Walking in the wet - Abel Tasman Coastal Track

New Zealand is all about the outdoors, especially when hiking, or tramping as the Kiwis say. The country even has 9 Great Walks. These are multi day hiking trails, which supposedly have the bast views and divers landscapes.

Now, we are by no means avid walkers, but we felt like we at least had to try to do one of these trails. I mean, being in the country for almost two months, and not do one of the walks....? That's like missing out on the essentials of the country.

Start of the Abel Tasman from Maharou

After done online searching, we decided to walk the Abel Tasman Coastal Track. We chose this one for several reasons:

• Supposedly it's the easiest of the Great Walks, so manageable for leisurely walkers. 
• It's very accessible, so if you decide you cannot take it anymore, you can even decide to take a water taxi out.
• You walk a trail from hut to hut, where you spend the night. So the distance between two huts determines how far you have to walk each day. The Abel Tasman has 'extra' huts, so you can chose to walk the whole track in 3,4 or 5 days. (This whole track is 60km.)
• This area usually has really good weather: one of the sunniest parts of the country.

View over Tinline Bay

Because the huts have limited space, you have to book them before you start. By the time we thought about booking them, some of them were already fully booked. So this limited our options, both in length and dates. An attentive option would be you camp along the trail, but then we'd have to hire (and carry!) camping gear too. That's a bit too hardcore for me.

We would walk 3 days, from Marahau to Awaroa, staying 2 night in huts. 

Because the trails are all about nature, you can't buy anything en route. You have to carry all your food , clothing and sleeping gear with you.

The huts have drinking water, flushing toilets and cold showers. No heating or electricity, but some sort of heating would be available.

Walking the first day

At our hostel we arranged for a water taxi to pick us up at Awaroa on day 3, and hired an extra sleeping bag (we travel with just one) because the nights get pretty cold!

We headed out on the 6th of November. Just as one of the infrequent bad weather fronts rolled in... Well , if you let the rain get yo you, you can't do anything in New Zealand! But look at the sky in that first photo, imagine that the start of you three day walk....

Start of day 2, Drizzle at Anchorage Bay

On that first day we walked just over 13km. Most of it in lovely weather, and those views... Simply amazing. But our bags were pretty heavy, were of used to more than a day pack. And there were a couple of pretty steep climbs that day. 

We stopped for lunch at Appletree Bay, a lovely little cove. But the tide rose very quickly, so we climbed up again and walked to the hut at Achorage. The first real showers started after lunch, and about 20 minutes before we got to the hut it started to storm. We were utterly soaked by the time we reached the hut. 

The rain stopped about half an hour after we got there... So we spend a lovely few hours sitting in the sun. As soon as the rain stopped, the birds came out. A few ducks, some quail and even a weka! 

Day 2: rain

Achorage hut had 4 separate door rooms, with 4 bunks each (sleeping 8 per room). The matresses were plastic wrapped foam. Not the most comfortable ever. But hey, we weren't doing this for comfort.

Someone lights the fire, we rinsed our socks and shirt, and hung our clothes next to the fire to dry.

Our dinner consisted of a salad with avocado and a tin of teriyaki chicken each. Dessert was an energy bar. 

The huts don't have cooking facilities and we figured that hiring and carrying a portable gas stove was too much of a hassle. 

We had some nice chats that evening, prepared our overnight oats, and by nine o'clock everyone was in bed!

Start of day 3 at Bark Bay

We were looking forward to day 2, it was forcast to be a lovely sunny day, and our pack would be not as heavy.

Imagine our deception when we woke up to the sound of rain... 

We took our time eating our oats (that had turned out quite nice!) and staring out the window. Around 10 we figured we might as well start, it didn't get any sunnier as far as we could tell. And we were right unfortunately.

It rained all day long. We didn't stop for lunch, because we were quite sure our rice cake would fall apart from the moisture. 

A good thing that even in the rain, the track is gorgeous. But of course we would have preferred some more sunshine.

