Next stop, Tonga

Just as a small overview. So close to Tonga, but again, no cargo ship or flight at all.

Probably the thing with the Internet and no frequent updates will not change

during the next three weeks of sailing.

Looking forward on my first, real sailing experience and

I hope that I will not get any trouble with my spearfishing bag and RealTonga, the local Airline.

I wrote them a E-Mail and also Ben fro Tonga Charters asked them locally, will

be no problem they said...I' not so confident. If this will be a problem,

that will be one of my worst case scenario. Three weeks of sailing and not even a chance

of spearing in the blue. Promised my fellow traveler fish for Christmas dinner ;)

Bluewater

Today Mitch took us out with his boat to the FADs and around the reef.
First FAD, nothing after 60minutes, at the second one, after 15minutes,
two Wahoo's far away. As I read before, let them approach to you, so we did.
Shot, hit and the float was rushing over the surface, oh I love this ;)
But after a short sprint, it escaped. ;(

At least I shot later a Black Trevally and a Parrot Fish for Mitch and
his family. During the fight with the Travelly, another and bigger one
passed by and I also saw two Dogtooth Tuna's.
Why not 5 minutes earlier?

Last night today, time is running so fast. Bought some
Bear for later and put the rest of the barracuda out of the freezer
We both really enjoyed our stay here and for me it will be definitely not
the last time.

Niue has a population less than 1500 people, but only the half is
living on the Island. After this two weeks, it felt more like 200-300 people living
on Niue. So silent and not crowded at all. And what is very unusual
for someone from Europe, you don't have to look your stuff. Leave your room, car
unlocked, all fine. Leave your expensive gear on the terrance, nobody cares.
If you had asked me 5-10 years ago if I wanted to stay in a metropolis or
on a small island like Niue, it would have been the metropolis (but close to
the pacific), now it changed. I really would like to stay for a couple of years
on a small island, like Niue.

Katuali

As I really like them and their elegant movements in the water (reminds

me to my friend Marco, he is doing the same smooth movements with

his Monofin), some more pictures.

 

 

Probably I can cut some more and better pictures from the videos Stefan
and I recorded but this will take some time. At the moment this should be
good enough.

Hide and Seek Champion

Aiming skills are back!

Today Stefan and I decided again, renting a car and going south for freediving and
spearfishing. As this was the place where we saw last time the dogtooth and the biggest
Great barracuda we ever saw.

The water was "empty", nothing special to see. Even no whitetips, laying on the
sandy bottom, not even one barracuda. Actually we just abandoned hope,
when I let my speargun down on my floatline, as Pedros from the Azores taught me,
and 1-2 Minutes later, a Great Barracuda passed by, first shot, hit... back in the
game ;) (missed a couple of good opportunities some days ago) And from now I let
the "beast" fight against the float.
 

Lunch, dinner, probably lunch and the rest we gave the neighbors
10-12kg I would estimate it ~1,4m. Nice one ;)

Niue again

Some more impressions

Niue

Oh I love the silence... apart from the the roosters and dogs. ;)
But you get used to them after a while. Rarotonga was the same, not so bad as
on Niue but enough to get prepared for it.
The Locals are extremely friendly and helpful with anything. Reminds me of Fakarava.
You feel that making money with you is not the main target. Its more like
sharing a nice piece of earth with you doing everything that you will never forget this
place.

The freediving is fantastic. First day in the water (only the habour) and we already saw
the endemism living sea krait (Katuali), eagle ray, whitetip reefsharks parrot fish (mhhh jummy)

and good growing and colorful corals all over the reef. The reef is "stuffed" with fish. 

No schools of big fish, but the ground is moving all the time.
Visibility (can be up to 80m!) is at the moment not the best, but with 40-50m not
bad at all ;) And what's best compared to Rarotonga, easy entry and depth 30m+ are
only 5min swim away.
We already had some tough training days, with over 60 dives under 20m+ in one session
Also the bottom time increased already ;)

The island itself is bigger as we thought. Maybe we will take the offer Mamatha (nice
"old" lady) made us, renting her spare car for a couple of days. 70-80% of the island
is green and I mean really green. Not only a couple of palms and ferns and bushes as
we expected (take a look on maps.google), more like a small rainforest/jungle.

