Diving Christmas Island in Australia

Christmas Island diving features

Steep walls | Cave diving | Pristine corals

Marine Life
Whalesharks | Dragon moray eels | batfish

Christmas Island's top dive site:
Thundercliff

DESTINATION OVERVIEW
Christmas Island – the one in the Indian Ocean, not the Pacific – is one of the most unexpected scuba diving destinations you will ever visit. Closer to Indonesia than any other country, it became an Australian territory for purely practical reasons.

Only 360 kilometres from Jakarta, the island looks and feels far more Asian than Australian. But like Australia, it is crammed with unique natural resources. Covered in dense rainforest, there are indigenous birds (the Christmas Island Frigate and the Abbott's Booby), indigenous flora and the island's most famous residents, land crabs. There are 18 different crabs including the red crab whose mass migration makes the news annually.

The marine realm is just as bountiful with huge schools of tropical fish, interesting critters – this is one of the few places where you can see the spectacular dragon moray eel – fabulous cave systems that are shallow and safe for divers to explore and masses of pelagics. There are spinner dolphins, bronze whaler sharks and if you go in the right season, there are whalesharks. But more than any of that, Christmas Island has pristine reefs with some of the most perfect hard corals we have ever seen and, for much of the year, 40 metre plus visibility.

PROS AND CONS
Flights to Christmas Island are limited to a twice weekly service from Kuala Lumpur (via Singapore) and one from Perth. Facilities are minimal compared with other island destinations (a post office, a few decent shops, one bank but no cash machines). There are no hotels but plenty of charming guest houses and self-catering cottages. Car hire is a necessity. However, this is a completely unique destination and for nature lovers, there is simply nowhere else like it.

SCUBA DIVING
Two small dive operations launch their boats daily from the island jetty. Everyone gets involved with helping and putting their own dive kit together. Dive sites are close to shore and somewhat unexplored – new creatures are discovered frequently, pelagics seen daily and the visibility can be breathtaking.

OPINION
This is diving for the adventurous, for people who want to get involved with all aspects of a diving day. We loved every moment of both trips we have made to the island, with the landside sights as impressive as the marine ones. Encounters with nature vary from stopping giant robber crabs getting into your backpack to slipping into the sea to snorkel with dozens of spinner dolphins. We dived with the outstanding Hama and Lynnie at Wet’n’Dry Adventures. What can we say – bronze whalers and schools of mobula rays followed by jelly snakes!