We’ve assembled the above three regions together for ease of purpose. While they are politically separate regions of Indonesia, they do form a useful geographical region. To the south lies the Banda Sea, that stretches from the Maluku Islands in the north to the scattered islands near Timor to the south. The Banda Sea is a vast area of open ocean in the centre of the Indonesian archipelago, with just a few isolated island groups dotted within its 200,000 square mile area. At the northern edge of the Banda Sea lies verdant Ambon Island. North of the Maluku Islands lies Halmahera, half way between North Sulawesi and West Papua; remote and until relatively recently off limits to all but the most intrepid traveller, this, the largest island in the Malukus is one of the last areas of Indonesia to be explored. Not only does it offer fabulous diving, but amazing bird watching opportunities as well.
Most of the Banda Sea region (the bits in the middle!) are only accessible by liveaboard dive boat – please see the liveaboard and dive site links above for more information on which boats travel there and for general dive site information. Suffice it to say that being remote and with such large expanses of open water around the small island groups such as the Banda Islands offer amazing opportunities for pelagic encounters, particularly hammerhead sharks, barracuda, turtles, eagle rays and the like. The Banda Islands themselves are renowned as being the fabled Spice Islands over which the Dutch and British fought for the lucrative trade in nutmeg and cloves. They are still grown there, but finally the locals have control of the production and sale of these important products!
Ambon Island has an area of just 300 square miles, but is home to the provincial capital of the Maluku region, which also consists of the much larger islands of Seram and Bula. The airport services many of the outlying islands and is a transit point for flights between Jakarta and West Papua. Mountainous and with ample rainfall, the island is lush, green and fertile. Volcanic in origin there are hot springs and solfataras to be found on the highest volcanos, Salahutu and Wawani. The fertile volcanic soil allows for the growing of a wide range of produce, including breadfruit, sugarcane, cocoa, coffee and pepper. The dry season, between October and April, brings clear skies and calm seas. Diving wise, Ambon is perhaps most famous for its muck diving, but there are some excellent reef dives and a nice World War II freighter called thhe Duke of Sparta located in Ambon Harbour. While Ambon is frequented by liveaboards we are pleased to offer the excellent Maluku Divers Resort as a convenient base from which to explore the wonderful diving of Ambon.
Halmahera – the name itself is exotic enough! The largest of the Maluku Islands, Halmehera is rugged and beautiful. Deeply indented bays with pure white sand backed by lush greenery rise upwards to perfectly conical volcanos divided by deep valleys choked with rainforest. Here can be found some incredible bird species including Wallace’s Standardwing Bird of Paradise, Nicobar Pigeons, cockatoos, kingfishers, sunbirds and honeyeaters. Being able to view these beautiful creatures in their natural habitat makes a welcome diversion from what is found underwater! Halmehera is as beautiful underwater as it is above! Incredible hard coral formations, massive barrel sponges, seafans and soft corals dominate the deep drop offs, cut with caves and swim-throughs, while the shallows offer thrilling critter diving. In the blue are patrolling sharks and other pelagics. This really is frontier diving! And for frontier diving, how about a frontier resort?! Weda Resort, located on the east coast of Halmahera, is a small, friendly eco resort offering both scuba diving and birdwatching in this amazing area.
