Dive Review of Oneta Resort/Oneta in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Ono Island

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Oneta Resort/Oneta: "Diving on the Astrolabe Reef", Aug, 2023, by Dave White, CA, US ( Reviewer 6 reports with 4 Helpful votes). Report 12507.
No photos available at this time
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	This is our second trip to Oneta Resort on Ono Island in South Fiji. Ono is situated on the Great Astrolabe Reef which is a horseshoe shaped reef many miles long. The resort is owned by an American couple and is managed by a Austrailian/Fijian gentleman. The resort is small, accommodating around 25 people. The resort was badly damaged in 2020 by Cyclone Harold and has been completely rebuilt. They have a couple more bures planned and a pool for dive instruction. Air travel took 18 hours; San Francisco to Nadi, Nadi to Suva, Suva to Kadavu. At Kadavu Airport, you wade out to a boat for a 1 ½ hour boat ride to the resort. Have some shorts and water proof shoes handy to change into at the Kadavu airport. Some days you can fly straight from Nadi to Kandavu. They have several boats, two dedicated to diving. One has a maximum capacity of ten, the other eight. They also have several other boats, some dedicated to fishing, some for moving supplies. The boat crews consisted of a Captain, a deck hand and a dive master, all local Fijians. For more than 6 divers they had a second divemaster. The crew was extremely helpful. When you told the divemaster what you wanted to see, he would do his best to find it. Dive boats are aluminum with outboard motors. Most of the time, it was only the four of us on the boat. There were a few other divers off and on and a number of snorkelers. There also were a few fishermen. The Astrolabe Reef is horseshoe shaped, so there is an inside portion of the reef and an ocean side. On rougher days, they dive inside the reef. Visibility is lower on the inside but still OK. The corals aren’t as vibrant on the inside potion of the reef. The days we dove the outside of the reef, we had much better visibility (80-100’) and the reefs were covered with hard corals. We were somewhat disappointed in the soft corals. It was there, but not near as abundant or as large as some other locations, such as Bequa Lagoon. There is shore diving, but it a ways off the resort and we did not do a shore dive. Lots of nudibranchs, anemonefish and other smaller fish. We saw a few reef sharks and one turtle. There is a Manta cleaning site which almost always produces one or more Mantas. Several times we had Dolphins running with the boat and we saw one Humpback whale. We went in July, which is Fiji’s winter and is subject to wind. We were there for 2 weeks and 5 days were blown out so we lost some dive days. The rough ocean affected the visibility, particularly inside the reef. Richard, the resort manager worked hard to give us alternate activities. Conditions ranged from sunny and glassy flat to pouring rain, strong winds and rough seas. May/June and October/November are the best weather months. Oneta Resort is a small resort dedicated to diving, snorkeling, fishing or just relaxing. The rooms are thatched bures and very Fijian. There are also two villas with multiple bedrooms. Alternate activities included hikes to waterfalls, visiting the local village, and garden tours. The food was excellent. There was a breakfast menu with a variety of choices. Lunch had two choices and dinner was set. If you didn’t like what the choices were for that meal, you could make requests and if possible they would accommodate. They would produce special meals for those with specific food issues. Just let them know when you book so they can have the appropriate food on hand. The resort operates primarily on solar power, but when it is cloudy, they have to supplement with a generator. Oneta is a small, laid back resort. If you want night life and lots of other activities this isn’t the place for you. If you want to dive, fish, and relax, I can’t think of a better place to go. Everyone there will bend over backwards to make sure you have a good time and all of the staff is extremely friendly, and the diving is pretty good also.
Websites	Oneta
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	501-1000 dives
Where else diving	Caymans, Roatan, Fiji, Bali, Sulawesi, Caribbean, California
Closest Airport	Kadavu	Getting There	SFO to Nadi to Kadavu on Fiji Airways. Boat from Kadavu to Oneta.
Dive Conditions
Weather	sunny, windy, rainy	Seas	calm, choppy
Water Temp	77-77°F / 25-25°C	Wetsuit Thickness	3
Water Visibility	30-100 Ft/ 9-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	?
Enforced diving restrictions	We told the dive staff the type of profile we wanted for photography and they accommodated us.
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	N/A
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	Squadrons
Dolphins	Schools	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	1 or 2
Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):
Corals		Tropical Fish
Small Critters		Large Fish
Large Pelagics
Underwater Photography 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Subject Matter		Boat Facilities
Overall rating for UWP's		Shore Facilities
UW Photo Comments	Oneta apparently doesn't get many U/W photographers. They did accommodate us, placing two rinse buckets on the boat and were careful handling camera gear. They have several rinse tubs at the dive shop that are refilled every day. There is one smaller one ideal for cameras. There was some education needed by the dive staff regarding rinsing masks in the boat buckets and placing other dive gear in the camera tub at the dive shop. Once we discussed it with them, no more problems.

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Dive Review of Oneta Resort/Oneta in Fiji and Tuvalu/Ono Island

Oneta Resort/Oneta: "Diving on the Astrolabe Reef", Aug, 2023,

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

Overall Rating

Reporter and Travel

Dive Conditions

Dive Policy

What I Saw

Ratings 1(worst) - 5 (best):

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

Dive Review of Oneta Resort/Oneta in
Fiji and Tuvalu/Ono Island