Snorkeling Pictures

My little point and click camera is waterproof, but only up to 3 meters. Because of that it can only go out snorkeling. On our last day on the liveaboard, we decided to skip one of the dives and snorkel instead.

The camera has been pretty good so far, but it's not great underwater. (Certainly it can't be user error that so many of the photos came out blurry and super green!)

There are many wonderful photographers who have done a much better job than me (and have break equipment), but at least I can say that I actually took all of the photos below.

Spotted puffer fish

This is a wrasse (some kind) and it was huge

Finger coral

The reef

Millions of little blue fishes

Giant clam (but this ones a baby)

Giant clam, about 1.5 m long (I'm not talking about SP)

One of my favorites, a parrot fish (being cleaned)

Another favorite, the giant trevally (at left)

I'm on a boat.

Just like the song. Or like the old spice guy. I've made it, this is it. Extravagance and luxury.

The MV Taka isn't exactly the yacht from music videos or TV commercials. Our cabin was basically a bunk bed recessed into a closet and the boat is showing a bit of age. However, for the price, it was pretty cool. This isn't an expensive boat and considering we had lots of really good food, 10 dives, 2 nights of accommodation plus all transfers, I thought it was a pretty good deal at $650. (We tried booking an expensive boat, which costs twice as much, but none of there dates matched up with ours.)

The details:

• 26 passengers, 11 crew
• 5 dives a day, including 1 night dive
• 3 meals, 2 snacks, and 2 desserts out of a kitchen the size of most peoples bathrooms. 

The day starts at 6:45 am with roll call and then breakfast. After breakfast is the first dive briefing. You then suit up and are in the water by 8:45 am.

And so the day continues. Roll call, food, dive. This continues until you're completely exhausted. After maybe 7 hrs sleep, it starts again.

It takes a lot of effort to run a dive boat like this. Imho the crew from Deep Sea Divers Den did a great job. Over the three days we visited three reefs; Hastings, Saxon and Norman.

A few boat pics:

Top deck

Mid deck

Dive deck

Dinning lounge

The MV Taka II

Sunset

Tomorrow I have a few pics from snorkelling.

-E

How to get bitten by a reef shark

The reefs have lots of sharks, a number are over 2 meters long. As expected, they make you feel a little small and evoke the stereotype of vicious man-eating, razor-mouthed monsters.

Step One - find a shark (or many sharks)

The best time to see sharks is at night. The lights of the boat shine on the water, attracting schools of small silver fish (snack sized fish). In turn, medium fish come to chase around and eat the little ones (appetizers). And bigger fish come to eat the medium ones (tapas). And the sharks come to eat the bigger fish (entrees). It's not very orderly, but it is fun to watch.

Step Two - get the sharks primed.

It helps that the boat serves a small amount of fresh red meat to the sharks. The smell of blood really does get them going. They smack into each other, splashing around, unable to find the tiny piece of meat. (Most often a bold medium sized fish gets in on the action and the meat is gone before the sharks even know what happened.)

Step Three - jump in the water.

It's more fun to watch the sharks from the water, so most people suit up and dive in to watch them first hand. Having a flashlight helps you see them close up too.

Also, remember that lights attract the snack sized fish, so with flash light in hand, you become the director of the evening buffet.

Step Four - getting bitten.

If you want to get bitten by a shark, you need to swim up behind them somehow disguising your smell. Next, you grab it around the neck and put it in a headlock. They are slippery, so hold tight. Open it's mouth with your free hand and stuff your arm in. Now, give it a good smack up side the head. It may bite you, or it may swim away.

We completed all of the above steps, except number 4.

Sharks have a very good sense of smell and they can sense vibrations in the water (like a struggling fish). But their eyesight isn't very good and they are a bit cumbersome. I don't think they're terribly smart either.

The truth is that the sharks don't like humans at all and are skittish. The most common way to get bitten is to accidentally step on one in shallow water. Though swimming with the sharks was fun, I like the fish that are not as scared of humans more.


---


When on the top deck of the boat you get one bar of reception. Not enough for pictures, but at least I can get a short post out.

----

Flying city critters

At dusk, the aviators of Cairns city come out for a visit.

Resident # 1 look to be about the size of a rugby ball and millions of them silently fill the sky. Bats. Fruit bats specifically. Also known as flying foxes or mega bats.

My photo!

Some other traveller's photo


Because it's dusk and they move quickly, getting good photos was pretty hard. SP did get an awesome video though. 

For those used to the tiny bats of NA, these ones are quite a different sight (and genetically very different too.) They actually kook like foxes. 

Super Cute

Resident # 2, not to be outdone by there mammalian friends, are colourful, extremely loud and not potty trained. They are lorikeets, and there also must be millions.

