A week in a wetsuit

Unfortunately for you, the activities of last week were largely undocumented by my camera. To make up for this, there will be a number of links within this text to websites where pictures can be found of the amazing places I was this week.

Friday night after I declared my blackout was a story in and of itself. One of the local maori, Willie, had hinted that we, the men at Ecoquest would be honored by paddling the waka, the war canoe and ancestral totem of an iwi. So instead of heading out after lunch to our weekend destination, we pushed the waka from the maurae to the Bayview Hotel, an hour's haul down the road, to where the Kaiaua Wine & Food Festival would occur on Sunday. Once in place, we were trained in the custom of paddling like a warrior and shown the haka, a chant for strength. Having all of this happen with such short notice was severely hindering the other planned activities for the weekend. But we’d get to paddle the waka, so it was worth it. I should mention here, that this had been discussed earlier that week, but was rejected by the elders of the iwi.

Anyways, the remainder of that night was spent hitching to Waitomo, an extremely small tourist town in the southwest corner of the north island. Saturday was spent with the Blackwater Rafting Co. in Ruakuri Caves. Armed with a wetsuit, helmet, torch (headlamp), and inner tube seven Ecoquesters and a few strangers saw some sweet cave tunnels and a crapload of glowworms, think stars at the roof of the cave.

Here, a phone call was made to Ecoquest to catch up on the waka situation. It turns out Willie was acting against the elders orders and nothing would happen at all. What a bummer! So instead we headed back north a bit to Hamilton where we would see a rugby game and try out the nightlife of a Kiwi city. On the way to Hamilton, my thumb partner and I were picked up by the great, great, granddaughter of the maori man who discovered the Waitomo caves we were exploring that morning. She took a detour to her whenua (family) land on the way into town, a part of New Zealand I would never get to see just being here for classes. All and all it was an extremely eventful day.

Besides the Kaiaua Wine & Food Festival on Sun, it was a relaxing day. The gentleman who took us the last leg home had hitched 10,000 miles across the U.S. in four months. It was really interesting the systems he created staying safe in the States.

I have very few stories about this week specifically. In general, I was at the Leigh Marine Reserve Laboratory, a satellite campus of the University of Auckland, an hour north of the city. Goat Island and the waters around it are a no take reserve. The only activity that can be conducted within the reserve’s boundaries is recreational swimming and diving and the experiments from the lab. Ecoquest was there to run a field exercise in marine surveying. We were out for at least two hours every day snorkeling. Some of us even got up at 6a on Thursday to snorkel with the rising sun. We were also graced by the presence of Bill Balintine, who was responsible for the act of Parliament that created the reserve. He is featured in the April 2007 addition of National Geographic.

Friday was spent on a boat!!! We departed from Tutukaka, about 2 hours north from Leigh, to the Poor-Knights Islands. Jacques Cousteau labeled these waters in the top ten best dive places in the world. Some of the things I saw were magical. Blue Mau Mau arch was filled with thousands of the brightest blue fish I have ever seen. You could swim through them, and they would move just long enough for you not to hit them. Wade Doak was of the first to dive here. His lecture Thursday night was hilarious and inspiring.


I apologize that you couldn’t see what I was able to experience this week, but perhaps you can join me on my next dive trip when I return to New Zealand.