Thursday 8 December 2005

Discover the Ringgold Islands

A remote group of volcanic atolls in Northern Fiji, known as the “Ringgold Islands,” have become the newest adventure/diving/culture destination of Tui Tai Adventure Cruises

The 5-night Adventure Cruise on the Tui Tai now makes a weekly stop in the group of islands, including islands of Yanuca, Cobia, Rara Ni Tiqa and Maqewa.

New dive site discoveries have been nothing short of spectacular. “Kokoda Point” is a wall the drops to bottomless depths and generally has amazing visibility. The visibility makes for an especially exciting dive as clusters of big fish are often gathering just off the wall: barracuda, tuna, grey reef sharks. The Ringgolds Barrier Reef stretches for miles and has delivered newly discovered dive sites nearly every week.

Divemaster Timoci Taivoce says, “Every week we do one exploratory dive in the Ringgolds and we always find something new. One week we found a deep wall covered in different soft-corals. Another week, we were swarmed by schools of barracuda and trevally. Recently we found some caves where turtles were hiding.”

The Tui Tai Adventure Cruise promotes more than diving, and the Ringgold Islands have shown an amazing destination for its active guests. Sea kayaking across calm, clear waters, slipping amongst the maze of volcanic atolls; each island displays beautiful beaches, cliffs and scenery. Guests are amazed by a sea kayak trip inside a sunken volcanic crater at Cobia Island. Cobia is a horse-shoe shaped island crater. A small opening at one end means kayakers can paddle inside the calm blue waters of the crater.

For the nature lovers, the Ringgolds are known as nesting grounds for several types of sea birds. Turtles are also common in the area as they use the beaches as their nesting areas.

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