This school of fish lives in the coral tree, they leave to find food and come back to find protection from a predator … or a diver. When a diver approaches the tree all the fish hurry to get back to it. When he/she leaves they leave the tree. I played that game with them […]

A jetty, though not interesting above water, is an island of life under the surface. On our last trip to Vava’u archipelago (Kingdom of Tonga) we spent a couple of days at Tongan Beach Resort. The main reason for that was the property was clean and well maintained, the staff friendly and helpful. Its floating […]

Both sea stars on the right (pin cushion sea star on top, granulated sea star on bottom) and the coral on the left look as if they were made by children from play dough, yet they are real. Also if you inspect the fine texture of the animals’ surface you can see they were not […]

  On this picture my son Adam is leaving the surface and descending through the blue water to inspect coral gardens of South Pacific in Vava’u archipelago, Kingdom of Tonga. In general he is not a very keen diver or snorkeler, especially in our temperate waters around New Zealand. However, in the warm waters of […]

After two hours of snorkeling and freediving  around Tongan Beach Resort I got exhausted. Remember, I was pushing my housed Nikon D300 with two big Ikelite strobes through the water all that time. I pulled myself onto the wharf, removed my mask and was ready to take off my wetsuit when I heard my son’s […]

The ocean around Swallow’s Cave in Vava’u archipelago attracted our attention by its incredibly blue clear water and vertical walls right from the island’s shores but we were quite disappointed by the amount of coral growth. Corals were scarce, small and often broken. Then on the edge of visibility it appeared. A massive piece, way […]