Fiji Trip

[walt smith]

Hi to all,
Actually I posted this on another board and was interested in your reactions as well. I have not been logged on for a long time but our good friend jameso helped me get back.

Hello all,
I am just checking to see if anyone would be interested in a tour of our coral farms and collection sites in Fiji. I am starting to get a lot of emails from people requesting this sort of thing and we are just now looking into setting up a group package to take advantage of some special deals that may (or may not) be available. Since I am not in the travel business there is a lot I do not know but do have some pretty good connections with some of the resorts. If you start a poll and I see a considerable amount of interest generated I will go further with my investigation into the matter. Off the top of my head I would guess that a trip of this nature would probably cost about $3,500. - $4,000. per person but couples sharing would probably be a bit cheaper.
Let me know if there is any interest and I will take it top the next step. To answer one very often asked question from the start .... No, it is not possible to collect anything for yourself while you are there. There are some pretty strong guidelines regarding the collection sites and their custodians that would restrict this type of activity for tourist in Fiji and on the other end, you would need to be a regular importer with an import permit to bring it into the US.
I will be watching this post to see if there is any interest generated.
Cheers, Walt

 

[Anonymous]

Definitely interested, although it would be at least a couple years before I would hope to be able to spend that kind of $ on a vacation.

I don't anticipate any trouble talking my esposa into a trip to Fiji. 8)

 

[Anonymous]

Hi Walt, don't know if you recollect meeting me about 3 or 4 weeks ago with Bob Fenner. I'd be game to go on behalf of WWM, just need to do some schedule juggling and all.

 

[npaden]

My wife and I will be in Fiji on June 23rd through July 3rd. We will only be on the big island for a day though. Flying in to Nandi on the 23rd then flying out to Tavenui the next day.

We will have a bit of time the morning of the 24th to kill but probably not enough to spend any time touring your facilities. Any must do or see things around Nandi that we can do that morning?

Thanks, Nathan Paden

 

[jamesw]

Nathan,

You can probably get an earlier flight back to Nandi - they fly like every hour. If you can - then do it!

I got to visit Walt's coral farms a couple of years ago. I never published the photos - so I guess it's high time. I'll try to dig them out tonight.

Cheers
James

 

[jamesw]

Hi Gang,

As promised, here are some photos and a very brief trip report from my visit to WSI's coral farm:

http://reefs.org/ops/jameso/fiji/index.htm

A couple of pix to whet your appetite perhaps? All photos are taken with a Coolpix 990 in about 15 feet of water using natural light:

For anyone who gets a chance to make the trip to Fiji - you should definitely plan a side trip to Walt's place.

I flew over to Fiji on frequent flier miles and stayed at a friends house and later on Taveuni in a nice Buree for US$30 a night - the trip did NOT cost me all that much. Perhaps $1,000 for 10 days... and that included as much diving as I could fit in.

Cheers
James Wiseman

 

[fungia]

i am so tempted

 

[jamesw]

bump