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Dive Review of Mai Dive in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Ono Island

Mai Dive, Jun, 2009,

by Jerri Moore, TX, USA (Sr. Reviewer Sr. Reviewer 7 reports with 1 Helpful vote). Report 4889 has 1 Helpful vote.

No photos available at this time

Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Accommodations 4 stars Food 4 stars
Service and Attitude 5 stars Environmental Sensitivity 4 stars
Dive Operation 5 stars Shore Diving 4 stars
Snorkeling 4 stars
Value for $$ 5 stars
Beginners 3 stars
Advanced 5 stars
Comments We recently returned from a 9 nite trip to Ono Island, the small island north of Kadavu. We stayed and dived with Mai Dive which is owned and operated by Jason & his wife Danielle.

Mai Dive is about 5 minutes from the Astrolabe Reef and the diving was very good. Our dives were inside and outside the Astrolabe, bommies, walls, and channels We were impressed with the critter sightings....sea snake, pipehorses, lots of sharks, clownfish in several differently colored brilliant anemones, eagle rays, blue spotted rays, potato cod, sweetlips, BIG morays and BIG mantas plus the entire cast of Pacific tropicals and hard/soft corals. Jason works hard at providing the optimal diving experience for each diver and we found him and his DMs to be safety conscious but not overbearing. Jason grew up diving these waters and he and his crew know them like the back of their hand. One day there were 7 divers in our boat but most of the trip it was just the two of us, sometime there were two or three others. His rental gear was well-maintained and practically new and his boats were fast. We've done quite a bit of private boat diving and Mai Dive has the most capable and knowledgeable captains we've encountered.

We had an intimate spacious bungalow at the end of the beach with our own big deck only feet from the beach, and we appreciated the comfortable beds and an outside hot shower for after dives. The food was delicious and varied, and the ladies doing the cooking have a great handle on baked goods! We enjoyed menus featuring produce from their large organic garden for our meals and snacks.

The resort is located on the east side of Ono and the entire time we were there we never saw another dive boat. It was like having the resort and the island to ourselves, and the entire staff went out of their way to make us feel at home, quickly granting any request made. Our evening spent in the village which the boat captains and some of the resort staff lived in was very likely the most "authentic" Fijian experience to be had in the islands.

A highlight of our stay was the time we spent with 5-7 mantas just a short boatride from Mai Dive. I filled up a 2g card with very close encounters from several angles as the big guys just noted our presence, and then went on about their feeding and circling over a cleaning station.....it alone was worth the trip!

The Fiji dollar has been devalued and Air Pacific has some great fares from LAX so it was less than the cost of some trips we've made to the Caribbean from Texas.

Mai Dive is a small, undiscovered "special place" in the Pacific and we intend to return as soon as possible.

Reporter and Travel

Dive Experience 101-250 dives
Where else diving All over the Caribbean
Closest Airport Getting There

Dive Conditions

Weather windy, rainy, cloudy Seas choppy, surge, currents, no currents
Water Temp 76-78°F / 24-26°C Wetsuit Thickness 3
Water Visibility 60-80 Ft/ 18-24 M

Dive Policy

Dive own profile yes
Enforced diving restrictions [Unspecified]
Liveaboard? no Nitrox Available? N/A

What I Saw

Sharks Lots Mantas Squadrons
Dolphins None Whale Sharks None
Turtles > 2 Whales None
Corals 4 stars Tropical Fish 4 stars
Small Critters 4 stars Large Fish 5 stars
Large Pelagics 5 stars

Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):

Subject Matter N/A Boat Facilities N/A
Overall rating for UWP's N/A Shore Facilities N/A
UW Photo Comments [None]
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Note: The information here was reported by the author above, but has NOT been reviewed nor edited by Undercurrent prior to posting on our website. Please report any major problems by writing to us and referencing the report number above.

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