A fruitful weekend

Hannah went to a mutual friend (Selena) 's party in Auckland. I was invited too, but I (according to Hannah and Selena) am a grouchy old man who would rather stay at home! :P. Anyway, I stayed at home, did a whole bunch of writing, planning, and research for my experiment. In between writing for papers, and working on the experiments, I also managed to plan out my lecture for the Monday BIOSCI lab - Gene expression. Also Alfred introduced me to this website which host a lot of asian movies...so I did take a break here and there to watch a couple of kung-fu movies.

Sunday morning, I joined a group of volunteer divers from NZ Underwater Association, and Auckland Uni Underwater Club (AUUC) to do a couple of transect surveys around Waiheke. They picked me up on the AUUC club boat at Little Oneroa beach, and off we go taking turns to do underwater surveys in pairs. The purpose of this survey is to see whether it is feasible to propose a Marine Protected Area around Waiheke. We managed to carry out surveys on 6 out of the 15 stations before it got late, and everyone was tired. We decided we would stop for the day, carry on the next time. They dropped me off at the Little Oneora beach, and I was home, washed up and writing by 4pm! It was great to be diving even though it was very short dives (two dives, approximately 16mins each dive).

Life being a PhD student is hard... you kinda have to be constantly working!... if you are not working on your research/ experiment, you would be writing paper, grants applications. If not, you are reading scientific papers, or analysing your data! Thus, when one of my colleagues (who is thinking of applying for PhD) asked me, I told her you really need to know why you want a PhD if you decided to go this route. Do not do a PhD just because there is nothing else better to do! There are always time for fun as well. Just need to plan your time properly, and be discipline. I have a couple of goals this weekend. I stayed back, and finished them..now, I am going to watch a movie :) Good night.

Diving Enclosure Bay

It was a great day today. No wind, and the surf is way down. We decided to go and dive the Enclosure Bay again (our local Waiheke shore dive site). We decided to pay the outside reef a visit this time. We swam to the exit of the bay ans descend down there. I ran a reel to make sure we came back to the exact place, and not get swept away by the current. It was approximately 300m to the shallow end of the outside reef. The two sites were separated by a stretch of sand bed. The moment we tied in, I spotted a nudibranch (I do not know too much about the species of nudibranch), Hannah spotted a seahorse! This is the first seahorse we see in the wild, and we were REALLY excited! The reef was full of life - fishes (snapper, wrasses, triplefins, and others) sea urchins, starfish, nudibranch etc. The deeper end of the reef will probably slope down to about 12m (that's what we heard from the locals). We will try to verify that the next time. Great to have such a wonderful site just minutes away from our place. After the dive, there are still time to be back and enjoy a glass of Gin and Tonic in the sun.

Depth : deepest at 7m
Time : 40 mins
Vis : Approximately 4m

Diving at Enclosure Bay

Finally, the weather is good enough for us to explore the underwater scene of Enclosure Bay, Waiheke. The bay is shallow about - 3 meters, and enclosed. Thus, the condition in the bay is great! There were kelps everywhere, and lots of life - triple fins fishes (however, did not manage to get any pic of them...needs a macro lens), starfish, cushion urchin, crabs, sea cucumber etc. Rumors from the locals is that there are seahorses in the bay too, but we did not manage to see any. Outside the bay, there is another small "island" which is approximately 12 meters deep. We did not venture out of the bay today because we did not have a buoy, and there are boats around. We managed to take a few photos with my crappy camera, and after spending an hour poking around the cervices, we called the dive because we were cold. We will be back soon to explore the deeper reefs. :) There is nothing better than just to kit up, drive 5 mins, and drop into the water. Be back home after the dive, and have a beer on the deck while waiting for the pork chop cooking in the oven :D

Vis : Good 3 - 4m
Temperature : Cold 15 deg C

Waiheke diving?

Waiheke is well-known for its vineyard, as well as long sandy beaches. After asking around, we decided there may be a possibility for shore diving here on the island too. We have the equipment, and there is water all around, why is there no diving? We are not looking for super deep 40m dives, just looking to get wet, and keep our skills up-to-date.

Today, we drove around the island and look for potential sites. One of the most promising location is called Enclosure Bay. Above water, it looks great! We are able to drive up to the beach, there is a table for gearing up, and it is not crowded...We will come back here again with our snorkelling gear some other day when the weather is better to take a closer look at the underwater conditions.

Enclosure Bay

There is hope :)...and Hannah is happy to find a swing rope at the location as well.

Hannah on the swing