Swimming near the Pacific Ocean

25 December 2012

There were always lots of outdoor activities can be done when spending time in Onuku Farm Hostel, from walking tracks, catching mussels, fishing, swimming to diving. Sometimes, I went out to the Akaroa harbour with fellow friends on Graham's small boat. 

 

Well, it is not really small. It can take 5-6 passengers along with diving gears and few bags of our gain.  We drove the boat further out from Akaroa harbour, closed to the South Pacific Ocean. I enjoyed sitting on the bouncing boat and the cool wind blown on my face. 

They did diving while I did swimming or fishing. I had never tried free diving once. Though it was summer, the water temperature can be as low as 10 degree celcius, depending on the weather and the water depth. On a hot day, we were lucky to have about 15 degree celcius water temperature.

The tight wet suit played an important role, but it still can't stopped the water from flowing in. I couldn't spend more than 15 minutes in the water. It was a total unique swimming experience. Wearing long tight wet suit, swimming in the border-less "pool" which was so so near to the pacific ocean, and when the temperature was only 15 degree celcius. Have you ever had this experience? 

It was a lot easier to fish in the harbour. There were always fishes coming around and got caught by our fish hooks every few minutes.

What I fished were normally small. My friends caught variety of seafood from the diving, such as abolone, crayfish, moki, and butterfish. I had a lot of seafood during the three months in Onuku Farm Hostel. Thank you guys.

Except for fishing and swimming, I help keeping an eye on the divers to make sure they returned before their oxygen tanks were used up (about 45 minutes). If they didn't return,  I would need to locate their position and drive to them. I was taught the simple driving skills. But I had not use them.