Turtles!

We had booked a turtle tour before we left Sydney but the company wasn’t very responsive and ended up cancelling a couple of days before - but how lucky was that!

The lady who works on reception at the hotel organised for us to go on a different one with a local called Oz. It was sensational!

There are only 7 gaps in the reef that surrounds Rarotonga and his tour operates in one called Avaavaroa Passage. Most of the reef is about waist deep but in the passage it gets to 11 meters deep, this is where all the water in the waves pouring over the reef flows back out to sea. And this is a prime place to find green turtles.

It was a late morning start as we had to wait until close to low tide so a leisurely breakfast and a 10 min taxi ride brought us to Oz’s place. Oz is a big Māori bloke will all the tats but also very friendly. Anyway he explained where we were going to go and gave us lessons on how to use the gear properly.

Oz actually towed us out to the channel - he had a float and flippers so we hung onto the float and he towed us out. The first place was called Turtle Cafe and this is the western edge of the reef facing into the channel. There were fish everywhere and it wasn’t long before we came across our first turtle. At Turtle Cafe the turtles come to eat and hang out, they go down to the deeper reef to eat seaweed and then come up to the surface to breathe.

There were lots of turtles and Oz was a fantastic guide. We also spotted eagle rays down deeper in the channel. There were also some good sized fish swimming around.

Next stop was Turtle Beach on the eastern side of the channel. So called because it is a bit flatter and easier for kids to see the turtles from, once again it was stunning.

Oz then towed us back to shore and gave us the 100 photos and videos he took of our tour.

Given this is our last night we opted for dinner at a local establishment Oz suggested called On The Beach - another win! Really nice meal followed by a walk back to our resort along the beach at night. With hundreds of little crabs and bigger hermit crabs!

A great day.Weiterlesen