As a warning, this is going to be an epically long blog since I have an entire week of awesomeness to pack into it. It is also probably going to lack pictures for the time being because I stupidly grabbed the wrong cord for my camera battery charger. UGH. That and the battery was almost dead to begin with. Go me. The one week that I especially wanted/needed an underwater camera. Owell, I got a few pics and hopefully other people got good shots.
We left for Leigh on Sunday, stopping to get wetsuits on the way. It was the first time I’ve ever worn a wetsuit, and let me tell you, they definitely are skin tight. For some reason they gave me an extra thick material and if I wore the jacket and pants together, I had an inch of material across my chest. Totally unnecessary, so I ended up 86ing the jacket most of the time. I did, however, have to wear it the first time we went out and I was unbelievably buoyant (even with 6 weights on). Ridiculous. We are supposed to have enough weights to be neutrally buoyant (eye level with water when floating vertically). However, my shoulders were out of the water…problem. So I added more weights (ended up being 3) and in the process of adding them to my weight belt, I beached myself on a rock like a whale. Special. I now know what problems whales face with their blubber…Good to know.
The 3 days we spent at Leigh were awesome. We snorkeled every day, did fish and kin (sea urchin) surveys and basically had no work, unless you were doing a presentation. We got a tour around the lab, which they are currently doing a ton of construction on. The building we stayed in was really nice, nicer than some dorms at school. What was really cool was that one of the grad students there was a past Eco-quester doing her masters work. :)
The entire week there was really chill and stress free. We had time to do whatever we wanted after dinner and didn’t have to stress about work. I got up for the sun rise one morning which was absolutely beautiful and went snorkeling the next morning. We saw huge stingrays, so cool!
We had a series of awesome lecturers throughout the week. All the talks were based around marine management which was cool to learn more about since I don’t have much background in it. We left for Poor Knights Wednesday, staying at a camp ground that night. Our room had triple bunks, there were pretty epic. I claimed a top bunk, which made getting back down in the morning interesting. We had a lecture from Wade Doak that night on the boat we’d be taking out the next morning. I have found my new idol. He. Is. Spectacular. I can’t put into words how crazy awesome he is and everything he has accomplished. In semi-simple terms, he and his family were invited by jacque cousteau to accompany him on a 3 month trip. OMG! I will leave it at that.
The next morning we left for Poor Knights. It was an hour boat ride out there and it turned out to be a gorgeous day. We have had the best luck with the weather, its crazy. We stopped at a harbor-ish area as our first destination to snorkel and there was only one other boat there. (BTW, Poor Knights is a marine reserve and no one is allowed to touch/take anything, or even allowed on land at all). I was able to get some pictures of this first stop before my camera completely died. It was so beautiful underwater; incredibly clear and the diversity is insane. The sea urchins here are huge and they have the most colorful sponges and sea anemones I have ever seen. SO AWESOME. I don’t know how long I was in the water for, but Steph and I were one of the first ones in and by far the last ones out. They had to keep some food out for us because we missed lunch.
Before moving to the next spot, a bunch of us were jumping off the second level of the boat into the water, so much fun! Our instructors got some awesome pictures of it.
From there we headed to Rico Rico cave. The caves and arches at Poor Knights were formed by gas bubbles in lava. This cave was gigantic. We drove into it (2 other boats already inside) and the acoustics were unbelievable. It is the equivalent of the Sydney opera house and holds an echo for 8 seconds. Apparently they have had a couple NZ bands play in there, which would have been SO cool. The captain of the boat blew a trumpet shell (like a conch shell) and the sound was spectacular. It actually sounded like the horns that orcs blow in LOTR, only better…way better. Next, there was a guy on the boat that brough a drum and recorder. He played the drum and sang first, so amazing. I have NEVER heard anything like it before. And when he played the recorder I thought I was going to die of shear happiness right then and there. I didn’t know someone could play a recorder like that. So unbelievably amazing.
From there we moved to one last snorkeling spot which is possibly where I had the best moment of my life. We wentto an area where there was an archway/cave type thing. We explored around it for a little while until we noticed a line of Blue Mao Mao swimming into the archway, so we followed. It was really neat to dive down and swim along with them. I made a couple of friends with some curious fish that swam right up to me. Once we entered the archway I literally gasped for breath. Inside there was a huge school of mao mao circling beneath us. I dove down in the middle and literally had thousands of fish circling me. IT WAS SO AWESOME. They were playing a ‘game’ on the rocks below which Wade referred to it as the invention of play, which is really neat. We stayed in there awhile just diving down with the fish. After awhile I made myself leave because my left ear was hurting, it wouldn’t clear half the time I dove.
I really wish I had my scuba cert and could have dove there. I guess it gives me a reason to go back, with a fully charged camera battery. Needless to say that it was one of the best days of my life and this week in general is probably the best week of my life.
And how to follow an amazing week is with an amazing weekend. There was a lot of back and forth about plans for the weekend and a few people were worried about it, but if I haven’t learned anything else here yet it’s that everything will be fine and to go with the flow. It was great not to have hour by hour plans and to do what we wanted. A group of us went to Whenagrei to rent a van (7 of us) and I proceeded to drive to the west coast. As in, I drove on the wrong side of the road AND car. Kind of cool, not gonna lie.
We drove to Trounsen park Thursday night and stayed at the DoC site there. We decided to do a short night walk into the bush in hopes of finding a kiwi…and we did! It was so cute! Rather large too and so awesome. It is rare to see a kiwi in the wild, go us! The next day we went up to the Kauri Forest and stopped at the larest Kauris trees in the world. They were HUGE! It’s hard to imagine something that large; one was 16.7 m around. That night we decided that we were going to go up to a DoC hut on a trail, but once we started we realized we weren’t going to make it before dark. So we pitched our tents on the side of a waterfall trek. Awesome night. It was filled with chasing possums and the best rendition of Lady Marmelade ever.
The next morning we headed back to small town we stopped at before to get some water and such only to run into a ‘Wild West Festival’. It was hysterical, complete with costumes and line dancing. I bought a beautiful pair of earrings and a ring, yay!
As if our weekend could get any better, it did. We headed north to the Hauraki Gulf and chilled on a beautiful deserted beach. It’s amazing how little people are at these places. Following our beach naps, a few of us went dune boarding. Yes, dune boarding. So much fun! I think I pulled a muscle in my shoulder though, oops. Climbing up dunes after a day of hiking turned out to be quite the task but totally worth it. We literally were boogie boarding on our stomachs, but down sand and into the water.
Last night we drove down to the Kai Iwi lakes and stayed at the campsite there (showers!). It was gorgeous. There was a short hike up to an awesome lookout where we watched the sunset.
Now I have to get back into school mode and slightly out of fantasy land. Midterm, presentation and paper this week, oh boy. It’s all good. After this past week, I’m pretty sure some work should be in order. Besides, I am here for school…right? ;)
Sunrise at Leigh
Snorkeling at Poor Knights!
7th largest Kauri tree in NZ (and the world...)
Dune Boarding!
Fun fact
Swim suits are called togs.
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