Route to Niue

Close to Rarotonga, but no Cargo ship or direct flight...
At least what I know fore sure, free WiFi for all the people on the island ;)

Turtles and Dogtooth Tunas

Today I finally had the chance getting outside the reef for some freediving

in the passages and it was absolutely brilliant, thanks to Reef to Sea for taking

me with them. Only three scubas and me, nice group. Not even 5min in the water and we had

the first Green Sea Turtle. Only a couple of minutes later, at a depth around 22m,

7 Dogtooth Tunas (first time I saw them). The reef was full of fish and I really

enjoyed my diving, exept that there where a lot of Jellyfish (As they had a lot of different Jellyfish 

on display in the Monterey Bay and Osaka Aquarium, even if the diving guide not agreed, I would 

definitely vote for a small version of box jellyfish with only four tentacles! So watch out!)

The second passage we've been was more shallow, between 5-15m but also turtles all

over the place. I also saw one Hawksbill Sea Turtle.

Highlight on that dive was the biggest Goliath Grouper I ever saw.

We all estimate it between 2,10-2,30 and at least over 150kg (probably more), a monster!!!

The head of that thing had nearly the size of my backpack! Sadly I saw it first during my ascent, so I only

 started recording on the surface, 10-14m above (estimated) the Goliath Grouper

There have been also plenty of Orangespine Unicorn Fish, never saw as much at

the same time. One of my favorite.

If you ever gona visit Rarotonga, do not leave without diving around the passages.

Snorkeling

The Snorkeling is getting better, if you know where to go ;)

Some of the better pictures I've taken with the new nauticam case.

Still playing and learning.

Invited for Lunch and Dinner

The Owner of the Guesthouse invited me for lunch and later for dinner. For Lunch
they've invited also the pastor and his "helping hand". As I ate the last days only
small fruits for lunch, I was very happy about that, but also did not expected that they tried
fatten me ;)
The Husband cooked three pigs over night in the ground and her wife made some side dish, like
baked pumpkin and a absolutely delicious salad (will publish the recipe when she sends it to me)
The pig perfectly cooked. The meat was very mellow/tender, like braised meat.
As they cooked the whole pig, I had also the chance of tasting the ear, cheek and the tongue.
I'm watching Bizarre Foods very often and remembered, ear, snout, cheek and tongue are some of the best parts
The snout I didn't taste, after I had enough to fight mentally with my self during chewing the
part of tongue. ;) To be honest, it was good, really good, but I couldn't ate more of it at this time.

 Maybe next time when I will have the chance and there will be not so much distaste present.

Not to mention, eating with fork and knife was frowned upon ;)

Picture Backlog

Sadly I've got no chance of uploading any picture at the moment.

Either the connection is to slow, or the internet access is to expensive.

Will update all of my post when I have the chance

No Bluewater Spearfishing

Till my arrival I asked for three thinks, bluewater spearfishing, freediving and finding
the guys from the Youtube video I saw, harpooning Mahi Mahi.
Best price for spearfishing was 150NZD for 3-4hours, driving from FAD(Fish aggregation
devices) to FAD. Still expensive, but compared to others, 400-600NZD still a good deal.
Problem was/is that the waves are very big at the moment and everyone is telling me,
that this will not be fun. So still waiting for better weather.

For freediving, the only chance is doing the passages (tried some in the south, but again
the current was strong and its not worst it I thought) going out dedicated (the diving operaters
will charge me 100NZD) or going with some scubas on the same trip. For that thy will charge
me after some bargaining, 30NZD. For nearly three hours, absolutely fair.
But the problem with the last option is, only one dive operater is offering me that
and he had no customers at the moment :(

And the harpooning thing... What I found out is that one of the guys left the Island back
to New Zealand and the other one, Kevin "Salam/Salan", I did not reach/find.
Nearly everyone knows him, I also got his phone number, but seems to be not my week,
finding him. But even if I will find him, same with bluewater spearfishing, very choppy###
outside.

Moving

Today I moved to another location in the south of the Island, called Maiana Guesthouse.