A tui, one of the most common birds on the track.

We reached Bark Bay hut at around 2pm, having walked again 13km. Since it had been such lovely weather (ahem) we had decided to take the high tide route and a detour to Cleopatra Pool.

But we did gave a lot of fun that afternoon in the hut. We chatted and laughed with some of the other walkers. Taking turns of making fun of each other's food turns out to be a good way to pass the time. (Our dinner was ready cooked rice, mustard tinned chicken, red peppers and tinned olives.)

Bark Bay hut was a little more basic than Anchorage: the same plastic matresses, but this time in 2 bed rooms, each sleeping 14 people in platform bunks. What is a platform bunk? Two platforms above each other, both with 7  matresses, right next to each other. It has been a while since I've slept that close to a stranger...

The creek just before Tonga Quarry

But what a nice surprise on day 3. We had given up hope, but the sun made it at last! What a gorgeous day it was. We had only 10km to walk today, and our pack was almost empty.

We saw so many birds that day and the sunlight made all the views just made all the little creeks glitter. Because of the rainy days the waterfalls and creeks were tumbeling.

Day 3: sun at Onetahuti Beach

At Onetahuti Beach we had a break, we watched the oystercatchers and red billed gulls at the beach, and staring at the sea, we even saw some seals in the water!

After Onetahuti we walked through an estuary and then got ready for our last hike uphill. Walking down we realised we were very early for our water taxi. We had booked a 3pm taxi, and we arrived at noon. We decided to walk to the beach, just in time to see the earlier water taxi arrive! 

We stepped aboard and 1,5 hours later we were back where we started.

Boat ride back

Sleepy seals - Cape Pallister

While we stayed in Wellington, we decided to do a daytrip to Cape Pallister, home to the largest New Zealand fur seal colony of the North Island.

View from the cape

The drive there took about 2,5 hours, and was really nice. When we were nearly there, we started to watch the sea intensely, hoping for a glimpse of seals.

What a comfortable position...

And suddenly we thought we saw one! We pulled over and indeed... there was one. On closer inspection, we saw several. Just lazing around, perfectly blending with the rocks.

Quite an active pose

We walked towards the sea, about 10meters off the road and there lay another in the grass! So quietly we didn't notice it at first! 

Can you see them all?

We were hoping to see some pups, but we were probably a few weeks too early. We did see some smaller ones though. Two out of the water. One was just hiding with its mum, the other one was trying to annoy all the grown ups. Biting and poking every single on as he passed them. 

What is that biped doing?

Staying a bit longer we saw them interact with each other, the proud male at the largest boulder, the young one playing in the water.

Love the difference between wet and dry

We stayed for about an hour, watching them from different locations. We then drove on to the lighthouse, but decide that we didn't feel like walking the 250steps up. So we didn't.

Nozzling 

We then drove back to Wellington, just in time for the afternoon traffic jams. Always fun. Despite that delay, we were just in time to do the last tour of the Weta workshop, but that's a whole other story! 

For now: I hope you like these pics as much as I do...

Which way is up?

Lilly Pilly Gully circuit walk - Wilsons Promontory

No, i didn't make that up.... That's actually the name of the walk we did at Wilsons Prom. But first things first.

We had a long days drive to get here, we drove from our overnight stop in Bega to Tidal River, which took about 7 hours continuous driving, we arrived at the gates of Wilsons Promontory National Park around 5pm; sunset. Now, we're not insured if we drive in the dark in nonresidential areas because of the wildlife. And we understand why, since we have seen so much roadkill already! But since we really wanted to spend the night insite the park, we decided to continue during dusk, but carefully. We only had only 30km to go and it wasn't dark yet. 

