Honestly, not the best trip in the world, for various reasons.
But the water was actually beautiful, not too cold at all, considering I went to sleep the night before in about 5 layers, including thermals and sweats. According to the NZ Herald, NZ has apparently skipped autumn and its now colder than most of winter in Auckland.
Let me explain this weekend.
The trip guy from the university diving club picked me up and we got lost repeatedly trying to first find the guy to pick up the club gear from and then the other girl going up with us. Interesting side note: I drove up in Miss New Zealand's car. The trip guy's sister is Miss New Zealand, hence he gets to go to the Bahamas (prolly Atlantis, I told him) for Miss Universe in November. Anyways, we also did not have directions to the place we were staying so that was a hassle too. Got to the barn at about 11:30pm, and watched tv for awhile. Interesting side notes about NZ tv ads: 1. the song from the Enzyte commercials (with the creepy smiley guy and thinly veiled erection references) is used in a commercial for something with adorable tiny little blue kiwis running around...weird and 2. a few commercials are the exact same ones we have on the states but with new zealand-accented voiceovers. Barn was not heated, phil's sleeping bag was a summer one, and i was freezing, i couldn't feel my nose or toes all night...really helped the cold I've acquired since the huge drop in temperature.
Decided to snorkel b/c I've had a cold and diving with any sort of sinus congestion is problematic because they can't adjust to the pressure underwater then. It takes about 45 minutes to cross the open water over to the islands. There were some biiig swells and in order to stay dry i had to be inside. And I got MAJORLY seasick, especially once we stopped moving. First time I have ever puked and puked and puked over the side of a boat...the snapper really enjoyed nibbling on it. Sat on the bow for awhile while the divers readied themselves, and when I felt decent I wriggled into my wetsuit and jumped in. Pretty cool, blue as hell waters, not very cold at all after the first few minutes (17C=62F) and there were all these big schools of fish, tons of snapper. I forgot how much it feels like flying, snorkelling over deeper waters, quite dizzying with the light and all. I had a little school of snapper following me, like in the movies, where I kept turning around b/c I didn't see any fish and they were all just hanging out behind me. Snapper just kinda hang out in the water like barracuda, ominously, but they're not scary. Literally a few minutes after I got back on board the boat, I puked out the rest of whatever was left in my stomach (a single protein bar for breakfast) and dryheaved for awhile and then napped on the bow of the boat while everyone else ate lunch. After my nap and with nothing at all left in my stomach, decided to go in after the skipper told me i looked absolutely miserable, which was nice of him. It was shallower so I saw alot more species of fish (like triggerfish! yay!), but I could kick myself for not venturing around the corner b/c the other snorkeller and the divers saw a bunch of eagle rays over there! When I got back on the boat, I couldn't get the wetsuit off and the skipper, instead of helping me, thought it was hysterical. I went and sulked, in my cold wetsuit on the bow and waited for the divers to get back, and one of them finally helped me out. Not a big fan of that skipper, didnt he see me puking my brains out? and didn't he hear me when I told him I wasn't diving b/c I'd been sorta sick? but yeah FUNNY joke making me freeze and all. Anyways, made it back w/o feeling seasick mostly and stopped for pizza on the way home. back now and exhausted.
According to my HILARIOUS buddy the skipper, the islands have lots of sunfish (the freaky oceanic ones w/ no butt) in the summer...I SHOULDA GONE IN MARCH BECAUSE THATS ALSO WHEN THE SNORKELLERS IN THE CLUB SAW THE MANTA RAY THERE! MANTA RAY AHHHHHH
Overall, the water was gorgeous, the weather stayed perfect and the islands themselves were pretty stark and had lots of caves and cliffs and stuff. And, when i wasn't puking/feeling like puking, i had some of those great moments where i just enjoy being out on the water. But freezing and puking are really not fun, at all.
