Expendable bathythermograph (XBT) and salinity observations were made along a north‐south section across the South Fiji Basin in March 1976, and XBT observations only were made in May 1976, January‐February 1977, and July 1978. The salinity section showed a tongue of low salinity (less than 34.75%c) surface water associated with the intertropical convergence zone of winds, near 20°S. The corresponding temperature section indicated the presence of weak eddies; a warm‐core eddy near 28°S, 176°E was encountered in February 1977. The main feature of the subsurface temperature structure was a thermal front between 25CS and 26°S at depths between 100 and 400 m: the temperature at 200 m was over 18°C north of the front and below 18°C to the south of it. This front, observed on all the temperature sections, was strongest from January to March. It is ascribed to the flow of a subtropical counter‐current similar to that encountered in the South Indian Ocean at about the same latitude.