And you will not believe, again an upgrade for free. From single room in the main building,

to beachfront with a double bed, big shower, own kitchen and a balcony...

But everything comes with a price... For the beach I have to walk 30m to my right/left ;)

It is managed by an older couple and the both are very nice.

They brought me fresh fruits (mostly Papayas) and said if I eat them all, they will

bring me more. Good for me, sounds like free refill. ;)

Rarotonga

The last couple of days I spent at Rarotonga Backpackers on the west-side of the Island

I booked there a single room in the main building for 40NZD,

but got an upgrade to one of the Bungalows for two people,

close to the beach. Own toilet, shower, fridge and a double

bed for the same price... nice ;)

I also got upgraded for the flight from AKL - RAR, Economy to Premium Economy.

Did not spend any cent for this ;)

But after good news, bad news follow... The Reef/Lagoon is full of ciguatera,

so nothing with catching and preparing my own lunch and dinner.

Later the next day I meet two people who got poisoned by fish they bought, labeled

as Tuna, at the market. Could only have been Dogtooth Tuna, because this species is

searching for prey in and around the reef

They said the worst part was, when it felt like someone was putting needles between

there joints. Hope I will never get this on my trip.

Snorkeling around this place was also very very bad. I asked some locals, who suggested

me going to the end of the lagoon and jumping over the edge. Sounds simple and actually it

is, but the biggest problem was, getting back into the lagoon. Specialy if I imagine going

there with my carbonfiber fins. The waves are big and it is very very shallow at the edge.

Either the fins will broke, or I will hardly get washed over the corals.

I thought it isn't worth it.

But what are the other options? Answer is quite simple, the passages

Everyone is warning you about the passages in the Reef/Lagoon, because it can suck you out

into the blue, and over the last ten years, there died a couple of tourists out there.

But for sure, this will be one of the best places ;) The plan if I really got sucked out

was, going over the reef back into the lagoon, as one of the locals told me.

There was one artificial build for the smaller cruise ship landing-boats very close to my place.

All in all it wasn't worth it. I saw some of the biggest Bluefin Trevally ever,

but I had to be honest, I stopped close to the end of the passage and tried

getting in, before I start freediving there and got exhausted, and it was really

strong getting in again. What I found out a couple of days later, this is also the hardest

passage with the strongest current ;)

Nearly 24h Stopover in Osaka ...

...

no earthquake, tsunami, nuclear reactor accident so I'm still alive ;) I hope Japan is

now prepared for Claudia's and my arrival in February, after we planed it two times

going there in the past and every time a disaster happened right before.

What to do if you only have the forenoon? I knew there is one of the biggest Aquariums

in the world located at the harbor in Osaka. I booked an accommodation very close

to the Airport and left my bags there during my trip to the Kaiyukan Aquarium.

Once you understand the subway plan, it's very easy going there, even if you

don't understand japaneses.

It took me 80 minutes one way and as I had already overslept, I only had two hours

at the Kaiyukan left, before I had to pick up my bags and going to the airport.

Good that I bought the entry ticket together with the railway ticket before, otherwise I

had spend there approximately another 45minutes, because it was "Family Day" and

crowded all over the place. Nobody told me that ;)

So straight to the entrance, skipping the queue and I was in.

I will make it short. Never been to an Aquarium like this before and I mean this in a

negative way.

Sure it was nice to see some GT's, Whale Sharks, Japanese Bullhead Sharks, ..., 

touching some Rays (felt like a mixture between fish and shark), but the whole facility

was build more like one long floor where they wanted to avoid, that you went back to have a

look on some of the exhibits again. For the most species they have, they only display a

picture, the Japanese and English Name and the taxonomy. They do not provide any other

single detail.

You take a long elevator and walk down in circles through the hole facility. In

the middle you have the big pacific tank and on the other side some smaller tanks

with different animals, mostly grouped by continent

You walk down the floor in one direction till you where on level -1, take a small

elevator again and pretty much, that's it.

What I expected, was not only the third or forth biggest tank in the world, I

expected way more information about nearly everything. And more about taking care

about our environment and what impact our lifestyle has to the sea.

They had a small part with that at the end, but nearly everyone was skipping that,

because it was not on the walking path anymore... really sad