[Gunna Do]

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Where to start...
                     The morning is always good, First dive call at 4.30 am, diving cancelled due to 25 knot nor-westers.
So back to bed for another few hours beauty sleep.
Next call at 9.00am after much brainstormin some bright spark came up with the idea of poppin over to Akaroa which is about an 1 1/2 to 2 hr journey from home, and in a big basin so to say and quite enclosed from the nor wester

 

[Gunna Do]

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So down the hill and into the township of Akaora,
straight to the slipway and were under way

 

[Gunna Do]

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on the way to the Dive location.
this is the view of the main channel into the harbours

 

[Gunna Do]

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at the dive site.
the cliffs continue down to a depth varying from 20mtrs to 35 mtrs. There is a huge variety of fish out this way..
blue cod,red cod, leather jackets, Moki, butterfish, kingfish
and of course the staple of any good larder the old crayfish.
My first dive i had a total dive time of 42mins and bottom depth of 24mtrs. Visibiility was approx abot 15 to 20 mtrs
At a 5mtr deco stop, a Couple of hector dolphins came out to have a bit of a nosey and see what the strange idiot was up to

 

[Gunna Do]

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the view from the other direction

 

[Gunna Do]

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My dolphin buds.
they stayed around for qt some time

 

[Gunna Do]

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On my second dive,
I still dove in the same area, But we had heard about some caves that were in the area, so my mission was to search and locate these if possible. ( they are still on the Illusive stage, but I will find them)...
I was about 30 mins into my dive and a depth of around 20mtrs, when I heard the boat start up and sit there hovering above me ( this seemed very odd to me as my dive cap, knows I blow my tank between 30-45 mins depending on how much territory im covering).
So I started to make my Ascent up the cliff face hugging the walls. i was at about 12mtrs when i saw them a pod of " Orcas", I just about laid an egg in my wetsuit..
Now im not sure if divers are an entree for a bunch of Killer whales but I didnt like the idea to much, so first thought was make like a crayfish and find a nice hole to Burrow into.
Of course no hole, just a sheer rock face.."Shite"..
oh well smart thing to do is get out of the water, so carried on my ascent looking furgitivelly around, longest 3 min deco stop ive made yet.
I blew 80 bar in about 4 mins. Now this might sound wimpy to some. but as i havent even encountered a shark yet and the most hostile thing ive seen is being buzzed by a seal.
the old ticker was fair hammering and I was most relieved to get me ass back in the boat..
So after affording my dive buds much lafter and Hillarity, we decided to call the diving for the day and go and find the pod and take some pics.
This is the first sighting we found

 

[Gunna Do]

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and this

 

[Gunna Do]

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and this

 

[Gunna Do]

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And what happens at times like these, ( Murphys law just has to take effect). the battery pack on my camera decided it was time to give up the ghost and of course the spare was in the wagon   grrrrrrr

So what better way to leave this thread than to have the sun coming down over the horizon.
Safe Diving All
Steve

 

[skener]

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absolutely fabulous you lucky bugger!!!

 

[722]

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you lucky lucky bastard although you may not have thought that at the time

Adrian

 

[John Gulliver]

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Nice report, Steve, and nice pics. As regards orcas, there is apparently no report of a diver ever being attacked. Attitudes to orcas among divecentres seem to vary enormously in different parts of the world, some considering them harmless, others very dangerous. When we were in the Sea of Cortes (Mexico) we had a pod of orcas near us part of one dive. My buddy and I never saw them under water but heard them "singing" most of the dive. They were evidently very close to us and the Mexican diveguides were extremely anxious to get us back on board as fast as possible when we surfaced. When we got back to the divecentre, though, the owner said he and his sons snorkel with them regularly and the diveguides were just ignorant. People also dive/snorkel with orcas in Tryssfiord (close to Lofoten) in northern Norway. The orcas there feed on the herring shoals and appear to be completely uninterested in humans. In British Columbia (Canada), on the other hand, where there are two populations of orcas, residents, which eat salmon, and migrants, which eat seals and sealions, no-one is allowed in the water when there are orcas around, the reasoning being that you can't see whether you are dealing with residents or migrants and a migrant could possibly mistake a diver for a seal/sealion. It has never happened though.

 

[Dr Stevil]

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Jammy b******! Looks great dude, just wish I was there too

Re the orcas, absolutely, no recorded instances of an orca attacking a human, However.... I'd hate to be the first statistic

 I'm sure they can very accurately discriminate between the shape etc of a human and the shape of a seal (for the seal eating variant) but they are intelligent animals so at some point there's bound to be one that either takes a different approach to these unsual swimming objects or is a bit abnormal in the way it deals with the info. I'd think risk it though, given the long history of non-attacks on humans

 

[Tim Ingmire]

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Git!!

You want to be careful, some sun-deprived YD'er might just make the trip over to lynch you!

After you shown us all the good sites of course

Nice pictures, like Steevil said, I think I'd risk a dip with an Orca esp as my sylph-like body bears absolutely no resemblance to a seal.

 

[Davey Willo]

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Wow gunna... top stuff mate....

Awesome beast's and although there are no (recorded) cases of attacks on humans I most certainly would be very afraid of being alone amongst a pod of seal eating sea monsters.

On a recent documentary I watched about the various types of orca's and their feeding habits it appeared that even the experts were wary about being in the water with the seal hunters.. gulp!

Thanks for the report and the pic's Steve  

 

[Moray]

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gunna do, i feel a busman's holiday coming on...

moray

 

[andy2tanx]

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...what beautifulm surroundings to dive in.  Wow.  right, I'm off to to Stoney...

 

[parahandy]

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Nice photos Gunna Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr envy envy lol

 

[Gunna Do]

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Well if anyone ever trns up in the south island..
please feel free to drop me a line, im sure we can take you out for some interesting dives
Steve.
Ps and it was only when I got my digi cam I restarted seeing all the beauty around me