Shark!

Well I am not in the US yet, but wanted to update quickly re my last dive trips before I leave the island tonight (plus gives me the perfect excuse to have a final banana & coconut thick shake umm yummy).

OK so I went for my dives after blogging yesterday and on our first dive out in the afternoon we saw a shark. It was amazing. It was a white tipped reef shark (so not particularly dangerous, although this one was very large for a reef shark, so I wouldn't have wanted to piss it off). It was lying on a sandy patch between the coral obviously planning to have a bit of a siesta. Of course we turned up, got really close to it too (I was only about 1 metre away peeking at it from behind the coral). Gaz (one of the divemasters) managed to get some truly phenomenal photos of it, which I have copies off (plus I have copies of my own underwater photography attempts... some of them aren't half bad).

I really can't explain just how amazing it was to be so close to this shark. I could see its gills moving and its eyes watching us, to assess whether we were a threat. Think in the end it just decided we were a little annoying so swam to another spot to try and sleep (foiled by the fact that we followed the poor thing.. he is lucky that we only have a finite amount of air, so couldn't loiter around it for too long). I can't wait to show you all the photos. If I get a chance to I will try to put one of them up here.

After that I was just on a high. We had one final dive (saw the cutest little moray eel trying to look all macho - got a cool photo of it glaring at Gaz's fingers, which will give you an idea of just how diddy it was) , a blue starfish and of course lots of the beautiful reef fish that you get round here. No sign of Ed the Trigger Fish, which is a shame as I wanted to say goodbye to the great ugly thing. There is something quite sweet about having an aquatic stalker when you go diving. Obviously Ed never was told that Trigger fish aren't supposed to like divers. But he doesn't really look very bright.

After the dive I handed in all my knowledge review stuff for my Advanced open water certification, and I got my advanced certificate. Excellent! I am hoping that I will get the opportunity to dive when I am in the Galapagos. That would be so cool. All those giant turtles!

Fortunatley it was not final goodbye to the dive team as John (one of their regular divers) was celebrating his birthday in Whatever! bar & restaurant that night and I was invited. It was a really good night, lots of silly magic tricks, a huge but tasty sirloin steak and than back to dance at the banana court (was getting deja vu from the week before). Getting home afterwards proved more problematic as taxis just aren't a way of life here. Fortunately one of the local guys who helps out sometimes at the dive place, Matthew, made sure that I got home OK. Ended up back at his place chatting to his house mate Amber (who makes a mean cup of tea, just call me grandma) and his friend Wayne. So in the end it was 3am by the time I got home, following a very refreshing (it was breezy) trip on the back of a scooter.

Getting up to back this morning was hard, but it has been done! Now I am going to head in to town for a final look round, after popping in to see my diver friends for a final farewell, as promised drunkenly last night (I hate saying good bye, it is so sad). But I will be leaving Rarotonga determined to come back again. I may have been bere 23 days, but I could so easily have stayed so much longer. LA is going to come as a shock after the peace and quiet here.