Diving in Napier, 21 - 22 Feb'09

Most of us had a great weekend: we came back our dive trip with all our digits and extremities but sadly no photos. Claire - the instructor – took this great shot on the boat of the two of us, and we're hoping she has a few more to send us. Fingers crossed there maybe the odd one on our cheapo, underwater camera once we finish the film (yes, that's Real Film) but we're not hopeful: 1) new camera and 2) neophyte divers are not a good combination!

John coped well being the token bloke amongst a bunch of seven women (5 in the cabin). We were all of Mature Years (Claire at 38 was the youngest on the trip!) and so it was all very comradely.

First dive in the aquarium was just getting used to the environment and swimming around with the fish. The idea is to remain still and calm, and wait for things to come up, which they did: got bumped by a few of the reef sharks, but the big ones and the rays kept their distance. As did we (Steve Irwin has a lot to answer for!). When we came to feeding time, the fish were very active and quite aggressive, however the sharks were really shy and not at all interested in being fed. Even when I tried to follow one around with a nice tasty bit of fish in my hand they still stayed away, though I must admit I wasn't too assertive with Big Girl.

On Sunday, we had a two reef dives off a boat. Initially I had difficulty getting down in my new, air filled wet suit, then soon as it compressed at around 3 metres, the over-weighting took over and I plummeted to the bottom. NOT good for equalising the ears, and (a week later) they're still not back to normal. Our first dive was a total disaster: no visibility to speak of (we were lucky if it was 2 meters), and all my navigation lessons went straight out that one cell I call a brain. I had the compass, and John followed me... The dive boat captain told us to swim south west on a heading of 270 to the reef, so what did I do but carefully set a course north-east, 60deg, in totally the wrong direction. In the end we surfaced down wind and tide to the boat, and had a slow swim back on the surface.

After the boat was moved, the second dive was fantastic: great visibility, we were right on the reef and saw loads of fish and one enormous starfish (that I thought - when John pointed it out - was an octopus it was so large).The Pania reef is in ridges running north and south, with sandy bottoms at the bottom of the canyons at about 11 metres, and it's virtually impossible to get lost. It was really cool riding the surge up and over the ridge into the next valley! Though hurtling up from 11 to 6 metres and back down again no doubt played havoc with my ears...

The reef is closed to commercial fishing, but open to the public to collect their quota. It's covered in mussels and kina and if you know where to go, lots of crayfish. One of the experienced divers brought up more mussels than she wanted, so gave me the excess. Boiled them up soon as we got home, and yum. I think: I am not used to harvesting and cooking and eating something seen on the reef 4 hours before; getting the same from the supermarket, all clean and farmed is different. But the flavour was amazingly sweet and delicate, and they were very tender. Our fussy boys wouldn't touch the things: John never gave it a thought, Ramble sniffed at the strange object on the floor but didn't recognise it as Food, and Benj - initially prepared to try - when faced with the article, was put off by the look of the things, and gave it back. I also tried kina: delicious but again, I'm not going to be plucking the animals off the reef and dissecting out the roe myself. Yuck, gross. Back in Wellington, our dive shop has promised a scallop dive when the weather is suitable, with a barbecue to follow! That will be a major YUMMM! John wants to come for the experience and oh dear what a shame: he hates anything fishy so guess who will just have to eat his quota! Maybe this time Benj might be convinced to try one. Or not: what happens if he likes them? I'll have to share!

I am not sure poor Ramble had the same wonderful weekend: he had his first experience of being in a kennel! He is very nervous around strange men: understandable I guess as he doesn't have a lot to do with deep voiced, older blokes as all his regular carers are women, and John is the only man he has daily contact with. Consequently he gave the kennel man a very wide berth, and kept returning to cower behind me. I felt dreadful leaving him but I'm sure he'll be fine once he gets used to it. It won't be the last time he'll be in kennels.

We arrived home around 1830 on Sunday to a rapturous welcome from both our boys. A VERY big thank you to Angela for picking Ramble up. The kennel man (I must find out his name!) assured her that although initially nervous, Ramble soon relaxed and had a ball once he out frolicking with the other dogs. Which sounds just like our puppy: he loves all dogs and small children.

However we were all pretty tired that night: most of us were in bed at 2130, and asleep by 2200. But I do need to repeat my navigation skills and we both need to sort out our buoyancy for the new suits. It wasn't nice not knowing where I was and uncontrolled descents is not good for the ears.