Uepi Island Resort - Uepi News.

Welcome to Uepi Island Resort
Natural Beauty Harmony Excitement Indulgence

Uepi News

Marovo Energy
August 2009

Special visitor at Uepi in August

August was mostly breezy & cooler but with the inevitable Marovo mix of sun & blue skies prevailing at times. And there was energy; often the building of a moderate trade wind after a quiet dawn, the brilliant crests of whitecaps against a background of the peaks of Vangunu Island as the wind & current fought against each other, the wheeling & swooping of birds over tuna schools, sailfish walking on tip-toes across an aqua carpet, ever changing IMAX sunsets in red, orange, black, blue & those indescribably beautiful colours only seen during sunsets when you look through open windows in the atmosphere past the clouds & far into space itself.

Underwater that energy was just as obvious. The water temperature has cooled a little, down to about 28C, which meant dusting off the 3mm wetsuits. As our dive times often extend well past the hour, some well past, the chill factor as we returned to the Dive Shop was noticeable. How glad we are that most of our dive sites are only a short boat trip away. One long night dive on Chara had me laying down on the deck out of the wind, shivering like a lunatic, as we travelled 300 metres back to the dive shop in 26 degree air temperatures. Our Italian guests, accustomed to much colder waters, were a bit bemused. But as the dive had encountered a very nice Golden Cowrie & some exquisite Shrimps it was well worth braving the chill.

With a largish tidal range all month the currents have been contributing to some great diving conditions, enlivening the fish & flushing in the clear outside water from The Slot. Drifting back from Uepi Point to the Dive Shop has been popular.

The cooler water has coincided with regular schools of large Yellowfin Tuna feeding along the outside of the barrier reef islands & further out into The Slot. It’s a great spectacle when you have such very large powerful fish charging through the surface water creating whirlpools or leaping out of the water in an arc as they attack the baitfish. Overhead the Frigate Birds, Terns & Gulls frantically swoop to be the first to snatch up the leftovers. When the tuna go down they race across the ocean at unbelievable speed searching for more baitfish schools. Overhead the Frigates spot the shadows of the tuna & follow them relentlessly. The smaller birds sometimes get tired & rest by landing on the sea, floating together in flocks, probably feeling much more secure to be amongst others of their kind. Then as the first tuna shows a fin and a Frigate begins to dive they are instantly into flight. We have struggled to hook-up to these big Yellowfin but the table has been fully laden with mudcrab, oysters, Wahoo, Mackeral, Coral-trout & squid.

The outer dives of General Store, Binusa & KuruKuru have all been getting rave reviews. At times stronger SE swells have swept them off the menu for the day. During one dive at General Store on a calm sunny morning the boat driver spotted a whale cruising slowly towards Uepi. A quick call on the VHF soon had two boatloads of guests out to greet the lone traveller. We first saw him at about Elbow, a solitary medium size Humpback cruising fairly slowly on the surface. Our experience with whales is that at first they are wary but if you hang around & give them space & time they seem to relax & may even become inquisitive. This proved to be the case & after about an hour Humpy began to deviate from his course and approach us as we snorkelled in the 1500 metre deep water, so he could check us out. It is a nice feeling when such a creature apparently gliding by you about forty metres away turns & carefully moves closer, maybe about five metres away, his eyes fixed upon you. What a magical animal, so powerful yet graceful in the water & this whale was beautifully marked. There was a lot of eye contact. Somehow looking into the eye of a whale who looks back at you, gives you a unique perspective, makes you wonder about a lot of things. Beats me how someone can sink a harpoon into a whale and turn it into a blubbery mess. After a patient two hours with lots of mutual sightings both above & below water we left our friend to travel his songline alone.

To have a break from writing I have just had a dive straight off the Diveshop. I checked to see if the Harlequin Ghost Pipefish was back on the pink sponge next to the coral rock, right where the boats back over entering or departing the Diveshop jetty. This rock in one metre of water that always has at least six Lionfish sheltering on it. The Pipefish was missing. We have seen a few Ghost Pipefish recently but they have been coming & going which is a bit unusual. The water was sky blue & the viz awesome. The energy of the incoming current ensured that everything was active; corals, fish, sharks. We glided down over the reef wall to the sandy bottom at about 35 metres. It was bright sunshine & I could see way out into the deep channel, where fields of Garden Eels wavered to fifty metres of depth & beyond. A Spotted Reef Ray began performing for Jill’s video so I sat amongst the brilliant corals & fish on the Deep Bombies, tucked out of the current. Ascending at twenty metres I looked up & what a sight! Our resident schools of Scad, Snapper & Diamond fish are huge at the moment & they were congregated in the thousands around the Welcome Jetty. The lighting was perfect & they swirled about as they reacted to passing predators, mainly Blue Trevally & the numerous Grey Reef & Blacktip sharks that frequent this very area. Then a predator would get a bit closer, even burst through the middle of the school & thousands of fish would quickly react as one cohesive ball of energy. Magic, and right on the Home-reef. Jill was busy filming so I meandered back along the reef edge spotting Nudibranchs & enjoying the colour. Meanwhile the Guest divers were enjoying fantastic viz along the outside walls.

The Mantas are still busily occupying an inner reef about 5 minutes away from the Resort. The Mantas sighted in the past month have been the biggest ever. Colours range from all-black, to black & white, to all-white. The main cleaning station is in 4 metres of water. They feed at this depth & over on the nearby reef edge which is about 10 meters deep. This month has also produced a fair number of Pygmy Mantas too, all in pairs & travelling at about 5 metres. One pair trying to depart the channel over the top of Chara Point into a strong incoming current found the going too hard & re-entered the lagoon. Jill & I were clinging to bare reef watching the fish schools when they passed by.

Inside Point has been providing great dives in the morning with an outgoing current. Numerous & large Chevron barracuda are forming the classic circles around divers. After exploring the walls & reef tops 50 bar will get you back thru the shark packs & fish schools to the Dive Shop.
The SE Trades have been strong enough to get Josh & Jason out kiteboarding. We have been launching about 8 kms away from a sandy area with a good expansive downwind run. Josh’s ‘air’ has only been exceeded by some spectacular spills. So together with wakeboarding there is some action available for anyone young & silly enough. The Hobies have also been popular & we have had a rush of experienced Guests who have got these boats really flying at times.

It has also been a time when several sorties of Guests have attended the Church services at Chubikopi. As always the singing & the ultra warm hospitality has made a huge impact.
Beach lunch picnics have been flavour of the month too. Several honeymoon couples have spent some time on a green fronted tropical island with a sandy beach & great snorkelling straight off the beach. And family groups have been keen as well.

Around the Resort we have added a new leaf entrance onto the Main Deck. This makes it all a bit more comfortable especially when it is raining. The quick dash thru a small waterfall is now a thing of the past. We know this will be sorely missed by some, but we are personally quite happy about it. The beetlenut palm has just survived (it almost had to make way for the leaf-roof) & the girls are doing wonders with the immediate garden area.

August has been a time of energy & action!

Love to see you here in action too.
‘Leana’ from Grant, Jill, Josh & Team Uepi

News Archives

We sincerely wish to thank the following people for use of their photographs in our website:

Peter Lange, Peter Pinnock, Oceania Films/Matt Guest, Eric Cheng, Fred Bavendam, Andy Belcher, Manuela Kirschner, Louise Murray, Roberto Rinaldi, Mark Strickland/Oceanic Impressions, Jill Kelly, Grant Kelly, Wes Kelly and Jason Kelly.