Well, we're now fully qualified scuba divers and what a way and place to accomplish this. We finished the last two of our open water dives on Saturday and were lucky enough to have a pod of dolphins swimming by the first of the dive sights. So with this we slipped in to the water with our masks and fins on and held onto one side of the small inflatable dive boat whilst Annie (our dive instructor) cruised the boat along at a slowish and steady pace. Superb - with this technique you get to follow the dolphins around with them swimming almost right next to you at times seeing them gather speed to jump out of the water and then re-enter incredibly gracefully, a truely valid use of the word 'awesome'!
We then went down for the first of our dives and successfully completed our skill tests whilst enjoying some very pretty coral and array of various fish. We were lucky to have a beautiful sunny day above the surface so the sun shining through added a quite special touch to the colours and fish.
This particular dive sights buoy is anchored relatively near to where the waves break against the coral reef so when we stopped for our 5 metrre safety stop we could see the white water from the crashing waves but couldn't hear the crashing or feel the force and power that you can from the surface, but we could feel the motion of the waves, which made you feel as if you were in a kind of state of blissful suspension, it was a feeling that was incredibly relaxing yet kind of exhilarating at the same time.
Back to the surface and back to the dolphins. This time we just slipped in and snorkelled over to where they were and proceeded to follow them around for 5 minutes or so before they left again. I guess because we didn't cause so much disturbance and excitement for them with the boat we got to see them in a much more sedate swim which was just as majestic. Paul rightly described it as swimming with a wall of dolphins in front of you...we stopped counting at 30 and think it's reasonable to say the pod was about 40 in size, with a few babies in tow. To see animals of this size in quantities like this moving so gracefully through the water was a really special moment, and one that I look forward to enjoying as much as possible!
As we moved off to the next dive site we had a more than suitable farwell as the dolphins came back for one last play in front of the boat as we glided along, they seemed to be having a ball so it felt like we moved on with smiles for everyone!
Monday, 30 May 2011
Tuesday, 17 May 2011
Life ticks along...
It's amazing how quickly life starts ticking along as usual when you've upped sticks and moved your entire life from one country to another. It's been 8 weeks since we arrived on 'the rock' and life has settled into it's own routine with incredible ease.
Works work, with it's own stresses and frustrations - even on a South Pacific island - in fact in this case probably more so because of being on a South Pacific island!! But when you walk out the door at the end of the day it's still very nice to be working here.
Daisy has settled into life being looked after by someone else other than me with a touch more ease than most mothers would like, after all it would be nice if she was just a little bit bothered by me not being there! We seem to have got that one perfect though - she's always pleased to see Barbara arrive and always pleased to see me come home, and that is a nice feeling. And as much as work comes with frustrations I am enjoying working again and that has to be made that much easier with leaving a contented child behind.
On to matters of a slightly more watery nature and we're now half way through our PADI course having gone out seaward and completed our 1st two open water dives last weekend. And very well it went too - what a marvellous place to spend your time! We saw a Barracuda, a rather cool looking Lion fish, some starfish, wonderfully colourful coral with all sorts of cool little things living in it. Some pretty large snakes and some huge clams along with all sorts of other wierd and wonderful fish of varying colourfulness and size. It's a very pretty place down there and I look forward to more discovery! We've got our last two confined water dives this coming weekend along with the exam, then just two more open water dives the following weekend and we're done! Just in time for a visit from Ned - superb!
Speaking of visits we're most excited to now have two more booked in with Dave and Kate coming out later in June and then Daisy's mate Isabella bringing her parents out for a bit of a jaunt in August, and not to mention our trip back to NZ at the beginning of August to introduce Daisy to snow, well that all just makes for lots to look forward to which is a pretty good spot to be in...
We were delighted to see the Tucker clan on skype the other day and as much as the quality isn't fantastic it truely is better than nothing, and without a phone of any sort without skype there is nothing so I must ask those of you who haven't already got a skype address - please set one up - it would be great to see you!
Right, that's me for now - I hope you're all really well - until next time Xx
Works work, with it's own stresses and frustrations - even on a South Pacific island - in fact in this case probably more so because of being on a South Pacific island!! But when you walk out the door at the end of the day it's still very nice to be working here.
Daisy has settled into life being looked after by someone else other than me with a touch more ease than most mothers would like, after all it would be nice if she was just a little bit bothered by me not being there! We seem to have got that one perfect though - she's always pleased to see Barbara arrive and always pleased to see me come home, and that is a nice feeling. And as much as work comes with frustrations I am enjoying working again and that has to be made that much easier with leaving a contented child behind.
On to matters of a slightly more watery nature and we're now half way through our PADI course having gone out seaward and completed our 1st two open water dives last weekend. And very well it went too - what a marvellous place to spend your time! We saw a Barracuda, a rather cool looking Lion fish, some starfish, wonderfully colourful coral with all sorts of cool little things living in it. Some pretty large snakes and some huge clams along with all sorts of other wierd and wonderful fish of varying colourfulness and size. It's a very pretty place down there and I look forward to more discovery! We've got our last two confined water dives this coming weekend along with the exam, then just two more open water dives the following weekend and we're done! Just in time for a visit from Ned - superb!
Speaking of visits we're most excited to now have two more booked in with Dave and Kate coming out later in June and then Daisy's mate Isabella bringing her parents out for a bit of a jaunt in August, and not to mention our trip back to NZ at the beginning of August to introduce Daisy to snow, well that all just makes for lots to look forward to which is a pretty good spot to be in...
We were delighted to see the Tucker clan on skype the other day and as much as the quality isn't fantastic it truely is better than nothing, and without a phone of any sort without skype there is nothing so I must ask those of you who haven't already got a skype address - please set one up - it would be great to see you!
Right, that's me for now - I hope you're all really well - until next time Xx
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