Cruising westward from Honiara takes you to the Russell Islands & the Leru Cut, a canyon nearly 100 meters deep which opens up in the jungle & provides spectacular photo ops.   Leru has a floor of fine white sand which reflects incoming light, giving a cathedral-like effect.  Outside of the cut is a fabulous wall teeming with fish life. Also well-known in this island group is Mirror Pond: a myriad of swim-throughs, caverns & caves created by volcanic action. The main swim-through, covered with sponges & feather-stars, leads divers to a shallow mangrove-ringed pool in the jungle. Nearby you can visit the popular bat cave for a little terra firma excitement.

Back underwater, you’ll be off to dive sites with countless healthy staghorn corals which spread a vision of green and yellow nearly as far as the eye can see and you can explore walls covered with exquisite fans which hide very shy pygmy seahorses.  In addition, you’ll have more walls & caves & caverns to entice you … along with black & white tip sharks, rays & lobsters.

Finally, White Beach, home to a major American supply base during WWII, is known for the artificial reef created by dumping trucks, jeeps, tractors, barges, bulldozers and large amounts of ammunition into the water.   Covered now with corals and loads of fish, this gruesome reminder of warfare has been softened by time. Saltwater crocodiles have been sighted here several times. Many of the interesting wrecks are at 120-140 feet.

Tulagi, the main port, was a significant Japanese WWII base.  It provides some fine wreck dives plus stunning walls & great critters.  The battles at Tulagi played a large part in the turning point of WWII in the South Pacific.  Divers can access both Japanese & American seaplanes, cargo ships, mine-sweepers & heavy cruisers.  Beyond the war artifacts, the Florida Islands have much to offer including some great walls and the exploration of Mbike & Sandfly Passage, which are likely to bring sightings of manta rays and huge schools of fusiliers and anthias.  Just offshore near Tulagi, you’ll dive the popular Twin Tunnels …. two vertical lava tubes embedded in a sea mount.

Swim through either one and you’ll find they meet one another and a luscious wall.   As you fly through your tunnel, like Alice in Wonderland, you’ll pass fans & whip corals, so try to slow down & smell the roses, so to speak.  After your tube ride, you’ll swim through countless fusiliers and ascend to the reef where you’ll search for pygmy seahorses, hairy squat lobsters, cuttlefish, octopus, eels.

Maravagi, in the Florida Islands, is beloved for the “Devil’s Highway” where  you’ll hook onto the reef (in a very swift current) while above you the manta rays play! Also, in the shallows, divers find colorful fish and a critter haven (lots of juveniles) with cuttlefish, crabs, scorpionfish, batfish, ornate and robust ghost pipefish, waspfish and the ever-present hawkfish.

The best opportunity in the Solomons for the big stuff …. surrounded by deep walls and masses of pelagic fish, passing sharks, mantas … and big gorgonians.   If you’re lucky, you’ll hear Kavachi, the underwater volcano, as it grumbles & rumbles … adding a great deal of drama to an otherwise already exciting set of dives!  Off the edge of the remote Mary Island, known to the Solomon Islanders as Mborokua, divers normally encounter a massive school of giant trevally which boasts thousands of individuals … and these guys are BIG !

You’ll have a current and if you can hook on you’ll be able to watch a fine travelling show passing by.  In addition to the trevally, you’ve got grey reef sharks, dog-tooth tuna, schooling barracuda …. plus surgeonfish, snappers and some whopping bumphead parrotfish.

Of course, you’ll have all the soft & hard coral wonders of the Solomons … plus unicornfish, angel fish & simply millions of anthias.

Home to Uepi Island and some of the Solomons’ finest coral, critter & fish diving, Marovo Lagoon is a double barrier reef enclosed lagoon & is beloved for its exquisite beauty &  diversity.  Get ready for a plethora of gorgonian fans and multi-hued soft corals … walls which plunge into the abyss … and a processions of pelagics.  Hold onto your hat as you dive into the onslaught of schooling barracuda, jacks, runners, rays and sharks.

At times large schools of feeding fish swarm across the reef at the deepest point and into the shallows. The predators, giant trevally, mackerel, wahoo, rainbow runner, big-eye jacks, dogtooth & smaller tuna, sharks and barracuda just cruise around waiting for their next meal.

The coral gardens around the lagoon are graced with anemones, mantis shrimps, coral shrimps and of course a myriad of exotic fish of all sizes … including butterfly-fish, basselets, angelfish, surgeonfish, fusiliers, wrasses, the resident scorpion ‘firefish’ and clown-trigger fish.   Also you get plenty of healthy-sized turtles, super-sized schools of unicornfish, oceanic triggerfish and grey reef sharks.

Currents are swift and drift dives are popular. You’ll float past large gorgonians, huge amphora basket sponges, soft coral trees and small hard corals …. plus those large schools of pelagic fish and abundant reef fish.

A couple of dive sites have resident whaler sharks and around the jetty, you get a bit of nearly everything, including sharks …. but certainly an abundance of smaller fish, clams, decorator crabs, hinge-back shrimp, spindle cowries, basket stars, hawk fish, slipper lobsters and prolific invertebrate life.

The list continues and we can’t do it justice. You’ll just have to see for yourself!