First time we as a family visited tropical Pacific islands in 2012. We went to Vanuatu for one week. The plan was to spend a week on the island of Efate. To travel around the island, enjoy the war weather and also do some diving. I took my trusty Nikon F90X in Sea&Sea housing with me. Unfortunately I forgot to take my pack of films out of the fridge when we were leaving. I bought a couple of cheap no-name film rolls in a shop in Port Villa. We did a lot of snorkeling and scuba diving on our house reef, also I went for a couple of boat dives with Devil’s Point Dive. By the way their service was excellent. I was taking pictures and hoped for the best.
When we came back home, I got the films developed. It was a disaster. There was almost nothing there, only occasional dark shapes. Obviously humidity, high temperature and the shelf in the store did a “great” job. I decided, film no more.
Next year we went to Tonga, to the Vava’u archipelago. I took my “new” (for me) housed D300. Even though we did no diving it was a great experience. We snorkeled in shallow bays, around steep walls and in sea caves. And my camera worked great this time.
Note: If you just want to enjoy a beach in a clean resort, we recommend The Tongan Beach Resort. Most of our snorkeling took place under and around their jetty.
