After another squall this morning we sauntered off to breakfast to discover the boat next to the jetty, getting ready for the 8.30 snorkeling trip. Of course this by no means meant that it would also be available for my 2pm dive, but I was ever hopeful.

On the way to breakfast we ran into the young woman who had her wedding on the beach yesterday, as we were ascending the steps to the restaurant. She was sneaking food to the token stray cat that had been hanging around. We had also given him tidbits, although Ross stopped that after said cat scratched Ross on the fingers while throwing him a piece of fish. Ross and the young lady swapped stories about feline war wounds, and then she proceeded to tell us about the wonderful snorkeling that she and her new husband had been doing off the end of the walkway where their villa was situated.

Since she made it sound so appealing, we decided to give it another go, and hopefully not get slammed into the coral by the swell this time.

It was high tide so the water was a little deeper than the last time, but the swarms of little jellyfish freaked me out considerably. I really hate little jellyfish!! I gather they had been brought in by the storms that have pounded the sea the last couple of days, but fortunately they didn’t seem to sting as we passed through  them.

We saw a couple of little black tip sharks and a cute little Eagle ray skimming along the edge of the drop off, and I found a turtle that was perusing what coral there is, looking for a feed.

There is a reasonable amount of fish out there but the up and down of the swell made it very difficult to get any decent photos as the camera kept bouncing and ruining the focus.  If only the sea would flatten out, the snorkeling would be quite pleasant.  Apparently they had a couple of flat days just before we got here. 
We persisted for nearly 40 minutes and then it was time to give it away and climb back up the ladder onto the walkway. I didn’t want to make my jaw sore before the afternoon dive, although it has been pretty good with the snorkeling and diving that I have done.

Lunch was kept to a minimum, but I really must cut out the milkshakes before I put on too much weight.

We will have to do lots of cycling when we get home!

The pre dive cancellation phone call didn’t come, so I got my gear together and off I went to the jetty to meet the boat. It was just me and a German guy, Tomas, so we were ready with all the gear loaded onto the boat within minutes.

The dive site we were going to was towards the west end of the island and is apparently the most popular site on the island. I had seen on my map that there is a fisheries depot down there and a place where they feed sharks and stingrays, so I thought it might be interesting.

The dive guide said that we would descend to around 30 metres onto a sandy area and just watch what happened around us. He said that Bull sharks frequent the area and I was looking forward to seeing one.

The sea was still pretty choppy so we had to get off and into the water and descend quite quickly.

Once we were below, the water calmed somewhat and we glided down the reef, but I was a bit saddened by the amount of rubbish that was lodged amongst the coral and rocks. The visibility wasn’t great but there were lots of silver  tipped sharks swimming around us getting quite close so I just kept snapping away trying to get some decent photos of them. Fortunately they weren’t snapping at us, but they did seem to be quite curious of us. Perhaps they thought we might have brought some easy food for them.

There were a couple of large Eagle rays gliding around near the surface, and a big Marbled ray swam past closer to the sandy bottom .  There was a large school of swirling Trevally circling us the entire time and they kept getting right up in our faces. They seem to enjoy doing that because they have always done so when I have encountered them on dives. Didn’t see any Bull sharks unfortunately, although they may have seen us!

We virtually just hung around watching the sharks and rays until it was time to make our way up to do the safety stop. Near the top of the reef there were two lovely big Maori wrasse, and a ledge where several lobsters were hiding. The wrasse swam around us as we waited for around 5 minutes and then made our way out from the reef for the boat to pick us up.

Getting back on the boat in the swell was another matter and it was very difficult to get hold of the ladder with the heavy wooden boat pitching up and down dramatically in the rough sea.  The deck hands were pretty good, and managed to haul me out of the water by the top of my tank and I didn’t sustain any bruises from hitting the side of the boat. 
The trip back to the resort was exciting though with the waves smashing in the front of the boat.

I’m not sure what it is going to be like going on the snorkeling trip tomorrow with a lot of people on the boat. I guess they will keep the speed down to a minimum.