Sarah Kitney , 21. UK

If you throw an Aussie, a Dutch, couple Germans, couple Poms and a few Americans into Fiji , what do you get? An unforgettable funny, rewarding, and cultural experience. When you tell people you spent six weeks in Fiji doing Volunteer Marine research, scuba diving, living in a traditional village, beach parties with the locals they first thing they ask is who you did the program with. Then I tell them Fiji Dive Volunteer Marine Conservation.

The first thing I think of was the amazing diving, perfect for for beginners or advanced divers. Then the colours of the corals , being circled by Hammerheads, seeing minkee whales off the boat, dolphins racing against the dive boat, turtles, eagle rays and every sort of fish in every colour. Spending one week in a traditional village
your understanding for the Fijian culture deepens, you live the laidback lifestyle- Seganaleqa/no worries. You live in their homes, play games with the local kids, go to choir practice, try kava, cook and eat their food and live like a Fijian.

Then you remember the people there, the always smiling and laughing dive crew and Kelera your Fiji mother. Then there’s the other particpants scattered from all over the world, you live with for the whole time and you get the see their best and worst sides (waking up for early mornings or after having one too many bowels of kava) and love them for it, friends you would have never meet and now you just want to go to the other side of the world to visit them.
Its an amazing experience, even after more travelling over the world I still hold this experience highly in my heart and cant wait to return to Fiji .

View the Fiji Diving programme here.