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Scuba Diving in Gizo
The main town of the Solomon Islands' Western Province, on Ghizo Island, and the base for diving one of the Pacific's best WWII wrecks, the near-intact Japanese transport Toa Maru, alongside coral walls, reef sharks and a scatter of sunken warplanes.
Why here
Gizo pairs a great wreck with great reef. Its signature dive is the Toa Maru, a large Japanese armed transport sunk in 1943 and now one of the most intact big wrecks in the Pacific, lying on a slope so you can work from shallow to deep, holds still packed with trucks, a tank, medical supplies, sake bottles and ammunition. Around it the Western Solomons deliver everything else: coral walls and drop-offs, current-fed reefs thick with fish, gray reef and other sharks, and a run of downed WWII warplanes on the sand, including a Japanese Zero and American fighters. The reefs off Gizo are healthy and lightly dived, and the town makes an easy base with a short boat hop to most sites. Divers work with a long-established local operator whose crew has decades on these reefs, running small boats to keep groups tight. It is wreck-and-reef diving with real history, in a corner of the Pacific few travelers reach.
Best months
Warm water year-round, best from the drier April to November season. The Toa Maru is a versatile dive from shallow decks down past 30 meters, so it suits a wide range once comfortable, while penetration of the holds calls for wreck skills and good buoyancy. Reef walls and passes can carry current and are drift dives for the experienced; sheltered reefs suit newer divers. Small-boat operations keep O2 aboard.
Getting there & around
Gizo is reached by flying from Honiara to Nusatupe airstrip and a short boat crossing to town, so build buffer around the domestic schedule. Divers base in Gizo town and dive from the operator's boats, a short run to the Toa Maru, the walls and the plane wrecks. Onward boats link to Munda and Marovo. Bring cash and any specialist or wreck gear; town supply is limited.
Skill levels: beginner, intermediate, advanced
Schools & guides (1)
Dive Gizo
OutfitterDive Gizo is a long-established local dive operator in Gizo town, Western Province, with staff who have decades on these reefs. It dives sixteen named sites including the near-intact WWII wreck of the Toa Maru, a Japanese Zero and American Corsair and Hellcat fighter wrecks, and coral walls such as Grand Central Station. It runs three 7.5 meter boats and a utility boat, each taking a maximum of eight divers, with oxygen carried on every boat.
Also good for scuba diving in September:
Torn between Gizo and Galapagos Islands for September?
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