The fish parted as we cruised down via a gap between a series of underwater pinnacles separated by deep canyons. Papu led us through the magic of 'Golden Dreams' - walls massed with brilliant yellow soft corals.

This was a soft coral dive of the first order - now we understood why the pre-dive brief emphasised that we avoided bumping or damaging them as we moved through the gaps. Big coral trout cruised in front, totally unphased by us being there. The corals and gorgonians were in great condition; yellows dulled as we descended and large drak gorgonian fans blazed red and yellow in our torch beams. Ahead of us another gap opened to the blue of the open sea.

A single barracuda hung mid-water before lazily moving away. Several large Spanish mackerel appeared, eyed us from a safe distance and then vanished into the blue. Below us more large coral trout, red snapper and big reef cod swam close to the coral. Another deeper bommie loomed in the distance; above it were several large and familiar shapes - whaler sharks about three metres long. We followed Papu across to the second bommie and the sharks moved, keeping 20-metres between us.

Papu grinned and pointed down to three more sharks rested on the sand - whitetip reef sharks about two metres long, more slender than the whalers. As we moved closer they disappeared over the edge past huge gorgonian fans. At 30 metres the unlit red fans were black.

We were diving the reefs of Bligh Water, the channel between Fiji's two main islands Viti Levu and Vanua Levu. Our base was on the island of Nananu-i-Ra, with its palmfringed white sandy beaches and glorious sunsets. The outer reef was a 15-minute boat ride and dotted with bommies and reefs. Papu and our boatman Alfred didn't use GPS - in true Fijian fashion they lined up various hills and headlands and easily located the dive sites. Their navigational skills were matched by their ecological approach; at each site Alfred dived in and snorkelled down to attach the bow line to a mooring rather than damage the coral bommies with an anchor.