Thursday 3 January 2013

It's been a few days, mostly cycling, snorkling and diving, the weather has been pretty good, only downpours at night and some sprinkles during the day. New Years has been and gone, and we've only one proper sleep left now before we head home.

We've been to Muri Beach a couple of times now, it's about exactly on the other side of the island from here (16kms) , and so takes about 50 minutes to ride at a reasonable cycling pace, or 20 minutes by car. Roger, Ruth, Jackie and I went out there on Sunday (in their car) to do some snorkling, and although the weather packed it in a wee bit it was still warm, and there was lots to see. My favourite is the Smooth Flootmouth, I shall have to see if I can find an onle photo to link to. I saw two on the Sunday, but the next day Monday I did my dive refresher course which is basically a glorified snorkle in the lagoon but using the scuba tanks, and we saw a whole bunch of them.



Ben, from Canada was my dive instructer and he was very nice and patient. It didn't take much for me to get the hang of it, and the weather on Monday was particularly stunning, so a really good day to hang out in the lagoon. There were lots of fish about, so very entertaining, and nice to have a guide to point out flounder and clams I would have missed. It was just the two of us, and he was easy on the eyes so that didn't suck! We did some more snorkling in front of the house here in the afternoon, but didn't see as many fish as I had in the morning.

Tuesday was another Muri Beach excursion. Roger and I headed out there on the bikes about 10:30, and I have now completely done the ring road as we went through town and then on the other side did a stretch that was new to me. Once at Muri we waited for Ruth on her scooter (Jackie went home to Auckland on Monday) and Mum, Dad, Lee and Darryl in the car. Lunch on the beach on New Years day was very definitely on Island time, and when the food did eventually arrive they had Dad's order wrong so it had to be redone. Happily, we didn't really have anything else planned so no major drama to take our time. Another swim, and then home for an evening of roast Turkey and chatting.

Wednesday morning we had planned to visit a Whale and Wildlife centre in the morning, but when I got there (first on the bike) it was shut s I was able to give the others a heads up not to bother coming. I was off diving in the afternoon with Ben again as well as four other divers. Nearly had a fail as I didn't have my dive card with me, and I apparently am not on the database they checked. They let me come anyway after I signed something else saying they weren't responsible if I died (I had assured Mum it's not good for their business to have a tourist die on their watch!) and I shall certainly sort that out when I get home! The diving itself was really good. I had some trouble equalising the pressure in my ears, so spent the first part of each dive hanging out above them for the birds eye view rather than the up close and personal look, but I did manage eventally to get down to coral level. The visibility was fantastic, and so much fish and coral to look at, we had a great time. Towards the end we saw an eagle ray and I wanted to swim after it for a better look, but was, sall we say, discouraged (ie Ben hung on to my fin until I got the message!)

Played some Mah Jong with Mum, Dad and Lee last night (though we might try again before we go since Lee put us slightly wrong on one of the rules!!) and then in bed in reasonable time. I've upped my book count again, I think I'm on to book 6, and it's one borrowed from here, so the pressure is on to finish it before tomorrow. Hard to have a proper holiday with so much pressure, but I'm coping!

I'm typing this on the laptop not the phone so hope I haven't been too verbose. May not blog again now until I am home, but will do a final wrap up.

Here's hoping this link works, the photo is the beach on Monday from where we did the refresher dive

http://www.google.co.nz/imgres?q=smooth+flutemouth&hl=en&tbo=d&rlz=1T4SKPB_enNZ306NZ306&biw=1264&bih=602&tbm=isch&tbnid=RjFbPPtVrPBLqM:&imgrefurl=http://www.fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/1507&docid=zuLu15pdR8_8pM&imgurl=http://www.fishesofaustralia.net.au/images/image/FistulariaCommersoniRLing.jpg&w=1024&h=768&ei=c9XlUKTcGIiRkgXyzIGQAg&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=772&vpy=108&dur=1586&hovh=194&hovw=259&tx=132&ty=95&sig=104258008960270004032&page=2&tbnh=151&tbnw=210&start=18&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:34,s:0,i:190