The campsite at Tidal River

But at dusk is when most animals come out, and we did seen some wombats and even emus in that last stretch! So cool.
We arrived at Tidal River, the Park's only town at half past 5. Or town... It's actually just a very large campsite (484 sites!), with several amenity blocks, a few cabins and a general store and visitor information centre. The last two were both closed by the time we got there. We had hoped to get one of the only 20 powered sites, so we could put on our heater, but how to arrange that? We didn't see anyone alive, accept for the birds... Until we discovered a printout on the notice board: a laminated card would serve as an 'after hours permit' and a little map showed where the powered sited were located.
Only then did we realise we stood in the middle of a campsite, not a car park....  We got the card (we were the first campers that night) and paid the fee the next morning.

Wombat!

When we walked to the amenities, we saw some of the larger brown blocks moving: those were wombats! And I happen to think they're über cute. And if they were a little more sensible they would be a tad more afraid of humans. IMHO. 

A wombat looks like a crossing between a giant Guinea pig and a koala. And it grazes. Right next to you. Unless you scare it like Rodie did when he accidentally walked into one, then it makes a funny noise and runs. Or more accurately, it wobbles.

View from the circuit track

After a good nights sleep, all the wombats disappeared again, and we decided to take a walk: first the Lilly Pilly Link Walk to Lilly Pilly Gully, then the first part of the Mt Bishop Summit Track, until we reached the Lilly Pilly Circuit Walk, then the boardwalk circuit, taking the Lilly Pilly Nature Walk back to Lilly Pilly Gully, ending with the Lilly Pilly Link Walk to Tidal River again. Too many Lilly Pilly's in there.... Though we didn't see that many. I think.... We did see lots of bird. Most impressive was the yellow tailed black cockatoo. And the funny little birdies that hop around everywhere here. 

The path 

We had quite some rain during the night, but just a few drops (and lots of sunshine) while we walked. It was really good walking weather, about 13', so we didn't get too warm. The first 1 hour (about 3.6km) was a moderately steep uphil walk, then another 1.5 hours (4.2km) easy flat and downhill. 600m was on the boardwalk, were we stopped frequently to spot those black cockatoos. 

Once back we had lunch and a little rest in de campervan (I got vehemently sick just after lunch, maybe Rodie did try to poison me with those toasties....)  I had power nap while it rained outside, and then we drove off at 4pm. We hoped to spot some wildlife on the drive out, and maybe do the Prom Wildlife Walk if we had time and stamina. 

Emus spotted at dusk 

We spotted some wombats and a young fox, and than two emus! But then we got to the Wildlife Walk. We parked the campervan next to a meadow, and saw 5 emus! Even though there was a drizzle, we started the walk. A few hundred meters further we saw some kangaroos, and in the end a wombat. After some selfies it really was time to get going. Officially you have to leave the park before sunset. We had decided to go to a campsite in Yanakie, 5km north of the entrance. It was dark by the time we got here, but we made it! And then the office was closed, but luckily a quick phonecall to the manager gave direction on how to get in, and here we are: nice and snug, just have to consider what to do for dinner. 

Hungry wombat eats, doesn't care who's next to him

Sail away - Airlie Beach, Whitsundays

We have decided to spend less time on Australia's east coast, in favour of its west coast. One simply can't see the whole of the country in 3,5 months. We therefor are slightly short on time for our drive down from Cairns to Brisbane; we've got a fortnight, including time to spend in Brisbane. Our dilemma now was: Whitsundays yay or nay?

Whitsunday Island

The Whitsunday islands are a group of islands off the coast of Airlie Beach, on the southern end of the Great Barrier Reef. They are famous for their idyllic beauty and calm waters. To really experience them it is best to do a multi day cruise, with of course some diving on the reefs. But we've just came back from our liveaboard, and have neither budget nor time for a multi day sail cruise. So do we settle of a one day cruise, that most likely will not do it justice, or skip them all together? We asked my brother, who lived in Oz for a year, for advise, and decided to go for that 1-day cruise.

