Matamanoa Island Snorkeling

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Richard aspinall is exploring the Yasawa Isles of Fiji. His astonishing experiences are shared by a island of corals full of pulsating, lovely marine activity. I then had the chance to go halfway around the globe to Fiji, and when I read the booklet I realised how mistaken I was, there was a thing named the" shop cruise" and I had opened my mind to a whole new way of seeing some of the best scenery, beech trees, cliffs, isles, and deep blue corals I had ever seen.

Excellent snorkeling in the marine reserve in front of Matamanoa Resort. "``Blue Lagoon Cruises, It's where they filmmed Blue Lagoon and Castaway,` said Ellen, the representative of the business who asked me to photograph by boot. "Really," I said, "The real island where Tom Hanks went crazy with a hoopball named Wilson?

Following a long but very convenient Air New Zealand trip from London and an equal long but fortunately very convenient night from LA, with Fiji Airways, I got to Nadi International Airway four hrs and a whole night before I left - I think (the International Date Line still baffles me).

adi is an amazing place and I would suggest a stroll around the square to absorb some spot color: crisp fruits and veggies, seafood and the slightly anaesthetic cava roots are stacked high so that everyone can see it, and if you ask for approval, the natives will posture for a picture, especially if you buy a daddy or two.

For the Yasawa and Mamanuca archipels, drive to the marina in Denarau just in front of Nadi. The small port is well serviced by the double-hull boat fleets connecting the distant isles. Yasawas are a nowadays inert range of vulcanic island chains, overgrown by forests and one of the most isolated by Fiji criteria.

Situated to the west of the major coral canals, they are the paradisiacal island on which they appear, and they are enclosed by relatively flatwater. For five and a half day my home was a boat named Fiji Princess, double-hulled and with a flat draught it is small for cruisers.

It can manoeuvre its sixty visitors into flat moorings and within a few meters from some of the best beech trees in the South Pacific. Fiji-princess, our home for the whole group. Most of the shoals were seaweed and I chased in futile fashion for little horses before I came across a steep slope and my first local hard rockef.

Fiji-princess at anchor for a snorkeling excursion. I have always been inspired by scuba divers and the rugged seas and as such they have aroused, directed and sometimes limited my interest in caught coral and invertebrates and the sight of them.

First thing I noticed were the colours, some of the best aqua acropora I have ever seen. Entire settlements were tender azure, others whitish with piercing bluish spikes, all among a vast amount of others, and mainly tabulating proliferations of acro, with solid porites settlements in and below.

There was abundant fishing activity and this was where coral red butterflies and grassing thongs, such as crimson-coloured shoulders and bluish food predominated. To see big schools in individual types is one of the pleasures to see the "real" one. Prisoners in gorgeous acrobatics. Seafood and chickens were covered in leaf bananas and boiled from the hot fire.

Next would be a real dive that the Fiji Princess crews had organised for me. My aim was to photograph the local clown Amphiprion bareberi, I had a wide-angle objective attached to my body and wanted to photograph the clownish in their anemon-bearers.

"Ah, Fiji Nemo," Niko the leader on the ship had said. I' m having a hard time getting some great wide-angle snapshots of corals. I noticed Niko and beckoned me to one, the buffoons were Clarkkii, not the only reddish stripey reddish shark I was after.

On this spot the coral was a little smaller, not the amount of sands and debris associated with a dive in comparison to the one I snorkelled before. It is my guess that the hurricanes that strike these isles every few years will roam the flat coves.

In the middle of this picture is a gorgeous little Christmas woodworm. It is always a pleasure to observe the kinds of aquarium animals I have seen, and this excursion was no exeption, as the Moorish idol is abundant and very healthful (which unfortunately cannot be guarantied in captivity).

This lovely pelagic have always been one of my favourites and look spectacular at the bottom with a very deep shade of bluish to the candle. For a while I observed a couple as they selected seaweed and a few polyp corals to swim past. It is interesting that the examples I saw were more associated with ruins than with areas full of corals.

On that night I was spending a little bit of quality with Dan, a South Carolina sea life scientist, who was working on a voluntary entry on an island near by. He came aboard to speak with the visitors about the nature protection work he led on the Yasawa Islands and to report to the visitors about the problems of the local hard reef.

