The Life Aquatic

A lot has happened since we last checked in, and since all my favourite books are picture books, I'll try to keep my words to a minimum and pictures to a maximum. I may also write in rhyme. Just kidding, I don't have the time nor the energy to do that. So, here goes:


Picton

After Nelson, we made our way to Picton. Situated in the beautiful Queen Charlotte sound, Picton is a small town, known for being the first stop off of the ferry terminal from the North Island. We wandered the town, and checked into a neat little hostel called Juggler's Rest. Here, we got a fire show the first night, and hung out with some cool people. There are also all sorts of juggling and fire toys for people to use and learn on, including balls, other balls, more balls, juggling pins, fire sticks, and poi. The next day, we started our Scuba lessons!

From Picton Downtown to the harbour

Arch from the harbour to downtown

Fred firespinning

still firespinning

Fire Poi

So, the first day, we went over our theory which we had diligently studied with our instructor, Brent (easy for me to remember!), then went to a swimming pool to practice essential skills such as buoyancy control, mask clearing, hand signals and holding our pee so we don't pee in our wetsuits (warm, but gross). It's an amazing feeling being under water without having to surface, and we both loved our first taste. After great success in the pool, we went to the ocean the next day.  Diving from the beach at the marina was our next step. We waded in and checked out the sea life along the sea wall, which was pretty cool. We saw tons of fish, an octopus being attacked by lots of little fish, jellyfish and my favourite... TUBE WORMS!!! I loved watching the tube worms shrink back into their tube homes whenever we came near. Anyway, after doing two dives at that location, practicing our skills and having some fun, we went back to the dive shop, and finished off our theory test.

Gearing up at Picton Marina

 
After a day off to have fun in Picton, we were back at it. We got up early, checked out of the hostel and went to the dive shop, where we met up with Brent, Nine (other instructor), Robin (diver from Switzerland) and Tim and Liz (other divers from the UK). From there, Brent, Faye and I went to the boat at the marina and the others jumped in Nine's van, and we headed out to Port Gore, the site of the shipwreck Mikhail Lermontov. More about the ship later... As we were fueling the boat, I was savagely attacked by a duck. Yep, a duck bit me. The cheeky little bugger was swimming along the boat, looking for a handout, so, in my infinite wisdom, I held out my hand to see how close he would come to me. After looking confused for a minute as the realization that there was no food in my hand kicked in, he swam up and bit my fingers, glared at me with hate in his beady little duck eyes, then swam off with his bill high in the air while I got over the shock of being attacked by a wild animal. And I was told there were no dangerous animals in New Zealand...

Pure evil...

Anyway, we followed the exact course of the Lermontov out to Port Gore, where the Lermontov Lodge is. This is a little basecamp lodge of which the dive company has sole access to. Once we got out there, Faye and I dove our last two dives required for our certification with Nine while the others dove the shipwreck.

Lermontov Lodge on Port Gore

Nine taking Faye and I out on the barge for our last two dives to be certified.

Faye trying to catch her supper... She went hungry that night.

Finally, on our last day, we got to go down to the shipwreck. A little bit about the ship first. The Mikhail Lermontov was a Soviet cruise ship, built in the early 70's. On February 16, 1987, the ship left port for the last time at Picton. Guided by a kiwi pilot, the ship had several close calls leaving port, then turned between mainland and a lighthouse. Here, it hit a rock, gashing it's bottom and started sinking. The Soviet Captain, presumably muttering Russian profanities, retook control of the ship, and tried to beach it in Port Gore. Before it got there however, the ship's electronics decided they didn't enjoy seawater that much and quit, about the same time the engines did. So, floating back out into the bay, all of the passengers were offloaded onto fishing boats and other rescue boats, and she sank to the sea floor. I should also add that the passengers were only aware that something was wrong when the crew were running around in life jackets. And there weren't enough lifeboats and supplies for everyone. So, it could have been a major disaster. There was only one fatality, a refrigeration engineer who was last seen in the holds working on the freezers. The body was never discovered, and there are some strange tales of a Russian man spotted in the area, as a fisherman and whatnot. Now, the ship lies at the bottom of Port Gore, and is a great spot to dive! the ship itself is between 12 and 38 meters below the surface, and is now encrusted by all sorts of sea life.

