Top dive site, Hideaway Island Scoot around the reefs on one of these Friendly trigger fish at Hideaway Island
With more and more Australians travelling out into the Pacific
aboard cruise ships why not look beyond the traditional shore tours
like duty free shopping, village markets, city tours and sightseeing
and try something a fraction more adventurous.
Scuba diving, for example, is offered to P&O passengers between
12 and 70 years of age in destinations ranging from the Great Barrier
Reef, Vanuatu, Fiji, Tonga and French Polynesia.
Acknowledged by experienced divers as one of the most diverse
and accessible sites is Mele Reef at Hideaway Island [http://
www.hideaway.com.vu/] in Vanuatu and I made a point of seeing this
location for myself on a whirlwind tour of Vanuatu’s most famous
dive locations last week.
An easy transfer from Port Vila, Hideaway Island offers one of the
richest reefs so close to port. Newly installed watersport manager,
Ian Watson, is a 32-year veteran scuba diver and instructor and has
overseen an overhaul to Hideaway Island’s dive and watersport
facilities, including an upgrade to PADI 5-star resort standard.
“We’ve just bought 25 brand new ScubaPro diver kits, so we have
all new gear top to bottom,” Ian tells me as we survey all the gear laid
out in the dive shop, “plus we’re getting another dozen of these,” he
said.
Ian points to two electric dive scooters, each powered by a
motorcyle battery and good for around two hours of submersed
operation. Weighing just a few kilos, these devices couldn’t be
simpler. Hold the handlebars, squeeze the triggers and away you go.
Let go, and it stops. Brilliant. In 75 minutes we cover 1500 metres at
between 15 and 20m depth and I come back with just under 100 bar
still in my tank.
We tour several of his key dive sites in one go and I’m introduced to
many of the star underwater attractions including oodles of
anemonefish (clown/Nemo), a blue spotted ray, moray eel, titan
trigger fish, surgeon fish and snapper of all shapes and sizes. Manta
rays, dugongs, whales, reef sharks and barracuda are also occasional
sightings all through Vila harbour.
“It’s also a great place to learn about reef ecology and we’re
beginning a project with University of Newcastle to study
sustainable coral regeneration and conservation,” Ian says, “and
people can see the results of reef damage right alongside pristine
reefs and understand the difference straight away. We still have
occasional storm and human damage even though we have 10 of our
25 sites off limits and regenerating.”
Currently the resort is attracting up to ten divers and around 100
snorkellers from each ship visit. As we chat some more, Ian makes
two suggestions for a more rewarding experience. One, an intro to
reef and marine conservation could be held aboard ships either as a
lecture or DVD screening to reinforce how delicate our underwater
eco-systems are. And two, even though introductory (discover)
scuba dives are offered for novices, divers would get full benefit by
arriving with certification and taking a complete dive experience.
For details on scuba tours offered by P&O, see
www.discovercruising.com.au.
For a free scuba intro (pool) dive, see Frog Dive
[www.monolith.com.au/win-scuba-dive.html].
Accreditation options: www.padi.com.
