What is going on in 2012?

Year 2011 is coming to an end in a couple of days.The year 2011 definitely has its ups and downs. I finished my Masters, started diving more consistently in NZ, learned how to mend our own drysuit and service my own regulators. There were definitely frustrations - immigration NZ, the university's poor administrative structure. Also, there is a constant struggling with finances - there are so many financial commitments, but there is never enough income!

Year 2012 brings new challenges  -

• PhD study. Challenges with the research for my PhD is to find the perfect  and yet affordable  location for field and lab research. There are a couple of professors lined up but it is hard to finalize which professors to collaborate more closely. I will have to seek our more research funding and scholarship opportunities.
• Diving. In the year 2012, Hannah and I are going for our long-awaited Trimix class. This class will open up more opportunities for our diving. We will be more involved in the TechDive NZ cave exploration - Blue Creek resurgence. 
• Tutorship. I will start teaching in the BIOSCI lab after 2 years of demonstrating. I am definitely looking forward to it. 
• Fitness. Wow... age is a horrible thing!... I used to be able to go through weeks without much sleep, and can bounce back easily from a illness...now I can barely keep myself awake after 11pm! And when I fall sick, I FALL SICK! This year, I have to be more diligent keeping myself fit.
• Family.. the Chinese have a great saying which I never really appreciate until now. When you are young, you can't wait to leave home. When you are adult, you want to have a home. When you are old, you just want to go home. In 2012, I am going to be in closer contacts with my family (both old and new family members :) )

and goals -

1. Finish and publish the two papers I have been working on for the past 3 months.
2. Portions of the PhD research to be done : location recce, collaborators negotiation, literature review, experimental design.
3. Publish at least one paper from my PhD research before end of 2012.
4. Pass our GUE fundamentals and Rec 3 (Trimix).
5. Conduct at least one exploration dive on the Blue Creek resurgence with TechDive NZ.
6. Clock a total of at least 40 recreational dives and 10 technical dives. 
7. Teach 2 labs per week (this will help with the monthly finances as well :) )
8. Stick to a strict exercise regime ( I already have a regime, but sticking to it is another story :P)
9. Run the Auckland Marathon.
10. Call home (Singapore) at least once every fortnight.
11. Go home (Singapore) at least one time in year 2012 (not counting the wedding date!).
12. Go back to Iron Mountain.

Happy new year.

Road to the Russian - Day 3

The morning of Day 3 dawned rainy and windy. We were excited however, because we had managed to find a picnic area in Kaitoke Regional Park that included stoves and a sheltered area. So we cooked a REAL breakfast of eggs and fried lunchmeat, and just as we were sitting down, the sun came out.

Life doesn't get much better than this...

After our morning meal we set out to do that thing that enticed me to (have Sonny) drive all the way out here . . . VISIT RIVENDELL!!!

The weather went back to crappy, but still. RIVENDELL!

Now the actual Rivendell in the movie was mostly cg, but this is where the took the forests and the trees in the close ups from, and let me assure you, you can tell. This was a very old forest, and I'm sure on a sunnier day it would have been even more apparent. As it was though, we went on a very nice short tramp and I may have squealed several times. At things like this:

Or the amazing trees everywhere, especially the ones I could get inside! Like this:

We even found a hobbit hole, though neither one of us could be persuaded to venture inside for a photo. It was just too dark and scary looking.

Finally, my favorite thing of the place had to be the swing bridge on which I irked Sonny by jumping up and down on repeatedly.

Eventually though, we had to leave this elvish wonderland and embark on the next leg of our journey, the voyage to the South Island. This was accomplished on the biggest boat I have ever boarded, the Interislander ferry. Their tag line is something about the journey being the destination, and after i completed the sailing, its easy to see why. It truly is a gorgeous ride. First however, we had to wait in line for about an hour to board the boat. While we were waiting we looked over to see an elderly couple in the RV next to us making tea and re-heating pizza. Not to be out-done we whipped out our stove and made ramen. Pretty sure they were jealous.

Eventually the boat arrived (about an hour late) and we were allowed to board, which actually entailed driving on this very high ramp and then maneuvering around the semis. It was an exciting experience. We then had to get out of the car and head upstairs to the passenger lounge deck, which was huge and included a restaurant, a cafeteria, a bar and at least 8 different rooms to sit in, as well as a movie theater, a store and a children's playground.