Setting sail

We arrived in Airlie Beach around 15:00, and before finding a place to camp that night, we walked into one of the travel agencies to see if any cruises  were available for tomorrow. It turned out that there weren't that many day trips, and of those, some were already fully booked. It looked like we had a choice of three: Manta Ray that took divers, a speed boat cruise that did multiple stops, and a sailing cruise that did fewer stops. Our first choice was Manta Ray, but too bad... fully booked. The speed boat had exactly two seats available, but we decided we preferred the sailboat. Luckily they had some spots left too! We spent some of our birthday money and happily went to search for a campsite for the night. 

Prepping to snorkel

The next morning our alarm rang at 6:30. We had a quick breakfast and drove to the marina where we parked for the day. We boarded our sailboat. Southern Cross was 20-year old, 68-ft former racing yacht, now modified for tourist comforts. We motored out of the marina, and once out, the sails went up! Calm waters with a good breeze; in the next 2 hours we sailed to Hook Island. Because it was a bit overcast I did put on a jacket, but it was a lovely trip, and we were really happy that we did actually set sail.

Hill Inlet

In the last stretch to our snorkelling spot, the sails were lowered, and the boat lay flat in the water again, so we could put on a our very sexy stinger suits! Even though it is no longer stinger season, we were obliged to wear them. We didnt get fins, the risk of damaging the reefs with fins is pretty big. Therefor only a few companies are licensed to hand out fins, our tour operator wasn't.  Very solid reasoning, but still awkward to snorkel without fins. The snorkelling itself was lovely, and quite similar tot the shallow diving we did in the reef up by Cairns. By the time we got out, lunch was waiting for us, and the sun came out!

Track to the look out

After lunch we cruised to Whitsunday Island, and got a dinghy ride to the beach at Hill Inlet, where Whitehaven Beach begins. They say Whitehaven Beach is one of the finest in the world, and it sure is gorgeous. The finest silica sand I have ever seen or felt!

We walked up to the lookout and enjoyed the views over the mangroves and sea. Down on the beach again we walked a bit when we suddenly heared a sort of clicking noise... We looked around and saw hundreds of little crabs running! The disappeared in their little holes when you approached them, just as quickly as they had appeared, but it was an interesting encounter. And they had really lovely colours too, that kind of emphasised their movements. 

Gorgeous little crabs

Back on the boat, we headed back to the shore, and sailed for another good 1,5 hours. Sunburnt, wind swept and salt covered we came back. We had a really wonderful day and were very happy we decided to have a day trip. So thanks again for the advise Chris! 

Whitsunday Beach, picture perfect

A spaceship named Nostromo - from Cairns to Brisbane

Since we got a really good deal on a Spaceship campervan, we drove from Cairns to Brisbane. We had planned to do this by coach or train, but a campervan allows for so much more freedom. Plus we were hoping to save on accommodation by sleeping in it. So what did it cost us in the end?

Rent incl. insurance AU$ 30 per day	AU$ 360
Petrol (2150km - 239L)	AU$ 288
Accommodation (7 nights paid)	AU$ 193
Total 12 days	AU$ 841

Greyhound bus tickets cost AU$ 320 per person, but since you have to pay more for you beds, it probably costs about the same. And the campervan gave us so much more freedom! We now could visit places we would otherwise never could've gone to. Most notably Eungella NP and Cape Hillsborough. When we picked our spaceship up, we heard his name was Nostromo. This was our route.

Our route from Cairns to Brisbane 

We started in Cairns (A) and drove directly to Townsville (B), about 4 hours/375km. We had decided to park at the BP Truckstop for the night. Staying there overnight is free, and renting a private bathroom with nice hot shower for 35mins costs $5. It felt a bit weird at first, but being surrounded by so many other campervans and caravans made it a lot easier. The 2nd day we did a daytrip to Magnetic Island, so spend our second night here too.