Fallen feathers.

Lorikeets live in pairs, but often flock as a big group. They also come in a a range of colorings. The locals know which trees the birds like and often those are the only vacant parking spots in the city. 

Because my photo was kinda dark, here is a much better one care of the internet. 

Credit for the cute photo.

I'm not much of a bird photographer, but the number of avian city residents is really amazing. 

Fantails

Masked Lapwings

Whimbrels

The pigeon below is about the size of a golf ball. And true to pigeon form, they barely move when you come close.

There are also magpies, doves , seagulls, and countless others. (BTW, When we were in NZ, SM was our bird expert, but now I have to look these up by myself, so mistakes are highly likely.)

----
Addendum

SP and I are boarding a boat in 20 minutes and spending the next 3 days diving the Great Barrier Reef. Likely we won't have internet access.

While the blog might seem on hiatus, I'll still be writing and the blog will get updated once we are back on dry land.

In the mean time, if you are looking for something to do, why not send me a question, or a comment on what you've liked or what isn't working with the blog. (Email or whatever.)

Cheers,
-E

Backpackers in Cairns

Today started with a 5 hour flight from Auckland to Cairns Australia. We chased the sun, arriving at 10 am local time.

I had low expectations for Cairns. It's billed as the "gateway to the Great Barrier Reef" and basically it's the transportation hub for Queensland (the northeastern part of OZ). Most recommendations are to just pass through.

The Great Barrier Reef as seen from the plane.

But it's actually quite nice. It has almost decent internet, cycling lanes(!), lots of parks, a scenic promenade, public fitness classes, neat kids jungle gyms, good dining, real stores and a free outdoor 4800 sq m salt water pool, aptly named the lagoon. (They even have there own Ironman). Today it was 28'C, a bit of very high cloud with 99% humidity.

The lagoon, still open at 7pm.

Cairns must also have the highest number of backpackers per capita in the entire world. (I have know idea if that's true, but it's seriously overrun with unshowered, hungover, passport toting 20-somethings.)

But when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So we checked into a hostel. A big one. Though we did 'splurge' on a room with a double bed an a private ensuite, so that's kinda cheating.

The courtyard at our hostel, Caravellas

Our hostel happens to come with a free dinner. For those that have travelled the backpacker trail, it's worth mentioning that these types of deals are pretty common and baked into the business model.

Here's how it works. Your "free dinner" voucher is actually for the local bar. The deal doesn't start until relatively late at night, 7pm in this case. There is some small print. First you have to buy a drink from the bartender, then, with drink in hand, you line up to order dinner. The dinners are pretty basic, but for a small cost you can upgrade so something more substantial. By the time you've ordered, you've finished your first drink, so you might as well get another. Etc.

The lineup outside the bar for the "free dinner".

Everything is fairly reasonably priced, and before you know it the bar is packed and most people are totally sloshed. The business, in turn, packs in a full crowd of hungry, thirsty and still unshowered 20-somethings even on a Monday night.

It's really fun people watching. I had a blast. (The photographic evidence doesn't really need publishing on the WWW though.)

Tomorrow's post is an introduction to Australian wildlife (not including the 20-somethings).

-E

A final post on post boxes

Today is our last day in NZ, and while we will be generally doing uninteresting stuff today (like driving, packing, cleaning, and sorting ourselves out), I have a somewhat odd post for you. Actually, I have a lot of odd posts for you, post boxes anyways.

In NZ, if you own a single family home, you also have a real mail box. The post is not delivered to your door and you don't have a mail slot on your home. Kiwi's also tend to put some personality into the boxes too. I'm not sure why I find this so interesting, but it is. (Or at least it makes acceptable blog fodder for a slow day like today.)

A typical box. Large, metal, often covered in spider webs.

The wooden box. Also enormous, hand crafted, and often nested in by birds.

The heritage box. A Mauri Marae (meeting house).

The Bach box. Vacation homes seemed to have the most crafty ones.

The Fish Box. Also popular and often found in proximity to the Bach boxes.

The Clever box. Waterproof, bird proof, thrifty and entertaining. 

The bronze pipe box. I actually don't know what this is, maybe part of a boat?

The empty slot box. If all you're going to get is junk mail and bills, why have a box at all? 

The hobbit box. Not ones to miss a truly NZ opportunity, the hobbits have real (small) post boxes too.

The bird box. Not quite a bird house, but close.

Actually a bird house and not a post box. But cute enough for a pic. 

OK, that's it for NZ. Now on to Oz! 

Paihia Dive

Today we're in the Bay of Islands, or BOI for short. It's a huge harbor with two towns on either side

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