You start off getting fitted for all your equipment and then it's off to the boat. I met my guide and the other guy doing a dive (he was doing a wreck a dive on the Canterbury) as well as his guide and the driver.
The boat ride out to where I did my initial test run in the water was about half an hour and was a very scenic ride. Unfortunately the pictures will not likely make it online until January when I'm back in Auckland unless I can find somewhere in Paihia that sells memory card readers or usb cables. Once we got to the area I was briefed on how all my equipment would work and I took a couple practice breaths and then suited up.
My initial go in the water went less than favorably than I had hoped. I was a bit nervous about the whole thing as I really haven't been swimming in a good seven or eight years. They decided because I had never even snorkeled before I should try just swimming around with the flippers for a bit in the water. So I rolled off the side of the boat with my full wetsuit on, flippers and my weighted belt thing. I was doing ok for a little bit then I started really struggling. I think my suit was a bit small as I couldn't seem to really draw in a lung full of air more like half. The other problem that luckily my guide noticed was that one of my flippers had fallen off. I hadn't noticed this because I was so focused on keeping myself from drowning.
After this little experience I got back in the boat and dawned the rest of my gear and then went for a short dive to get a feel for it and practice equalizing myself. It took a lot of work to get myself equalized at anything under 2-3m. We kept surfacing and taking advice from the different people on the boat. The winning idea finally came on the third or fourth resurface and it was to dive without the hood portion of my wetsuit on. After this the diving went much better as I was able to go deeper and still equalize myself. Eventually we stopped for lunch and changed locations for my next dive.
The next dive we went a lot deeper and saw a lot more. I got down to about 10m and saw a bunch of fish and other wild life. We also smashed some urchins and used them to feed the fish. This drew out all kinds of fish including several good sized ones. The whole experience was really good. I got a feel for what it felt like to be under water as well as a feel for the equipment. I am pretty much positive I am going to take diving lessons at some point now. I just need to figure out if I am taking them here or in Fiji.
For anyone that wants to know here is a google maps link to where I currently am in New Zealand. Check it out!
No comments:
Post a Comment