Very exotic: BP Truckstop in Townsville 

Our next drive was to Airlie Beach (C), about 3,5 hours/300km. This is where we did a sailing trip through the Whitsunday Islands on our 4th day. We spend both night 3 and 4 at Flamtree campsite ($25 per night). The campsite was a bit out of town, but lovely. It felt like caking in a big aviary, both the number of birds and their noise...  The campsite had a very good clean camp kitchen too, so we didn't have to bother with our own little stoves. It was the first time we used the Aussie barbie!

On our way to Airlie Beach

On day 5 we used our freedom to drive up the hills to Eungella NP (D), and specifically to a little creek famous for easy platypus spotting.... We had to give that a shot. Nostromo was really struggling uphill, boy was that last bit steep... The transmission got a bit smelly, but he made it! (Nostromo was not the youngest of spaceships, and has a mileage of almost 400.000km) 

We had planned to stay at the bush campsite for the night to have a better chance of seeing a platypus, but when we parked there, the sign read that we needed a permit. We could get one on the phone, but the campsite had no reception. We decided to walk to the viewing platform, may be we got lucky, and if not we would drive a bit down again and phone for a permit. 

View on our way to Eungella 

And did we get lucky! We didn't see any platypuses at the first platform, even though we waited quietly and patiently. Be at both the 2nd and 3rd platform we saw two of them! Quickly surfacing for a few second to breath and chew, and then quickly diving again. But they're so small! These four measured maybe 25cm, tail and bill included. We had expected them to be a lot bigger, but then again Wikipedia tells that there is a large variation in platypus length depending on environmental factors. Who knows. But now that we did see them, we decided to drive down again (poor Nostromo!) and drive to Cape Hillsborough (E) for the night. We did and slept at the only  campsite there ($35!), we drove about 5hours/300km on day 5.

Yes, this is a platypus 

The next morning we had to get up early to see.... The kangaroos and wallabies at the beach at sunrise! 6am is when the sun rises, and we've been aware of that most days here in Australia. Either because we had to get up for a tour, or because the birds wake up, and they make some noise when they do. Works better then any alarm I've owned! So, bright and shiny, or maybe not, we walked up the beach. And it was pretty special to be honest. 

Sunrise at Cape Hillsborough 

After a walk down the beach, some sun salutations and breakfast, we did a short walk round the cape. We started Nostromo and day 6 was a long day  of driving. We drove almost 500km in about 7 hours and stopped for the night near Calliope (F) at a bush campsite. A bush campsite has minimal amenities, but is free. This one had toilets, but no showers or drinking water. It did have a good view! And it was busy! We were the only little tourist campervan. The Aussies have impressive motor homes, especially the 'grey nomads': retirees that pride themselves in travelling around. Most drive real homes, including satellite, solar panels etc. Of course all 4WD, and either ridiculously big ('big rigs') or super expandable. Of course always completely self reliant. 

Calliope bush campsite

On the morning of day 7 we made breakfast, and drove to Hervey Bay (G), 4 hours/300km. We stayed at Scarness beach campsite. It cost us just $15 per night, and we weren't charged for Nostromo during our overnight trip to Fraser Island.  Unfortunately we were about a month too early to see the whales in Hervey Bay proper, but we did see lots of migrating humpbacks off Fraser Island breaking and blowing. 

A campervan with a view

On day 10 we left Hervey Bay and headed for Noosa (H), some 3hours/200km. Noosa is very touristy and crazy full of roundabouts. We didn't walk through town , since it was too busy to find a parking spot. It is a very popular resort town, and we were there during school holidays. Ah well. We stayed at the Big4 campsite for $40. And.... We slept without the awning: it's getting cold! 

On our way to Hervey Bay

Our last drive was to Brisbane (I) on day 11, about 2 hours/150km. We drove on an actual motorway! Up until now all the roads have been 2 lane (onein either direction) with sometimes an overtake lane. It was weird seeing so many cars at once! We stayed at Newmarket Gardens for $43 for one  night. The next morning we drove to a hostel, unloaded our bags, drove Nostromo up Mt Coot-Tha, and then to and then the rental company where we handed him in. Back to public transport for now! 

