Okiwi Bay / D'Urville Island
Sun 19th October 2003
Not having had a dive since Queen’s Birthday weekend, I had dusted off the dive gear and was really looking forward to this trip and the chance to get rid of my withdrawal symptoms and cracked skin!! 7.00am and Jim, Brian, Sean, Angus & myself loaded up and headed for the bay on a fine looking morning. Lucky for people with spare gear as someone had forgotten their weightbelt!! Kitting up we headed out to our favourite scallop bed and Brian & I dropped over to see if the old faithful would still release her bounty to us. We dropped straight onto about a dozen beauties then all went barren for a while so we had to swim into deeper water and sure enough there were plenty about. I had a good play with an octopus that just wouldn’t let go of the scallop it was eating and Brian tried to catch a flounder with his bare hands – quite a sight that! Back on the surface with our quota and secure in the knowledge that we wouldn’t have to search for the scallop bed we headed for D’Urville.
After a slightly bumpy trip on the turn of the tide it was Jim, Angus and Sean who headed under in search of what proved to be the elusive cray. Sean arrived back first with one cray but Angus & Jim had not even seen a feeler! Angus made up for it with a couple of cod and we headed over into a bay for a bit of lunch in what was turning into a magnificent day. A buoy was spotted and retrieved from the beach and further scavenging revealed an unclothed and headless doll!!! – that is still in the possession of an un-named person!!
Sean and I then went on the hunt for some crays and I hit the spot, plenty about – a lot of small ones and also some of monsters but as usual too far back in their holes to be got at. Great to see them about though and I managed to get one of good size and one that was too small. The fish life was great with plenty of moki, cod, eels, and butterfish about. An excellent dive.
Back we cruised to Okiwi for the others to get their scallop quota and also for what was to be the highlight of the day. As the guys were on the surface preparing to descend, there was a very anxious shout of “WHAT’S THAT???” Three dolphins were buzzing the boys. Jim had descended straight away and caught the eye of one dolphin. I saw it swim under the boat, heading straight for Jim and eagerly waited for the response…… sure enough a wide-eyed Jim surfaced quickly after having received a rather big shock!!! For 13 minutes the dolphins swam under, around, beside and played with the guys and the boat in what was an awesome experience. Once the dolphins disappeared as quickly as the arrived, the guys had to focus on the more mundane task of collecting their scallops and duly arrived on the surface with their quota.
Off to the Rai Tavern for our debrief and we headed home to open the scallops after a great day on the briny. It was great to get wet and wild again. Awesome stuff guys and thanks Angus for taking your boat out.
