3/1/09 The day began early, at 6.30 am, when we got up and got ready for the 7.15 bus down to the reef terminal by the marina in town. The day before had been our last day of working, so we moved our stuff into the car for safekeeping while we were out at the reef. We went through a brief bit of rain on the way out to the first reef, but by the time we arrived it had stopped and the sun came out. En route, those of us who were diving that day were briefed on diving safety, and the equipment. We went to two separate reefs; our dives were in the first one. We snorkelled until our dive group was called, and used our underwater camera a lot. The reef was in the middle of the ocean, not off an island, so we entered the sea straight off the back of the boat. It was only deep for a little, though, because as soon as you swam off forward and to the side for a bit, the rocks and coral rose right up until it was only about two or three metres under the surface. Although the fish didn't swim up the surface (apart from some tiny ones) like I'd thought they might, preferring to stay a couple of metres below, we dived down as far as we could every now and then to get a closer look at them. The hard and soft corals were amazing, with an even greater variety than at Koh Tao, and there were giant clams as well as smaller ones (which look like colourful crooked lips set in the rock.) We didn't spot any starfish, octopus or squid, and I only saw one lone sea cucumber. I also didn't see any jellyfish, to my relief, though Dave told me at the end of the day that he'd thought he'd seen one drifting along at the bottom and had got a photo of it. At one point a big shoal of black fish settled on the bottom about four metres below us, feeding on algae I assume, and started moving around with a big turquoise fish in its midst. Both Dave and I took turns swimming above and along with them, taking photos. The bigger fish tended to wander around at the bottom, hiding underneath overhanging bits of coral, but we took photos whenever they came into sight. The smaller fish were closer to the surface, staying within a couple of metres, including one small shoal of fish which looked like bolts of vivid turquoise/blue. As we approached the boat to get back on, I noticed a lot of large fish swimming around under the boat; one of the crew members told me they were wrasse. When we got back on board it was time for lunch - a delicious buffet of hot barbecued steak, fish and sausages, and cold pasta salad, green salad and potato salad. Just as we were finishing off our platefuls our diving group was called, so we got kitted up with weighted belts and the rest of the equipment, and entered the sea. First of all we had to demonstrate that we could relieve the pressue in our ears, and that we could empty the breathing tube if it got water in it. When we'd all done it correctly, off we went, all linking arms with each other at first while we got used to it. There were only five of us in the group, including the instructor. It felt rather strange to be standing at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, with about five or six metres of water above my head! I didn't stand on the bottom very long, however, because I kept being pulled off balance by the weighted belt (the weighted part was all round the back, not evenly distributed), and I had to fight to keep upright each time because I knew if I fell backwards I'd hit some coral and probably kill it. I just swam around after that, having successfully avoided touching the coral, until our time was up and we had to return to the surface. At one point, when we were all still linking arms, we swam up close to a giant clam, and both the instructor and I stroked one of its edges, making it suddenly clamp shut. The wrasse were still swimming around under the boat as we got out. After the dive, we returned for some seconds of the steak etc., while the boat travelled to the next reef - North Hastings Reef. There were even more fish here than at the first reef, and we spent about two hours snorkelling, looking at them and the corals, taking lots and lots of photos as we did so! We also took a few videos. We had two DVDs burnt at the underwater camera hire shop; we took over 350 photos in all, though some of them aren't very good because they didn't come out properly. There's still a few good ones in there though, which we will put onto the site! We'll try to put a couple of the videos on too, if the connection's good enough to let us. We had been told on the boat that we could have a free meal at Rhino Bar that evening, so this is what Dave and I did! As we ate, a man came round giving out free raffle tickets; the prize was an unlimited bus travel ticket for New Zealand, so we hung around until it was drawn. Five tickets were drawn, and ours was one of them! The five couples who were drawn had to go to the front and take part in a competition where one person had 30 seconds to put as many clothes pegs onto the face of the other person - the couple who managed to fasten the most won. Unfortunately I only managed to get 11 onto Dave's face, whilst two of the other couples managed 15, so we didn't win.