Opito Bay

We woke up to our anchorage at Korapuki Island being rather uncomfortable. Waves were coming round both sides of the island and sandwiching us in the middle... Still not as bad as Tutukaka though!

After a quick coffee, we hauled up the anchor and motored across to Opito Bay. We found out why our spot was so uncomfortable as we were pushed around by 2m+ swells on our way across. Vela came up from downstairs with a peeved look on her face - she had slept through the coffee run and was woken up when a wave rolled her out of bed... Whoops!

After about 45 minutes of motoring, we pulled into Opito Bay. The eastern end was pretty well sheltered from the Southeasterly swell, so we decided to anchor up for the day.

Now that we were settled, Nathan got stuck into his work, making round two of coffees (round one for Vela) and whipping up a big batch of pancakes to appease the crowd.

After breakfast, it was time to check out the underwater life. We suited up and took the full contingent over to the reef with the paddleboard and dinghy. Almost immediately after jumping in, a massive school of kahawai streamed past. Big schools like this can be confusing and difficult to pick a target, but Nathan managed to plug a nice mid-sized kahawai (the bigger one he was lining turned away at the last second, prompting a change in target).

Nathan then spent a bit of time playing with some snapper (the legal ones seem to hang out just out of range) and goat fish (popped two to have for dinner later). Vela, Jamie and David found the reef drop off and were playing with the rock cod and big red moki. They even found a pufferfish to check out!

When Nathan swam over to them, there was a big splash and disturbed water around his dive float, signalling there was likely another shark hanging around us. Vela took the spear gun for a bit, attempting to shoot a rock cod, but only managing to spear a poor unsuspecting rock. It looked a bit tough to steam with the goat fish and kahawai so we left the rock where it was.

Jamie then reported he had spotted the shark which was hanging around. Another big bronzy. Nathan also spotted it shortly after, hanging around the dive float. It looked to be in a calm state, cruising around investigating what was going on in his reef, but we decided it was time to head back to Starling regardless.

Once back on board, we spent the rest of the day paddleboarding and chilling out before Vela smashed it again with another delicious dinner of goat fish and kahawai.Baca lagi