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Fiji: White Wall

This is often rated as one of Fiji's top dives.

Location: Somosomo strait, between Vanua Levu and Taveuni in eastern Fiji.
You get there with various dive operators: Dive Taveuni, Rainbow Reef Divers; Aquatrek - all based at Taveuni island. We went there with Matagi Princess, a Fijian liveaboard dive vessel.

The white wall is just that: it is a vertical dropoff of at least 60 m (no, we did not go that far down). The wall is white because it is covered in white soft corals.

Somosomo Strait has very strong currents and almost all dives here are drift dives. The dive boats drop you off at one end of the reef, pick you up at the other end. They only take people to the White Wall when the tide and current is right, because only then are the polyps out and the wall truly white. Therefore, plan to spend more than just one day in the area, you won't necessarily get to the White Wall the first couple of days.

The traditional entry is near "The Yellow Tunnel". This tunnel begins at around 8 m and goes down to around 25 m. The tunnel is yellow - yes, you guessed it, because of yellow soft corals. It is a very beautiful sight to enter through the tunnel and it is great for video because of the vivid colours. Remember: You must use lights for this dive, otherwise you will loose all colours.
You exit the tunnel on the wall itself. This is when you are caught by the current which takes you past the vertical coral raising up from the deep blue.
The white part of the white wall is at 20 m depth and lower, and therefore you need to be close and use lights to get the colour on video.

This is one of those tricky situations: if you don't use your orange filter everything more than a few meters away will look blue and monochrome.
On the other hand: if you do use the filter with your lights, then your closer shots of white soft coral will not look white, but kind of red or orange.

The best solution to this problem is probably to get your longshots, moving away from the wall and remember to use the filter. You can film the overall scenery and other divers hanging in suspense alongside the wall. Even with a filter this will look a bit blue, specially if it is overcast above.
Then, once you have those shots in place, go close.Flick the filter off and the lights on, and you will get beautiful tracking shots of the white coral - and they will look white.

The current will move you on and the dive, which usually takes 45-55 minutes will be over sooner than you know it.

One word of safety advice: As always on wall dives in good visibility, keep a constant eye on your depth gauge. It is so easy to drop down to deep, stay there too long only to have to exit the dive early to keep within no-deco limits.
For filming you get better light and pictures if you don't go deep anyway.

Have a good dive at the white wall !

Hans la Cour
hans@tradewind.co.nz