Dear Fellow Diver,

It's not often that I give thanks underwater. But here I was floating above the most remarkable garden of hard coral this side of the Coral Sea, surrounded by clusters and clouds of infinite species of South Pacific fish. An awesome site. I took pause.

First, I thanked the maker, who had an artist's eye for the coral pastels, a nautical engineer's eye for streamlining critters and affixing finny propellers, and a cartoonist's eye for creating a fish as loony as a clown trigger.

Then I thanked the president of Fiji, chief of the Lau Group of islands (and owner of Loma Loma), who keeps commercial fishing boats at bay, leaving these the most pristine Fiji waters.

And then I thanked Russ and Chris England, two longtime readers from Fairfield, Iowa, who, after being among the first divers at Loma Loma, were kind enough to send us a travel report from their visit. If it weren't for them, I wouldn't have known about it -- and neither would you.

Enough genuflecting. I broke from my meditation at Magic Kingdom when a school of batfish a hundred strong sauntered by, followed by as many trevally (i.e., jacks). All while I swam surrounded with colorful anthias and schools of fusiliers. Off then to see a large -- 25 pound? -- coral trout, battalions of sergeant fish, an occasional emperor angel, small tridacna clams with brown or green mantles, an odd mackerel... then, at the end of the dive, a five foot whitetip shark.

Just about what I expected. You see, Russ, a marine biologist with 3,000 dives under his belt, told me that nowhere in the South Pacific had he seen such rich waters accessible from a land-based operation. And, because many dives were exploratory, it was great fun. I needed no more persuasion.

The partners in the year-old Crystal Divers are Dan Grenier, from Chicago, and Fijian Bendito Tiko, who between them have worked at Fiji's Qamea, Matagi, and Garden Isle. Loma Loma opened its seven bures (cottages) on the president's forested 22-acre island in 1985, attracting few visitors because it's way off the Fiji tourist track and didn't advertise. The airport on Vanua Balavu, one of 300 islands in the Lau group, is 220 miles east of Fiji's international airport at Nadi, halfway to Tonga; the only flights, Tuesday and Saturday, require a plane change in Suva. After all that, the last leg to Loma Loma is easy -- a ten minute truck ride and a five minute boat ride.

To ensure that the operation was running, I called Dan from Sausalito, a simple direct dial. Yikes. He would be spending February in the states after DEMA. "Don't worry, " he comforted me, "Ben will take you to the best sites," though not on exploratory dives. Since I wanted my readers to be first to learn of the unpublished Loma Loma, I called their U.S. rep and signed up.

Crystal Divers' 24 foot open aluminum runabout is powered by a 125-hp outboard and a smaller, 25-hp backup. Dive sites can be an hour away -- more if you're exploring -- and those hard, metal seats bruise butts bounce after bounce (tip: sit on beach towels). Yet, to me, little hardships complement isolated, wild diving.

Typically, we would walk through ankle-deep water to board the boat at 9 a.m. or later, then weave past isolated islands much like Palau's rock islands on the way to the dive. (Bat island -- an amazing sight. Hundreds of vulture-sized fruit bats took to the skies at the sound of out motor.) Going was slow at times, as a spotter stood on the bow to look for dangerous coral heads in the shallows. Then, dive two tanks, interrupted by an hour interval in calm waters, and return by 2 p.m. -- or later, if lunching on a remote beach. (When both Ben and Dan are available, they offer three tanks.)

They select sites according to tides, ensuring slack for some and wild rides for others. The Tonga Express is a wild one. We dropped in over bones of coral, working against the current for 50 yards, then dropped over the edge into enormous numbers of fish: hundreds of banner fish (false Moorish idols), surgeonfish galore, large trevally, two large tuna, and much, much more. After ten minutes of watching the show, we slipped to 100 feet and began drifting along a wall festooned in soft and hard corals, large gorgonia, small yellow sponges, feeding crinoida, and plenty of fish. Eight disciplined barracuda swam past me, against the current, followed by a small whitetip. At dive's end, our boat captain, Dan's wife Alisi, waited above as we floated for three minutes at 15 feet. When we arrived on the surface, she hung the ladder and took our gear and fins, and we climbed aboard.

For the second dive, we entered a slack tide and paddled in the other direction. After rubble, virgin hard-coral gardens again appeared, as beautiful as any I've seen in Australia's Coral Sea. Here and there sprouted enormous green gorgonia with stalks as round as baseball bats. Again, thousands of fish everywhere. Ben found a pipefish on a coral head, a juvenile razor wrasse did his remarkable dance for us, and a few bumphead parrots ambled by, joining scores in mixed parrotfish schools and a couple of whitetips, as there were on nearly every dive. Water temperature? My Delphi read 80 degrees, but it drops several degrees in the winter, necessitating a wet suit.

Though fish and coral were superb, I was disappointed in the visibility, which ranged from 30 to 70 feet, apparently due to plankton. While runoff can affect many Fiji islands, the Lau Group is much drier, and apparently rain seldom affects diving. The Englands had better visibility last July -- up to 200 feet -- and one of our correspondents reported 100 feet and more in October. The Englands also reported eagle and manta rays, hammerheads, and larger sharks.

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