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Hi Stephanie, the underwater videos were shot with a GoPro Hero 12 and underwater pictures with a TG 6. The above water shots were taken with my cell phone. We did purchase a package Ha'apai Beach Resort, which included accommodations, food and daily trips searching for humpbacks. We were pretty happy with our experience staying with Ha'apai Beach Resort , but I don't have anything to compare it to. Also note that we had trouble paying for our flights from the main Tonga airport (Fuaʻamotu International Airport (TBU)) to Ha'apai. We ended up paying Ha'apai Beach Resort to purchase our local flights, which was quite nice of them.

Ah, an Ambon Scorpionfish, good to know. Wonderful diving in Lembeh!

Most of the dive sites are accessible from both Kri and Gam. However, I believe Kri is a bit more centrally located, and closer to Melissa's Garden dive site. We personally preferred Yembuba homestay on Kri. It has a nice hiking trail to the Viewpoint lookout, closer to the waterfall hike and nice social area by the dive center to meet other divers. However, we met a diver who preferred the quiet solitude of Tau Yado House on Gam. Best of luck on your trip.

We really enjoyed our stay there, as well as diving. We simply walked from the lodge to the dive center, which I believe was about a 10 - 15-minute walk. The dive center may offer a pickup if you don't walk to walk with your dive gear. You'll love staying at Kingfisher, the hosts are super nice.

Hi Vanessa, unfortunately I didn't record more of the baby sharks, as we were just enjoying the moment.

My initial impression of the dive boat wasn't good, as the exterior looks more like a commercial boat than luxury live aboard. However, we were pleased with the interior comfort of the boat. The boat has multiple bedding configurations from twin beds to queen. We had a queen bed, with the on suite bathroom being adequate for a dive boat. The food and crew were nice. In my opinion, the nicest part of the boat is the very spacious dive platform. Each diver had plenty of space. I would dive on this boat again.

@@KrisNChrisHenry that's very helpful! Thank you. I was trying to find some reviews for this boat but there are not many online. I am glad to hear the dive platform is spacious; I definitely want to avoid the repurposed dive boat type because it's just not comfortable and can be quite dangerous to gear up and get on the zodiac etc.

It was good diving there

This is fair, I personally wouldn't travel to Taveuni for the beaches. It's best known for its beautiful coral reefs for scuba and snorkeling.

It's definitely an incredible once in a lifetime experience

Thanks, Taveuni is amazing

Thanks Dan, it was great meeting you guys.

Thanks!

Thanks, the Yasawa Islands are real nice.

Thank you for the great dive experience with Extreme Dive Fuvahmuala

Thanks, the Solomon Islands are beautiful.

Hi Stephanie, Kris really likes her skins. She wears them by themselves in warmer water and wears it beneath her 3mm in cooler water. She ordered them from slipins.com. Thanks

@@KrisNChrisHenry thank you very much!!

It was such an amazing trip.

Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for commenting

Hello George & Charlie, I see you guys love to travel as well, I just started to follow you. You'll love SE Asia. We spent 11 months there and really enjoyed the scuba diving along with living simply in the various cities. My only advice would be to check the weather outlook in each country to avoid the rainy monsoon season. We're traveling full time, so we need to keep our camera gear as light as possible. Kris shoots with an Olympus TG6 with an underwater housing, and she primarily takes pictures. This camera really excels at macro. I shoot with a GoPro 8 and mainly capture videos. We each have two video lights, although many times I don't have the lights on when taking wide video. The best tip is to post-edit the pictures and videos to remove the blues/greens from the water, such as Dive+ app, available for Android and IOS. It's very easy to use and does a pretty good job to clean up the pics and videos.

Agreed, we very much enjoyed our time in Mafia

Thanks, it was an incredible dive trip

Thanks. We're traveling full time, so we need to keep our camera gear as light as possible. Kris shoots with an Olympus TG6 with an underwater housing, and she primarily takes pictures. This camera really excels at macro. I shoot with a GoPro 8 and mainly capture videos. We each have two video lights, although many times I don't have the lights on when taking wide video. The best tip is to post-edit the pictures and videos with an app call Dive+, available for Android and IOS. It's very easy to use and does a pretty good job to clean up the pics and videos. Good luck

Great question. Kris and Chris do a tremendous job, and their videos are amazing. And I give them kudos for mentioning Dive+. Because even with lights, UW scenes don't look like that. I use two Sea Dragons and I find that most items beyond, say 2 meters or so, reliably demonstrate their depth dependent color loss. But that is my niche and my schtick here on TH-cam. I post unprocessed raw videos so that travelers can see what diving really looks like before trying it. (I won't link my channel, that way you surf through all the awesome content on TH-cam, including this channel!). You'll know it when you see it though. Since I also just traveled on the MY Palau Sport. Two thumbs up for John and his crew. -Deco

Thanks

Thanks Chris, this is one of our favorite places to dive (so far).

Seeing whale sharks at Tubbataha would definitely put it over the top. Unfortunately we didn't encounter whale sharks on our trip. We dove with Dugongs near Dugong Watch beach, just search Google maps for it

Thanks for the nice reply. I agree with you that Raja Ampat & Tubbataha are our favorites, but Komodo ranks right up there. I didn't include pics/videos of shower or interior areas as they are as primitive as it gets - just being honest so you're not surprised. The bungalow is a square room with a bed and desk. Electricity is only on in the evening, since the homestay has to run a generator. Meals are very basic and repetitive, but enough to get nourishment for the day, definitely not on par with a liveaboard or dive resort. But that is part of the charm and adventure. We would do the homestay again.

It's amazing, you won't regret it

You'll love it, hope you have a great trip

Hopefully your trip will be as nice.

We actually did back-back trips onboard Lucky Marine, and we're just now finishing our second trip. We really enjoyed our time onboard and would join this boat again. The crew is amazing and did everything to make the experience enjoyable. The crew definitely look out for our safety, as we changed dive sites multiple times to avoid rough conditions. I don't recall all of the dive sites in the Similans but know that we skipped some of the further north islands because of rough sea conditions. We found the food onboard to be very delicious and plentiful. The water temperature varied throughout the dives. Typical temp was about 27 C, but we'd hit 24 c thermocline occasionally, but fortunately it would go back up to 27. Wishing you calm seas and warm water for your trip.

Thanks

Beautiful video. 😍 I can't believe I have been on the same trip. Can't wait to screen the pictures and videos when I get home. Whish you safe travels✌️

@@marioharscher1243 thanks Mario, it was good diving in the Similans

It was an adventurous trip, glad we got to meet.

It's great you are still interested in diving. If you haven't dove in the past 6 months, any good dive operator will have you do a refresher course one on one with a dive guide or instructor. We've done numerous shark dives, so it's not scary. If you want to learn more about shark behavior before doing this dive, I suggest searching for Ocean Ramsey, who has some great videos on what and what not to do. The diving in Fuvahamulah is not challenging. You dive with the tiger sharks right at the entrance to the port. Good luck.

Thanks

Hey nice vid. How was the weather? A lot of rain?

Loved our time in Penang