Diving Tulagi & the Florida Islands

About Tulagi & Florida Islands

The Tulagi and Florida Islands group, part of Central Province, is the Solomon Islands' other great wreck-and-macro theatre, a short hop across Iron Bottom Sound from Honiara yet a world apart in atmosphere. Tulagi was the wartime capital, and its harbour and the surrounding passages are littered with Allied and Japanese wrecks from the 1942–43 fighting, from the deep USS Aaron Ward destroyer to the shallow HMNZS Moa corvette. Just south, the Russell Islands deliver the archipelago's most iconic scenery: the cathedral-like Leru Cut, the air-pocket Cave, the cabbage-coral gardens of Cabbage Garden and the manta cleaning stations of Manta Point. Current-swept walls at Mary Island and Yandina hold barracuda tornadoes, dogtooth tuna and silvertip sharks. The blend of intact wartime steel, luminous soft coral and reliable pelagic action makes this region a favourite of both liveaboards and land-based divers.

Highlights

• ✓Leru Cut: a narrow limestone fissure you swim into, with light beams and glassfish - a photographic gem.
• ✓Manta Point (Russell Islands): a year-round manta cleaning station in a shallow channel.
• ✓USS Aaron Ward: a 106 m US destroyer in 40–70 m for advanced technical divers.
• ✓The Cave: a submerged cavern with an air pocket, stalactites and flashlight fish.

Getting There

Most divers reach Tulagi and the Florida Islands by liveaboard from Honiara, or by a short domestic flight plus boat transfer. Tulagi has a small airstrip and regular water-taxi and dive-operator connections, while the Russell Islands are typically accessed by liveaboard or by boat from Gizo and Munda to the west.