Goat Island Marine Reserve
A bit of a shorter post this, getting back into writing after a month’s hiatus (31 of May today), which I can at least partly blame on waiting for pictures of the diving. On the 4th of May I finally got to do the last dive of my Open Water diving course after a 3-week delay due to Cyclone Tam which first caused too harsh conditions during it, and then just a long delay waiting for the visibility to clear up. But as I said on Sunday the 4th it was finally time, and the conditions couldn’t have been better: brilliant sunshine and very calm conditions. I was fortunate enough to be picked up around 11 by Mya, who was part of the original course, and who lives relatively close-by in Auckland. Because you can’t get up to Leigh and Goat Island without a car, a recurring problem with Auckland Transport 😐.
From the 11th of April, me being surface towed by Terry-Sue
When we arrived at the dive centre I was delighted to find out that we would have our same two instructors, and that we would be joined by Issy as well, meaning that we were almost the full gang from the original course. We started off the afternoon by prepping our gear and rehearsing how to plan multiple dives in a way to stay within safe limits of dissolved nitrogen in the body. Which was followed by some very basic exercises in compass navigation in the car park. And then we were off, finally, to the Goat Island Marine Reserve.
Such a beautiful day for a dive, and the visibility was unreal. We talked through the dive plane and then quickly put on our gear, did our buddy checks (which went surprisingly smoothly considering we’d had three weeks to forget it). It was quite cold stepping into the water, but o so nice. The difference in ocean life just compared to Matheson bay just down the coast was stark, so many different fish, and the kelp. Almost immediately as we surface swam out to our dive spot we saw an Eagle Ray, probably close to a meter wide which. And of course tons of Snapper, some Goat Fish and a few very large Red Moki with (red) zebra stripes.
Issy in the foreground, and I think me on the right
Then we dove down and descended into a world of kelp, a forest of green-brown leaves growing from large boulders on the sandy bottom. There on the bottom we continued our swim, now interspersed with repeating exercises like removing our masks or (air) regulators, and a lot more fish. It was really pleasant just to understand how much more at ease I was in the water now, compared to our first day. Calmly using my breath, not primarily for breathing, but to control my buoyancy and position in the water column.
The last exercises we had left was to remove and replace our gear underwater, and to do some simple compass navigation. The first of these were really difficult, for one you had to remove a bulky and heavy pack with a lot of straps underwater. But more critically that that large package also had all your buoyancy control (both lift and weights), and you are tethered to it with your literal lifeline in the form of your regulator. It was definitely not the most impressive display of underwater agility, but in the end we all got the job done. Compared to that ordeal the navigation was trivial, swimming 10 meters following a compass and then turning 180 degrees and swimming back. Which was made even easier by the fact that we had more than 10 meter visibility.
All in all we spent just over an hour underwater, probably one of the most magical hours in my life, ended a bit abruptly by me staring to run out of air. Or well rather me running out of air except the last 25% or 50 bars, which is the safety margin. Then a really nice swim back to shore watching more fish and just having an absolutely stunning view with the setting sun.
Returning to the diving centre, cleaning our gear, reporting the dive and just talking through the whole course. Before finally getting our Open Water certificates, crowning the whole course with an unforgettable dive.
Makayla, Issy, me, Mya and Amber