Noticing the benefits tourist can provide in the form of holiday spots that close their water for fish to promote snorkelling and scuba-dive among the relatively wealthy tourist, he said to us that the dark side is that many local'shell markets' still have kinds like Triton's Trumpet and various Tridacnidae.

It is clear to us that the marine environment is an important part of what travellers can expect from us, so there are frequent diving excursions and of course snorkelling tours every two years. So I quickly made a reservation for the next morning and arranged with Dan that we could do a full diving at the shore like any other diver, but also visit the mussel shelter.

Dan's work is financed by a non-profit organization named Vanaka Fiji ("Vinaka" means thank you) financed by the Yasawas Islands Trust, which was established to tell the natives "vinaka" and to share the profit of Blue Lagoon Crosses (and related companies) in the communities, the community and the surrounding area. I was delighted to know that my time in Fiji benefited the area and its inhabitants, all of whom were unbelievably welcome.

On the next morning we were collected by the Fiji princess and a small trip by small ferry brought us to the diving base on Barefoot Island, where Dan was stationed. Sight was much better here and as we were descending into the flat sandy sea at a near shore of reefs - a row of gorges with blank sands - I realised that I could see so much more of it.

The turbinarea was amazingly solid, the whole reef was about ten metres wide. Corals gave the area its name and is now called'Cabbage Reef'. On about ten metres, full of debris, stood an old wood vessel and was sitting between the blocks of corals, some of the largest Tridacnid I had ever seen.

Oysters that have not "grown into" the wall of the wall are very much liked by the indigenous "naughty" octopuses (his words not mine). One of the new projects underway by the Tams is a set of fragments of coral that will provide the foundation for "mother" settlements to build new ones and expand the variety of re-efs after thorn-crown eruptions.

Next morning I was enjoying the sand, watched the crayfish on the bank and looked along the line of water before I took another snaorkel over an algal dominant flat fringe before I still had no sea horses! During the four and a half years I was on board the Fiji Princes, I think I snorkelled twice a full dive.

Visitors can go swimming in a fresh water raft within a lime stone island, go to several towns and dine with the village people, and attend a top senior high schools to see some of the best senior citizens I have ever known. Ashore you can go to the Nadi market, other towns and even an Orchids Gardens that once belonged to Raymond Burr (yes, he was a famous Perry Mason), but I have to take this item back to the shore and sea.

Every day we catch live freshwater seafood. The last few outings in Fiji I had at Matamanoa Island Resort. In Fiji, many indigenous bird populations are at risk of changes in the use of the country and have brought in endangered wildlife such as mongooses and rivets. Luxurious mansions in Matamanoa. Even more snorkelling on Matamanoa beaches.

As with many resort areas in the area, the water of Matamanoa has been designated a Sea Reserve by the locals (only Fijians can own Fiji territory, so resort areas can be hired from the locals). I often feel that if a sound dive deserves more tourists dollar than a broken or over fished dive, then a small win was achieved, and in fact snorkelling here was great, with large schools of tanga, small Hareman groups of bicolored cherubs, many blended motley and even a small blacktip sharks, but still no Barbary clown.

At that point I chose to get rid of the buffoons and my wish to kill them - because I had seen many blue-stained filefish in the shallows - I pretended instead that they were my target and I would be glad again. Now I am a little bulkier (and therefore more buoyant) than I should be and snorkelling with a large diving cam is not simple, especially in two metres of clear waters over sensitive acropora.

Rather than prowl for my catch, I drifted around a bit, got sunburned and very disappointed - but I did at last manage to get some proper pictures - the first I've ever taken of this great game. From London Heathrow nach LA mit Air New Zealand (www.airnewzealand.co. uk/) und dann nach Nadi mit Fiji Airways (www.fijiairways.com/).

Blues Lagoon Trips (www.bluelagooncruises.com/). Yasawa Trust Foundation was founded in 2010 and has launched the Volunteer Program in Fiji's far-flung Yasawa Islands. Willy Fiji would like to invite you to join the Fiji Islands and help the local communities in the isolated Yasawa Islands.