DIVE LOG AUSTRALASIA ISSUE 413 AUGUST 25

Semi-circular Angelfish

Undescribed Medusa

nudibranchs we found more difficult. Nevertheless, we were able to swim against the current for some time watching two very large Barracuda but ultimately had to drift in the current over beautiful hard coral formations back towards the boat. Like many of our dive adventures, our excursion to Volivoli was coming to an end far too quickly. It was now time to take advantage of those additional activities that the resort has to offer that we mentioned earlier while we gassed-off after completing multiple dives on multiple days. On previous trips to Volivoli we had dived other breath-taking sites such as ‘Fantastic’, ‘Instant Replay’, ‘The ‘Maze’, ‘Pot Luck’, ‘Purple Haze’, ‘Dream Maker’, ‘Hi 8’, ‘Rapsody’, ‘Vatu Express’ and ‘Chilli’. Like those visited on this excursion, they are all world class. Therefore, collectively there are 50 or so of the 80 known dive sites we are yet to visit. Additionally, given its 390 different species of coral and 1,200 species of fish, we acknowledge you could spend a lifetime diving at Volivoli and still not see it all, especially if diving in the Bligh Waters Vatu-I-RA Conservation Park. This leads us to the question of whether we would go back yet again? The answer is simply yes.

particular, and as the name implies, the number of nemo colonies of different species at Nemo’s Playground was extraordinary. It was our last day of diving, and the weather had significantly improved so we were off to the Bligh Waters Conservation Park again for two extraordinary dives. The first was at Mount Mutiny with its name reflecting an historical connection to the ‘Mutiny on Bounty’ saga and Captain Bligh. This is an extremely large bommie, so large in fact that even with 30 mts visibility you get the feeling that you are doing a wall dive rather than diving on a curved and discrete structure coming out of very deep water. Again we were greeted by schools of Anthias, Damsels and Chromis that darted in and out of the yellow Sea Fans and orange Soft Corals. A Scorpion fish and several nudibranchs provided great subject material for our cameras. Our second dive was at Lost World which started as relatively shallow wall dive, but as we swam further the wall became steeper and disappeared into the abyss. It was covered with small yellow Soft Corals and again schools of Anthias and other reef fish darted about. Eventually the current picked up which made photographing the several species of

Sunset from the dive shop area.

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DIVE LOG Australasia #413 - August 25

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