Moray Eels and Blue Maomaos

Today was another “together” day (with the notable exceptions of P-diddy, who we all hope is having a marvelous time at the rally, and Serena, who went on a solitary quest to swim with dolphins!). Terry, Rachel, Ben and I had achieved PADI Open Water Diver Certification throughout the year in anticipation of our trip here, and Tom wanted to try a “Discover Diving” course, so the five of us headed out to Poor Knights Islands (one of Jacques Cousteau’s top ten dive locations in the world!) on the Calypso. Even with the wind in a not-great direction and the sky slightly overcast, we had a abso-stinkin-lutely aweso-blinkin-some experience. We got to see moray eels, scorpion fish, long- and short-tailed sting rays, blue maomaos, snot-on-a-rock (what it looked like – can’t remember the name!), lots of sea-slug-type beautifully decorated creatures, urchins, cool seaweed, schools of two-dot fish, red pigfish, and lots of other beautiful fish that we aren’t experienced enough to identify. The part Cousteau liked particularly was the Blue Maomao Arch that we got to swim down through – with the entry underneath a huge boulder. When we came through there was a huge school of – you guessed it, blue maomaos! - to greet us. (from Terry: As we reached the far end of the tunnel, sunlight came in through an opening in the archway, and illuminated the water like a cathedral – but instead of stained glass there was a wall of glimmering blue maomaos.) All in all the four of us got in two dives each, and Tom had a great first-time dive as well.

After our lovely diving experience, we met up with Serena, who (unfortunately hadn't been able to swim with the dolphins) and found a Turkish restaurant to eat in. We felt like SUGAR after that so found ourselves in the campervan with a 2-litre (think half gallon) ice cream container and a bunch of spoons. Unfortunately, we had no freezer, so we HAD to eat it all. Here's the proof! We can't believe that there are only two more days of this lovely trip (*sob!*), but it was definitely fun to have a chance to get together and swap stories on our most recent adventures.

(side note: we've added updates on the dates they occurred, so they'll be intermixed with previous posts below!)