Big ol boat

 We spent the journey touring the entire thing and taking photos of the pretty. Well I did. Sonny slept, cause thats what he does on ferries. Three hours later, we finally reached . . . 

The South Island!

We had no plans whatsoever when it came to the South Island, and unfortunately my go-to help, the i-site was closed. So we found a road, Queen Charlotte's Drive that had "scenic route" in parentheses and off we set. And it was scenic, let me tell you,  but also terrifying and curvy. About an 2 hours and maybe 30 km later we stumbled upon this:

Yeah thats Fawkes, making his debut

Apparently the Marlborough Sounds is the Green-lipped Mussell capital of the world, and this little restaurant is THE place to eat them. So we had our biggest splurge of the trip and eat the mussel platter for two paired with some sauvignon blanc from the nearby Marlborough vineyards. Local food at its best.

Nummy

After dinner, we ambled on down the road some more, happy and full. We were hoping to find a campground that had showers and other amenities as it had been a few days and we needed to wash both ourselves and the dishes properly. We succeeded and found an adorable DOC site at a place called Pelorus Bridge, located on the Pelorus River. More on that tomorrow.

Money saving tip

 Instead of throwing away your spring onion, put them in water (provided the roots are still there). New shoots will grow. Be careful to just have enough water to cover the roots and not soak the whole bottom part in water as it may cause the plant to rot. Depending on your usage, you may end up with a month's supply! I left the spring onions sitting in a jar of water and imagine how happy I was when I found this when we got back from the road trip.

New shoot growing from "chopped" 

spring onions

Waiheke Santa Parade

We missed the Auckland Santa Parade this year because we were away on our road trip. However, we managed to attend the Waiheke Santa Parade today. The atmosphere is totally different. There were no large balloons, huge float, but there was a distinct Waiheke signature - random people with hippy make-up, people cheering "we like to play all day", rustic tractors and a skinny Santa!

Road to the Russian - Day 2

So tired but excited, we set out for the last hour or so leg of our journey to Wellington. A quick pit stop to make coffee on the side of the road was necessary, but other then that the time passed quickly.

Note that I am stirring witha  can opener. We were in too much of a hurry to pull out the utensils.

We arrived, met up with Paul, and switched tanks. He was also kind enough to give us a cup of REAL coffee cause the instant Malaysian stuff Sonny bought just didn't have enough caffeine. Eventually though, we said googbye and headed back to the downtown where we would meet up with our friend Sarah who also happened to be visiting Wellington. On the way though, we passed through a suburb called Brooklyn, which had a large park called Central Park. Sonny and I giggled.

Even the building is cool

Anyways, Sarah said she was at Te Papa, which is the national museum of New Zealand and has all kinds of stuff, but best of all is FREE! So we parked and went inside and met up with Sarah near the huge tank of formalin.

Sarah!

A huge tank of formalin containing a colossal squid that is. Sarah was all amazed and in aw. I was not. You see, my former roomie and forever bestie Becca wrestled with far larger dead squids, and as I got to assist her a few times, I had seen far mor impressive dead squids. Though seeing Dr. Steve O'Shea who I know as a lovable, brilliant, lunatic in an official government capacity was amusing.

The Colossal Dead Squid - found in Antartica

I did enjoy the other bits of the museum, for example the really modern art-esque marae and the whale skeleton. The giant digital map of New Zealand was also useful for seeing the big picture of our road trip.

After we finished with the museum we had splurged a bit and had lunch at a cuban restaurant I had seen on the drive in. Three cuban sandwiches and three cubanos later, we set out for the next item on the must-do Wellington list. The cable car!

 This cable car runs up a very steep hill to the Wellington Botanic Gardens. Its only $1.00 NZ to ride, so perfect for backpacking students like us. Lots of locals actually use it for transportion as well, such as students at Victoria University - they even had their own stop!

 Once we got to the top, Sonny insisted on getting a picture of the car so we sat around and waited for it to depart. It only took ten minutes. While we waited, Sarah and I climbed a tree we found. I must say though, the photo he got is pretty.

 We then spent a good while wandering around the botanical garden, enjoying all the sights to be seen - such as the rose garden, gorgeous trees, an Australian garden, the duck pond, and the greenhouse with orchids. The weather held out for part of it, but then it ended up starting to storm again. We had an "enjoyable" walk back to the car in the rain, with our jackets zipped up tight.

