Dive Review of Dive Gizo/Imagination Island in
Solomon Islands/Gizo

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Dive Gizo/Imagination Island: "Dive Gizo in the Solomon Islands", Oct, 2023, by Emmette Murkett, AL, US ( Reviewer 6 reports with 10 Helpful votes). Report 12651.
Photos Submitted with this Report Click on an image to see an enlarged version and captions
Ratings and Overall Comments 1 (worst) - 5 (best):
Accommodations		Food
Service and Attitude		Environmental Sensitivity
Dive Operation		Shore Diving	N/A
Snorkeling	N/A
Overall Rating
Value for $$
Beginners
Advanced
Comments	Number one on my bucket list was a trip to the Solomon Islands, which was postponed twice because of COVID. It started with a World War 2 history tour on the MV Bilikiki (see the article in the October 2023 edition of Undercurrent). This was not a dive trip, but a much different visit to various battle sites, traveling "the Slot" and over "Iron Bottom Sound", going as far as Plum Pudding Island, now known locally as "Kennedy Island", where JFK ended up after his PT Boat was rammed by a Japanese destroyer. Compared to the rest of the Solomons, the Biliki was clean, well run, safer and offered a much better selection of foods than anywhere on the smaller islands. The Valor Tour ([valortours.com link]) was fantastic, with an enthusiastic tour guide, but I could not go that far and not dive! Since the Bilikiki was booked the week before and after the Valor Tour, I opted for a trip up to Gizo. Since Fat Boys dive resort (the preferred resort) was also booked, Vicky at Valor Tours found Imagination Island, a tiny private island. All of this area is primitive, including Imagination Island. The resort had no hot water or air conditioning. The water pump and the interior lights were mysteriously only available when the generator was running. My building had several fans that were powered by batteries, but the water and lights were not. The generator went off after midnight and sometimes did not come back on until breakfast, and when they forgot to get more fuel. The dinner menu had the same things every night- usually "king fish", mud crab and eel. Twice they had crayfish. There is no free drinking water and only individual bottles are available for sale. The only approved dive shop in the area is Dive Gizo. The dive boat picked me up everyday at 9-9:30. On the first two days, we stopped at Fat Boys resort and picked up an Australian man and his teenaged daughter. For the last three days, I was the only diver. The diving was done from a small panga and most rides were less than fifteen minutes. Lunch and drinking water were provided and consumed on one of the many small islands during the surface interval. The dive guides were two local guys that had been trained by Danny, the ex-pat former Floridian that owns the dive shop. The guides would switch off between dives, using the same gear, even the same computer! The corals are in relatively good shape and the tropical fish were abundant. We saw several spotted eagle rays, small mantas and gray reef sharks that typically appeared out of the blue and were very shy. The diving around Plum Pudding Island is some of the best. There are several nice wrecks, including the MV Maru, a Japanese freighter sunk by Dauntless Dive Bombers. If the water is not too choppy, they will take you across the Furgeson Passage. After the first dive, they use the remainder of the first tank on an F6F Hellcat at about 15 feet.
Websites	Dive Gizo Imagination Island
Reporter and Travel
Dive Experience	Over 1000 dives
Where else diving	Caymans, Cozumel, Xcalak, Banco Chinchorro, Bimini, Southern Bahamas, Red Sea, Gulf of Mexico, US rivers and springs, Florida Keys, Belize, Culebra, Roatan, Cuba, Solomon Islands
Closest Airport	Honiara (Henderson Field)	Getting There	Take a long flight from LAX to Nadi, Fiji (pronounced Nandi) then to Honiara on Guadalcanal. To get to Gizo, take a Solomon Airlines Twin Otter from Honiara to Gizo via Munda, where they still fuel the planes from 55 gallon drums by hand, despite the new international terminal and runway.
Dive Conditions
Weather	rainy	Seas	calm, choppy, currents, no currents
Water Temp	83-89°F / 28-32°C	Wetsuit Thickness	1
Water Visibility	25-100 Ft/ 8-30 M
Dive Policy
Dive own profile	no
Enforced diving restrictions	Stay with the guide, who sometimes went over 35 meters (115')
Liveaboard?	no	Nitrox Available?	no
What I Saw
Sharks	1 or 2	Mantas	1 or 2
Dolphins	None	Whale Sharks	None
Turtles	1 or 2	Whales	None
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	The guides will hand you your camera after you enter the water and take it from you before you climb aboard. Imagination Island has no place to rinse gear except in the lavatory. The dive shop did a good job of taking my dive gear after the last dive of the day and rinsing and drying it.

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Dive Review of Dive Gizo/Imagination Island in Solomon Islands/Gizo

Dive Gizo/Imagination Island: "Dive Gizo in the Solomon Islands", Oct, 2023,

Photos Submitted with this Report

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 Dive Gizo/Imagination Island in
Solomon Islands/Gizo