Qamea: Above the Surface

We landed in Fiji the day a cyclone hit. We’d come so I could rediscover the love of scuba diving—I’d been certified in college and gone on a few initial trips but had drifted away from the sport, not consciously, I just had found other sports that captured my interest and none of my friends had been diving in recent years.

I had recently begun dating a dive master (and attorney) who needed a break from his law office. We’d just spent two weeks in New Zealand, and besides wanting a diving adventure, we wanted to break up the long twelve-hour plus flight home back to the states. We landed in Nadi and hopped a plane to Taveuni island. It was a small twelve-passenger or so plane where you couldn’t hear the person next to you unless you yelled.

Seated in the front row, I was ready to scream—I could see the pilot’s view out the front windshield as the tiny windshield wipers went back and forth. The visibility was close to nil. The rain just pelted the tiny aircraft.

Miraculously, we landed safely and were taken by van to the beach where we were greeted by a guy who looked like a very dark-skinned Fijian version of the Gordon’s fisherman. “Bula!” (hello in Fijian) he said. He was dressed in a yellow rain slicker and hat and took us by private boat to the island of Qamea.

It rained sideways on the boat. My boyfriend and I looked at each other, “So much for diving.” My boyfriend yelled as we bounced from wave top to wave top.

It was a shame. It had been a good fifteen years or so since I’d last been diving and I had just outfitted myself in all the latest gear and gadgetry. Technology had completely transformed the sport since I learned and I was excited to try out my new Suunto computer dive watch. I had a new wetsuit, BCD, everything from mask to fins.

We arrived on the island, which looked as if it was straight from the set of a Fantasy Island episode (well, except for the fact that I don’t think it ever rained there). I half expected Tattoo to come running out, “Boss, de boat! De boat!”