On the way back we passed by the New Zealand Parliament building, affectionately known as the Beehive. I'm sure you can't guess why.

Cold and hungry, we drove to the last thing on our Wellington short list - Mt Victoria! This very large hill or small mountain is located right in downtown Wellington. Nerdy LoTR folks may will be interested to know the paths on its side are where this was filmed...

But while we were there it looked more like this unfortunately...

COLD!

So we did the only smart thing and instead retreated to Fawkes where we cooked Kimchi ramen noodles and drank a few beers in the warmth of the van. It way more fun than it should have been me thinks. After we dropped Sarah off at her hostel and headed out of the city to a secret location to spend the night. More details to come!

Road to the Russian - Day 1

Alright, Hannah here, taking you back in time for the journey down to the top of the South Island where the Lermontov lays....

We first heard about this trip nearly a year ago through the Auckland Uni Underwater Club. Ali, a leader in the club had managed to score an amazing deal consisting of 4 days of diving for less than the price of two. Although it would be an expensive and intensive trip, we decided that we would never get another opportunity like this ever again and set out to make it happen. We scrimped and saved as much as we could, and when Sonny's mom won the neighborhood "lottery" in Singapore and insisted that he take some of the winnings for a present, we knew it was actually going to happen. Unfortunately, we were so busy the few weeks before the trip that even though we spent months planning the trip it sorta went off all pell mell. We forgot things like the Lonely Planet guide which made our lives a bit more difficult as you will see later. However, we survived and it was a good trip.

The day we had chosen to set out was a Saturday. I had visions of leaving at 9 am in the morning and a slow meander down toward Wellington, where we were meeting up with a diving friend at 10 am the next morning. We needed to switch the 10 L tanks Ali had loaned us while she is in Mexico with his 12 L tanks, and as Wellington is an 8 hour drive, the plan was to cover 6 or 7 hours on Saturday then drive into town on Sunday. I say was because we didn't actually make it out of Auckland until 3 pm. There goes that plan.

Off we go...better late than never

So instead of a slow meander, it was a loud music- and caffeine- fueled sprint. We still had fun though, and I got a good bit of knitting done.

7 hours in a car gets you lots o socks

We took SH 3 and 4 down instead of SH 1 because it is a shorter distance, but the roads were a bit more curvy and in the end it might have taken longer. We did get to pass by some familiar sights though...

Remember that Mom?

We ended up finally passing out in a campground on the beach at around midnight. We had a hard time finding a place to sleep and had traveled down a few side roads with no luck. We saw a sign for "something" Beach and decided to check it out. When we realized it ended with a paying campground, we were so tired that we decided to just pay and pass out. However, we had to wake up at 6 am in order to remain on schedule, and as we were getting ready to leave, we still couldn't find the person to pay. So, we dined-n-dashed, we slept-n-skedaddled, we camped-n-creeped.

Lermontov - Day 4

Today was the last day of diving. The rest of gang except for Nicole and Kristen who had to fly the next morning, had planned for 2 dives on the Lermontov. Hannah and I decided that we would do one long dive instead. Knowing that she might be cold at the end of a long dive, Hannah borrowed my DUI Xm450 gm drysuit undergarment...which I feared would be a permanent loan! :P

Dive 6
Hannah and I went over our dive plan. We would drop down to the entrance of the engine room, tied up a reel and explore the engine room. However, after finding out that Brent would be leading other divers to the room and would be tying a reel as well, we decided to use his line instead. We would communicate with him that we were still in the engine room if he saw a bolt snap on his reel. We descended on the mooring line, the surface was calm, visibility was about 8m, conditions couldn't be better! Found the entrance to the engine room, found Brent's line, and we went in. Seconds into the room, we decided to change our plan - the room was very silted out and we had no intention of spending our last dive on this trip trying to explore a silt out engine room... thus, we signaled to each other and exited the engine room. We knew we would be back again soon, and the engine room would be on the top of our list to explore the Lermontov.

Engine room

Outside the engine room, we tried to "talk" to each other where should we be heading next... well...you couldn't really talk underwater! :P I pulled out my notebook and we scribbled messages to each other before my pencil disintegrated into pieces! (Note to self : buy a one-piece lead for writing underwater, not cheap pencils).

After the short "conversation" underwater, we explored various places around the boat deck and the promenade deck. At the bow end of the promenade deck, it dropped down to 30+ meters and the places looked incredibly dangerous with all the silty, curtains around. We decided we would not be going further as we did not plan to go down the promenade deck in our dive plan. From the promenade deck, we went over to the Bridge of the Lermontov and had a quick peek before we called the dive.

