Kadavu --The Astrolabe Reef
1. North Astrolabe Reef 9. Butterfly Bommie
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10.Gutu Gutu 11. Evil Trench 16. Bure's Jewel 17. Maui Cake 18. Cakau Se |
Kadavu (pronounced Kahn-da-voo), lies only 88 kilometers south of Suva. It's approximately 48 kilometers in length and varies in width from 365 meters to 13 kilome ters. Its area is 411 square kilometers, just a bit less than Taveuni. Though remote, Kadavu is well known by divers for its rich diversity of undersea life, particularly in the Astrolabe Reef. The reefs encircling Kadavu also offer outstanding diving. In particular the Namalata and Tavuki reefs have had a good deal of exploration and are the focus of excellent diving.
Dive Commentary From Undercurrent
Undercurrent, a Sausalito, California based publication has graciously provided Fijiguide.com with commentary on Taveuni and Savusavu destinations from staff writers and readers. With the exception of one report, the verbiage below is generally not more than two years old.
Kadavu
One site delivered several mantas, which they say is dependable. The coral has taken a beating from cyclones but still plenty to see. One site was an absolute 
fairyland which was a mesmerizing with variety and critters at every turn. We were told that we needed to come up at 750 psi, which caused some grief, since management only filled tanks to 2700 pounds. So, we had less than 2000 psi of usable air for each dive we’d traveled 6,000 miles to enjoy. When we asked for more air, we were told that they fill the tanks to 3000 psi hot, according to PSI standards, and when they cool, they have “less” air. Two of our group are PSI-certified cylinder inspector and knew that the standards being imposed were more conservative than PSI standards. To be fair, one reason Matava short filled tanks was that they are at such a emote site, they don’t want to stress their tanks and have to replace them because it is so expensive to get to the resort. As it turned out, management was most responsive to our request for more air and increased bottom time. They filled tanks after the day’s diving, and in the morning they topped them off to 3000
when cool so we all had full tanks the rest of the time. Matava is a wonderful, remote getaway where the people will make you feel welcome like family. The food will more than satisfy."
A beautiful mix of soft and hard corals, sea squirts, crinoids
, anemones and sponges and tons of fish made for a dizzying experience on every dive. White tip, and gray reef sharks on every dive, turtles almost every time, a curious 3 foot long Remora that followed us for an entire dive and the largest moray eel we have ever seen — it’s head was a big as mine and it must have been at least 6 feet long. Blue ribbon eels, lionfish, enormous groupers — one at least 5 feet tail to tip, schools of barracuda and trevally, and pretty blue and gold fusiliers, giant clams everywhere, lots of unusual, brightly colored nudibranchs, and clouds of purple and gold anthias. Some other unusual fish (for us) included blackfin dartfish, the many lovely butterfly and banner fish (I loved the pennant and regal varieties), bumphead parrotfish, and tobies — a variety of pufferfish. Many different anemone fish cuddled coyly amongst the anemone tentacles or charged bravely out to confront us if we hovered close by. There were also many wrasses, damsels, angels, surgeons, trout, snappers, parrotfish, filefish, roupers and hinds, cleaning stations, picasso and triggerfish, six kinds of star fish, brittle stars, cowries, scallops, oysters. The dive sites are so pristine that many don’t have names. Our favorite places were the north and south side of Naigoro Pass and Alacrity Rocks. The pass is a drift dive and exactly where we began and ended depended on the current. Alacrity Rocks offers many beautiful swim throughs encrusted with delicate lace corals in soft, glowing blues, purples, yellows and whites. Tiliva’s divemaster, Filipe O’Connor tailored each dive to meet our wishes, and at the same time gave us a very safe and enjoyable experience. For our first three days we werethe only divers and 
enjoyed complete freedom to dive when and where we wished (given tides and currents). Most of the time we just followed Filipe because he knows how to find the good stuff — like a hole in the rock with two fairy and three bumblebee shrimp or a coral head with eight different colors of soft coral. At the end of our week two other divers joined us on the well-equipped boat (oxygen, first aid kit, radio phones, etc.). We never saw another dive boat the entire week. Surface intervals were on a lovely, pristine beach with fresh tropical fruit. I found two large and undamaged chambered nautilus shells washed up on the beach."
KADAVU DIVE OPERATIONS
DIVE KADAVU
Based at Matana Beach Resort
(679) 666-6738
admin@divekadavu.com
www.divekadavu.com
MATAVA
Located only minutes from the Great Astrolabe Reef
(679) 330 5222
Matava@connect.com
www.matava.com
WAISALIMA BEACH RESORT & DIVE CENTER
The Astrolabe reef diving.
(679) 331-6281
waisalima@connect.com
www.waisalimafiji.com
TILIVA RESORT
Astrolabe Reef diving and all new Sherwood and Apollo diving gear.telephone: (679) 331-5127
Enquiries@tilivaresortfiji.com
Vinaka to Jerry Warren of DiveFiji.com for above maps of Fiji.
Photos illustrating this section are from Paddy Ryan the world's greatest Fiji naturalist.