We're staying up on a hilltop in the tourist center of Paihia. The second town, Russell, is much older with a colonial feel. Russell is also the original capital of NZ.
People have been coming to the bay for hundreds of years to harass the sea life. First it was a whaling port, then a commercial fishing port, and now it's all about selling the sea life to the tourists. Whether you are on a dolphin excursion, a charter sport fishing boat, kayaking with the seals, or like us, scuba diving - it's all about the water.
We did two reef dives, skipping the popular wreck dives. The diving was pretty good. We saw lots of sub tropical fish, kelp forests and went through caves and in other interesting rock formations. (Our dive operator was also great, and I posted a review on TA.)
Below are some of the photos from our adventure, though it looks pretty dark, that's only because the strobe on the camera was dead!
 |
| Me at the surface. |
 |
| Our dive group, SP at left. |
 |
| SP and I |
 |
| Jewel anemones came in lots of colours. |
 |
| Porcupine fish. |
We had a great time, it was a little chilly, but worth it. If we had more time in the BOI, we would have booked a few more dives.
Tomorrow is our last full day in NZ before SM, B and S head home (and we head to Australia!)
-E
No comments:
Post a Comment