Promenade deck

During their dives, Kristen has managed to get her hand on some plates from the Lermontov. There was enough for everyone on the trip to get one! Thank you, Kristen.

Plates from the Lermontov

Great dives, great company. As the Lermontov dives were part of a road trip, Hannah is responsible for writing the part where we were above the water... looking forward to reading those adventures. As for Mikhail Lermontov, we would be back shortly!

Bottom time: 67mins
Avg depth: 15m

All diving pics on the Lermontov are from Pete Mesley (http://www.petemesley.com/)

Lermontov - Day 3

Day 3 started with Brent (BBS) introducing me to Marmite from New Zealand. I spread it on toasted bread with butter and it tasted great!... However, the rest of the gang did not share the same sentiment except for Brent, of course. We planned to dive another nearby wreck, the Lastingham...an old wooden ship that was sunk by the storms during the 1800s. We would do a dive on the Lastingham in the morning, followed by two dives on the Lermontov in the afternoon.

Due to Hannah having a reverse ear block, and strong current at the location, we did not managed to dive the wreck. In fact, we were separated almost 3 mins into the dive due to the current. Everything ended up well, following safety protocols - we looked for each other underwater for three minutes, ascend to the surface and waited for each other and the boat to pick us up. We were disappointed that we did not managed to visit the Lastingham wreck, but we decided that we can always come back again. Blair (BBS) got a few old champagne bottles from the wreck!

After the reverse ear block from the Lastingham dive, Hannah and I decided to sit out the next dive on the Lermontov. We thought it would be a good idea for her to take a rest, have a hot shower, and some painkillers to get rid of the ringing in the ear before we decided whether we would be diving later in the afternoon.

Hannah felt better after a short rest, and we decided she would be up for the afternoon dive on the Lermontov. Again, Nicole would be our third buddy on this dive.

Dive 5
The plan for this dive was to go to the reception area and the Amidship spiral staircase through the entrance by the Winter Garden. Brent (GoDive) advised us to run a  reel because all the silt would start pouring down from the corridor and it would silt up the room very quickly regardless how careful you are! And he WASN'T kidding! I was responsible for running the reel... I tied off to the beam between the two doors, and dropped into the dark room. It was huge, and from studying the ship's plan, I knew that it would be easier to just dropped into the wreck rather than finning so as not to kick up unnecessary silt. Dropping into the dark, the spiral staircase came into view, and the reception area is behind the stairs. It was disorienting with the spiral stairs on its side! I could feel silt raining down on me as Hannah and Nicole descended into the room. I saw the corridors that would led to the other parts of the wreck along the starboard side. Ten minutes passed, I looked up and I could no longer see the daylight coming through the windows from the wreck which we entered from! The silt cloud obscured the entrance we came through, and that entrance was our exit! Luckily, we took Brent's advise seriously and ran a line into the room! Hannah signaled to me she was ready to get out of the room - she saw the spiral stairs as well... Slowly she and I followed the line out.

Spiral staircase

Stairs on the Lermontov can be disorienting

Glad that we were out of the silt cloud, we lead Nicole along the Winter Garden towards the swimming pool. Nicole had wanted to see the swimming pool as she had never been this way on the Lermontov. We visited the plaque of Erica Lowe, one of the divers who had died while diving the Lermontov.

"Erica Lowe" plaque

One of the lessons Hannah and I learnt from this dive was that wrecks are a different creature from caves! Caves are scary, but wrecks are unpredictable! Even when we were so careful with our breathing, buoyancy and finning techniques, silt out in that reception area could not be prevented! The silt started raining down on us the moment our exhaust bubbles hit the ceiling!

Book from the Lermontov

On the way to the swimming pool, I picked up a book titled "A Special Mission" along the Winter Garden. The book was about the world's first expedition to the North Pole by the Soviet surface ice-breaker the Arktika, published in1981, printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR)..

Bottom time: 59mins
Avg depth: 15m

All Lermontov dive pics are from Pete Mesley (http://www.petemesley.com/)

Lermontov - Day 2

Started the day bright and early.. well if you call 7am early :) ... diving holidays are the best...eat, sleep, dive... and repeat that over again until you are tired! The team wanted to try to squeeze in 3 dives today (thus the waking up early thing!). One great advantage of the Lermontov Lodge (GoDive) was that the boat ride out to the wreck is only 10 minutes away, which is great for me since I am prone to seasick! Thus, we can go for a dive, come back to the lodge for lunch, warm up and back again for a second dive.

