all full, sorry!) And in 2000 shell winter with the whales again throughout August and part of September. Our exhilarating taste in 1997 of Nikumaroro underwater whetted our appetite for more encounters there and a chance to discover marine treasures near the other seven barely-ever inhabited coral atolls that are an oasis for life in this ocean desert. The Smithsonian hosted an expedition there in the 60s to look at birds and plants. But NAIA will be the first to intensively survey the region underwater. More on this expedition in our next newsletter!
|