And it was WEIRD.
Soooooooooo without further ado....
Jess' Day:
Today I woke up super early for my scuba diving adventures! At 7:20 I was picked up by my lovely driver, Chris, and taken to the Tutukaka Marina where I met up with my dive boat, Calypso. About 25 of us went out for the day, including about 8 crew members, for two dives by the Poor Knight's Islands.
After getting settled on the boat, I made it my mission to pretty much make friends with everyone. And I basically succeeded :). I had a blast getting to know tons of people from all over the world (Denmark, Germany, San Fran, Australia, New Zealand, London, and Dubai) as we headed out on to the islands. As we sped along in the water we spotted...several pods of common dolphins!
They were EVERYWHERE! And they seemed to thoroughly enjoy keeping up speed with the boat, swimming alongside us. There was a pod underneath us, one about 20 meters away, and then a few more off in the distance. It was awesome to watch them swimming and playing - they were so beautiful!
We arrived after about an hour and got a debriefing from the crew on what we could expect of our dives at "one of the top ten dive sites in the world".
One of the things quite different about this dive for me was the fact that it's "cold water diving". As a result, we have to wear heavy dive suits, including full head gear :-p.
With my dive buddy, Christine!
The islands are actually situated on the Eastern Australia Current (the EAC - aka what Nemo rides through in Finding Nemo!) The EAC brings warm water from the Australia coastline through the Pacific to New Zealand, where the water is typically a bit colder. The reason the diving is so wonderful there is because of the clashing of these two fronts, which brings much more tropical fish to the area than otherwise would be there.
After our debrief we geared up and hopped into the VERY COLD water! There's no coral in the area. Instead, the fish live in and around massive kelp forests, which are quite unlike anything I've seen diving or snorkeling. The forests are very dense and FILLED with wildlife. I definitely understand why it's rated as one of the top dive sites in the world - so much to see in such a small area!
During our first dive we also had the REALLY unique experience of being able to breathe 8.5 meters under water! Under the archway we dove around there was an underwater cavern with an air pocket. As a result, we were able to dive underneath the cavern and into the air pocket, where we were able to take out our regulators (our breathing apparatus) and actually breathe air in the pocket. So cool!
However, the highlight of the two dives was definitely the THREE sting rays we saw - each about a meter across!
The first two we saw had loooooong stingers. The last one we saw had basically no tail - my dive master, Steve, said it had most likely been taken off during a fight!
The diving was seriously incredible. I'm so grateful that I decided after diving the Great Barrier Reef that I needed to take advantage of the opportunity to dive more often. If you ever get the chance to dive at the Poor Knights, don't hesitate - it was seriously awesome!
In addition, in between our two dives we ate lunch and enjoyed some hot drinks while the crew drove the boat in and around several archways in the Poor Knights. We also took a detour into the world's largest seacave, which is over 300 square meters in total. PRETTY BIG!
While I missed Jon (and was very keen to fill him in on allllllllll the details of what happened to me all day), overall it was really a fantastic day and I got to meet tons of interesting people. I really enjoyed my experiences diving and look forward to getting out there again soon :).
After the dives I filled in my log book (where I keep the details of each of my dives), got them stamped by the crew, and then headed back to the information center with Chris to meet up with Jon :).
Jon's Day:
When Jess left, I was heartbroken, sad, crying. I had to pick myself up off the ground and get a coffee in Whangarei. It was probably the best coffee I had on the whole trip.
I picked the perfect day to golf in Whangarei - the weather was mid-70s and sunny, not too hot, not too cold. Even though it was a Wednesday, a weekday at 11 am, I was surprised by how few people were out on the course. The guy at the pro shop was really nice, gave me a full set of clubs, golf balls, and tees, and 18 holes of golf for only $40 USD. He told me I could play alone, which I'd never done before, but I was grateful for it since I hadn't played in a few months and knew I'd be pretty rusty.
After I sliced my first shot onto the road, I settled down and had a good round of golf. Only in New Zealand can you look from the 10th tee and see the ocean, greenery, and mountains in the background.
It was a peaceful round of golf and I really enjoyed playing there. If I had all the money in the world, I'd spend weeks just driving around New Zealand playing all the different golf courses. It was a really good day of golf and I'm glad I got to go because it was definitely an experience.
After golf I basically got back to the van and then it started to rain, so the timing was pretty perfect. I ate tacos for lunch in the van and then, since it was raining so hard, I hung out and watched Modern Family for the afternoon until Jess got back. Overall it was a pretty good day.
At night...
When I (Jess) arrived back at the van, I took a shower, Jon cooked dinner (pasta), and then we hung out for the rest of the night. We had TONS to talk about considering it was the first time we'd been apart in so long that we were each eager to share the details of our days' adventures with the other.
It's funny that this is the "campsite" (aka the parking lot of the information center) that we've spent the most time at - 3 nights here! Who woulda thought we would've spent so much time in little ole Whangarei. But it's been a pretty wonderful town with lots of things to see and do in the area. So glad we made it up north!
Tomorrow we're off to Auckland (and to dropping off the van :(.)
Jess' highlight of the day: too many! dolphins, sting rays, and meeting lots of new people :)
Jon's highlight of the day: golf
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