Snorkeling on the Cabbage Patch at the Rainbow Reef

Following are some pictures taken on our first snorkel on the Rainbow Reef off Viani Bay (Vanua Levu, Fiji). This was also the first time we took our new Olympus Tough TG-820 camera under the water. It is not easy to capture fish pictures, but the camera worked like a top and the colours it reproduced are quite true to what we saw.

We motored out to the reef on 'The Rose'with Jack, a local guide, steering. Seven of the passengers dived and the rest of us snorkeled.

Lovely corals right beside the sand shelf where we anchored the boat

Giant clam - about a foot across

More lovely corals

Rani swims down over the cabbages for which the patch is named. These are huge hard corals many feet across.

Christmas tree worms filter their food from the water at the face of a coral

This shows how close to the surface much of the reef is. There was quite a surge at times over the reef.

These blue fish use the pronged coral as a hideout when danger approaches.

Anemonefish in its anemone home.

Anemonefish warning me off. Note a glimpse of its baby below.

I love the textures of these corals.

Fiji has many soft corals - these are quite small but colorful.

Hard coral with stunning pattern.

Parrot fish - this one is about 10 inches long, but we have seen them over two feet.