Robin getting ready, Lydia watching and double checking. Tim and Liz in the background.

Brent (instructor) entering the water.

SCUBA! Havin' a time!

When we finally got to go down to the ship, it was an amazing experience. Lying on her port side, the ship is like a ghost, suddenly appearing beneath you when you least expect it. As I descended my first time, I was completely unprepared for the ship below me, and almost sunk right through an open window. That got the adrenaline pumping... So, after getting control of my buoyancy, with the gaping black whole below me, our guide, Lydia and us went to explore part of the ship. Our first dive was a deep dive, to experience what it's like to be below 18m, so we went down to the funnel of the ship, at 30m. The ship was really cool to explore, with the deck planking rising vertically like a wall. On our second dive, we went to 18 m or so max, and just explored more of the ship, weaving in and out of the lifeboat davits, and peering in the pool area at the stern. Anyway, we both enjoyed our diving experience, and want to dive some more on the North Island.

Leaving Port Gore by car, very scenic, very twisty road... almost everyone felt nauseous...

As a bit of a side note, I managed to get water in both of my ears, which wasn't painful or anything for me, but I couldn't hear well for about a week. Needless to say, Faye hated it more than I did.

Wellington

After diving, we boarded the ferry and crossed Cook Straight to the North Island. Arriving in Wellington, we struggled to find a nice, homey hostel of the type we enjoy. Instead, we had to settle paying way too much for a big institutionalized hostel in the middle of the city. It kind of sucked. We wanted to see so much of the city, because it looked beautiful, but when we awoke, it was pouring rain. We couldn't justify spending so much for staying there, so we decided to move on, and hit up Wellington on our way back to the South Island. So, we decided to go to Wanganui on a whim, partly because it was in the right direction, and partly because it had a high rated, small-ish hostel to stay in.

Wanganui

Wanganui is a city on the Wanganui river, and you can still take river boat rides and whatnot on it. We checked into our hostel and were about to go explore the town, when who walked out of the lounge, but Andy, another Canadian we met when we were in Christchurch, and got along well with. As it turns out, Andy is working at that hostel for a few months. So Andy dashed to get ready and came with us, for our own personal tour of the town. We went to a glass blowing studio, and watched people blowing glass for a while, wandered downtown, and then took a tunnel to an elevator in the hill, which took us up to a war monument tower that you could climb to the top. It was a good day. We enjoyed our time so much, that we stayed 2 extra nights, hanging out with Andy, exploring the town, and enjoying the night life.

Glass blowers hard at work

Faye, imitating a carving on our way to the elevator.

the view from the top of the monument

New Plymouth

Once we were ready to move on, we decided to head up to New Plymouth and hopefully explore Mt. Taranaki, an active volcano that rises up from the plains around it. Unfortunately, mother nature didn't agree with our plans, and once again, it poured rain on the mountain. The city itself seemed exempt from this bad weather, so we explored the town, going to the farmer's market, watching timber sports competition, taking in the museum, and enjoying the sights.

Timber sports

Pipe band in front of the museum.

After 2 nights there, we got up, packed the car, and headed on our way. We didn't know which way to go, east toward Napier, or North toward Hamilton... So, we decided to let fate decide. We applied to a few wwoofing spots the previous day, and the hosts got back to us. North it was! So, we headed up toward Waitomo for the night. After being unsuccessful in finding a camping spot on our own, we settled for a camping spot on the grounds of a hostel.

So, today, we are going to explore Waitomo Caves (if they aren't ridiculously overpriced) and I'm sure Faye will pet the goat and deer that are next door at the farm.