Dive 3
Today, Hannah and I decided that we would do some penetration into the Lermontov. Due to the size of the wreck, it would be impossible to see everything within this dive trip. Therefore, we decided that we would just cover the Lounge deck of the wreck, leaving the other decks for future explorations. The lounge deck is where all the bars are located - thus, this dive would also be called pub crawl :) We decided that instead of searching for the various entrance to the wreck, it would be more efficient if we would to follow Brent (GoDive) on a quick tour! Thus, we geared up before everyone else and jumped into the water. Brent was to give Kristen, Ken, Hannah and I a quick tour from the swimming pool, through the winter garden along the port side of the wreck.

Octopus on mooring line

You know that it is going to be a GREAT dive when you descent on an octopus on the mooring line! This was the first time I got so close to an octopus in the ocean! We spend a good 5 mins looking at the octopus, and Ken taking pictures. After that, we followed Brent and entered into the swimming pool. The Lermontov is sitting on her starboard side, thus, it can be quite disorienting when you are swimming in the wreck, and all the structures are on its side. From the pool, we swam pass the Neptunes bar. The bar stools, on its side. It was quite creepy when thoughts crawled through my mind knowing that there were passengers swimming in this pool, sipping cocktails at the Neptunes bar. Slowly, and carefully (plenty of opportunities to silt up the place!), we swam down the Winter Garden. It is a long corridor that runs the length of the wreck. Along the Winter Garden, we saw potential entry points for the cinema, and the Amidship spiral stairways. I made a mental note where are the entry points, and I am sure Hannah did the same as well. On this trip, Hannah was supposed to be the navigator and I would be in charge of deco.

We headed back to the mooring line, and as discussed on topside, Brent would ascend, leaving Hannah and I as one team, while Ken and Kristen as the other team. We headed in different directions. Hannah and I dropped back into the Winter Garden, and passed by the Games room, peeping into various guests chambers etc. Visibility had improved tremendously upon ascent ...up to 8m.

Bottom time: 60mins
Avg depth: 16m

Neptunes bar

Nevsky bar

Swimming pool

Dive 4
Nicole was going to buddy up with us on this dive. We spent a good hour after lunch planning our dive, discussing gas planning, which places on the wreck to visit etc.

We descent using the mooring line, with Nicole as the first diver, Hannah the second, and I as the third diver. We headed for the Winter Garden. Finning along the Winter Garden, we reached the entrance for the cinema. We changed position, as discussed on the topside - Hannah became the first diver, and Nicole became the second diver while I remained the third. Cinema was much smaller than I expected! We were expecting a huge cinema and had planned to run a line just in case we got lost, but we decided that running a line would prove to be more dangerous since it is a small space, and we could see daylight entering through the entrance easily. The only important thing to keep in mind is NOT to touch the cinema seats and maintain proper buoyancy and finning techniques so as not to kick up the silt. Took a short tour around the cinema, exited, and we proceeded down the Winter Garden, through the Games room, to the Nevsky bar and Bolshoy lounge. The lounge is quite a big space, with tables and chairs around the space. It was a wonderful dive!

Bottom time: 52mins
Avg depth: 16m

Winter Garden

Bolshoy lounge

Bolshoy lounge (notice everything is sideways!)

Staircase at Bolshoy lounge

Cinema

Cinema

On topside, we realized that Brent (BBS) had got a "souvenir" from the wreck. We were told that we are allowed to pick up a few items from the Lermontov, but have to leave fixtures alone. However, I could not find any reason why Brent would pick up a main fuse , which looked like any item you could pick up easily from a garage! Oh Brent...

Along the way back to the Lermontov Lodge, we picked a few mussels from the mussel farm! Well, not exactly from the mussel farm because you would have to pay. We just harvested some mussels which were attaching themselves between the buoys of the farms :) Hannah volunteered to scrub the mussels, and we had fresh, delicious mussels for snack! We had meant to do 3 dives today, but the lure from the mussels were too great, and we were just tired!

They don't come any fresher!

Hannah scrubbing mussels

** All Lermontov diving pics here are from Pete Mesley (http://www.petemesley.com/)