Cuddly Koalas - Magnetic Island

When we were at home loosely planning this trip we intended to make our way down from Cairns to Sydney by public transport. Since the east coast is the busiest part of the country, with many hostels and most of the activities are or on the ocean, it seemed the most sensible option not the blow our money on expensive car or campervan hire. We just hadn't decided on bus or train yet.

The start of the Forts Walk

But when we got in our hostel in Cairns, we saw a sign for campervan relocations; basically you hire a van for $1 a day and even get money for petrol, but you have to get to the new location very quickly. We asked our receptionist about this deal, but it gave us only 3 days to get to Brisbane. We had planned to do that route in 2 weeks. Three days would be just driving and sleeping with no sightseeing on the way. She then offered to make a few quick enquiries to see what the prices were for renting a campervan, and we got a great deal: renting a Spaceship for $30 a day including full insurance! That meant we just had to pay the insurance fee. That's the same price as 2 bus tickets, plus we could save on accommodation costs. Monday morning we picked up a Spaceship named Nostromo, and drove to Townsville. 

First koala spotted!

Because we now had a campervan we opted for a day trip to Magnetic Island, instead of staying there overnight. After we got lunch at the supermarket, we drove to one of the two ferries and bought return tickets. And then came to the conclusion we had preferred to take the other ferry that went 18 times daily instead of 8... Well, nothing to be done about that now! 

We looked into the information leaflet and decided that we would bus around the island. Our main objective was to do the Forts walk, where it was rumoured you could very well spot wild koalas...

Sleepy face

Hat on, sunscreen applied, and off we went. And just after a few minutes we spotted our first koala up in a tree, neatly seated on a branch, nice fluffy ears and all!  After a few minutes of snapping photos we walked on, and just a few meters further was the second koala. We felt really lucky now. And the good thing about koalas, even the 'wild' ones, is that they hardly move. They just sit and doze, so playing paparazzo on them is real easy. The 'hard' part is that since they don't move, it's also really easy to walk past them.  Which we nearly did, when we saw a koala about 1 meter off the ground, probably just came down for a poop. 

Koala just 1 meter off the ground

Of course this was reason for a few close ups, and then... A tiny second head peekabooed around the side: she had a joey! How cool is that? Now that was really an unexpected treat. What was pretty strange is that the joey seemed really awake and alert, while the mother just appeared dozy. Though at a certain point mum did think all the attention (of course when we stopped to watch, so did a couple of other tourists) was a bit too much. When Rodie ran back for our water bottle, that we forgot in all our excitement, she had climbed up another tree. 

Just look at that face...

We walked back, in order to catch the bus back to one of the other bays to see the rock wallabies. When we arrived at Picnic Bay we clambered up the walking trail and had a wonderful view. But no wallabies. Odd. Now of course it's nature, so that can happen but still... When we walked back down I took another look into the leaflet, to discover that we were at the wrong bay! We should've gone to Arcadia Bay.  We considered taking the bus back there, but then opted out.  I'm sure we'll see lots of wallabies in the coming months and we had done quite some walking. We took the ferry back and drove our trusty Nostromo to the truck stop for a good nights sleep. 

View from the look out at Picnic Bay

In search of Nemo - Great Barrier Reef

Going to Australia, Queensland, where the Great Barrier Reef is, and not diving? Not an option!

After some consideration we opted for a 3 day / 2 night liveaboard with Pro Dive. That looked like pretty hardcore diving and the 11 dives in 3 days might be a bit too much for me, but this was the way to dive at the outer reefs. Financially it was quite a thing too (A$800/€500 per person) but hey... Once in a lifetime, right? 

That's what we looked like!

So, what did we do? We were picked up at 6:15am(!) at our hostel, checked in at the dive shop and then boarded our vessel in the marina. There were 32 divers on board, about halve of them in training, 4 instructors, 1 cook and 1 skipper. What we really liked is that this company does not send you down in groups with an instructor, but you go down independently as buddy pairs. That gives you so much more freedom.

Spot the spotted fish

We got breakfast on board while the crew loaded the stuff on board, and then headed out to the reef, where we arrived about 3,5 hours later and at 11:30am we had our first dive! But oh boy... What a current! This wasn't fun, is was about a 50m swim to the reef, but by the time we got there halve our air was gone! After 10 more minutes at the reef we surfaced and got a dingy ride back to the boat... Uhoh... After a reprimand from the dive master that we got way out off the area we went to the upper deck to catch our breath. And wonder if we really were that out of practice? But all the divers that surfaced had had the same problem, and lots of dingy rides that morning.  Turns out there had been some type of freak current (or so we were told at the next briefing). 

 

One of the anemone fish

The next dive at 14:30 was also at Flynt Reef, but this time on a reef closer to the to the boat: like swimming through an aquarium! Lovely colours and so many fish species. You could not avoid the parrot fish, and we spotted our first turtle! I just love turtles, especially when under water. They're every bit as surf dude as in the Nemo movie. We also spotted our first giant clams.

 

Like swimming through an aquarium 

We both skipped the 16:30 dive in favour of the night dive at 19:30. That was some serious underwater disco! Of course that's not very good for the wildlife spotting, but rather funny. We dove in groups as many of the divers had not done a night dive before. We did spot a parrot fish in a mucous bubble, that was rather special. And of course every small fish that you put a spotlight on was instant dinner for the bigger hunting fish. We also saw a flash of a reef shark. 

 

Look at that face...

The next morning we had a lay in, our first pre breakfast dive was at 7:30am. Unfortunately Rodie's night had not been very good. Our beds were 1.80m long, slightly on the short side for his 1.93m frame. Since they were 65cm wide and with 60cm headroom, he simply did not fit. The second night we put his mattress on the floor, left the door open and his feet slept in the hallway. Much to the amusement of our shipmates. 

The dive was at Tracy's little Bommie, a deeper dive to start the day with. This was a dive where we savoured all the smaller wonders of the corals and fish, and of course another turtle! We saw our first stingray and some more of the giant clams. 

 

Pretty amazing dives

For the second dive (at 10:30) we had moved to Milln reef and we decided to hire an underwater camera (thank you sponsors!). It was our first time ever and we had fun with it. And isn't it fun to see what we look like in the big blue? And of course it makes for a better blog post.  We met up with some turtles again, saw some anemone fish, angler fish, the ubiquitous parrot fish, so many fish I haven't got a clue what they're named. Rodie even made a some pretty cool videos of our dive!

The afternoon dive at 15:00 was similar to this, but without the camera. I skipped the night dive on their second day; simply not hardcore enough! Rodie did dive and saw one side of the sleeping Brian sticking out from underneath a rock. Who? Oh Brian, that's just the 2m turtle living there...

 

Tiny fish at one of the corals

The third day was again an early wake up call. The knock on the door was at 6am so we could be in the water at 6:30....  Who said this was vacation? We had a quickie briefing and changed into our gear in the black of the night, plunging in the water at dawn. That was quite special though, we saw the reef waking up. Slowly more and more fish emerged from their sleeping places. We also swam into a few reef sharks (black tips?) that just came back from their night's hunt, some turtles, (yes again, and I still love them!) and a badass barracuda. 

Parrotfish all around 

I decided to skip the second dive at 9:00 but Rodie went in and yes: he found Nemo's family! They lived in an anemone just a few meters from the boat. 6 cute little clown anemone fish. He also saw a moray eel, and some sharks. And of course those innumerable other fish.  For our last dive at 11:00 we were not assigned a specific itinerary at the briefing, so we first swam to the Nemos and that had a nice swim around, just to bid our goodbyes to the reef. At noon the boat headed for the shore again, and our diving trip was over!

Bye for now!