Now that it's Spring, it was time to get out my scuba gear and go on yet another Prodive Weekend Trip. On the Labour Day Long Weekend (Sept. 29-Oct. 1) the destination was Montague Island which is a 20 minute boat ride from Narooma.
Now Narooma, unlike all the other Prodive weekend trips I've been on to date is actually south of Sydney - about 5 hours drive south. And considering it's Spring, that means the water's colder and not only are wet suits and gloves recommended but hoods are as well! The water was 14 degrees celcius (57 farenheit).
Montague Island's diving is most well known for the dozens upon dozens of seals that play with the divers in the water. They're not scared of us at all, in fact they seem to love the attention and swim all around us, playing and having fun.
Our Prodive leaders Mick and Amber took about 15 of us on 6 dives (2 each day for 3 days) in Narooma which is derived from the Aboriginal word "clear blue waters" and we did indeed have some very solid visibility as you'll see from my photos and videos. They also kept us busy top-side with lawnbowling and a side trip to Tilba after our morning dives.
A shout out to my dive buddy Jackie who looks so calm and relaxed underwater as she's video-ing away. You'll see her in some of the videos in yellow fins, mask and holding a video camera.
The seals were so active it was best to use video. But for the smaller sealife, particularly the nudibranch which don't move fast, I was practicing using my Canon G12 camera and Adobe Photoshop that my family got for me last year. A sign of success - there are more photos of the many, many I took that I'm happy to share with you :)
Sept. 29, 2012
Dive #156 - 18.0 meters, 44 minutes (Near the lighthouse on Montague Island)
Dive #157 - 18.6 meters, 32 minutes
Sept. 30, 2012
Dive #158 - 10.9 meters, 43 minutes (The back of Montague Island)
Dive #159 - 10.8 meters, 46 minutes (Chinese Dragon nudibranch, giant bull ray, Jackie also found an eel right at the start)
Oct.1, 2012
Dive #160 - 20.4 meters, 47 minutes (right at the start Jackie finds yet another eel, saw 3 bull rays)
Dive #161 - 13.4 meters, 49 minutes
A Port Jackson Shark, baby!
Stone fish, creepy looking "googly" eyes!
A Blue Dragon Nudibranch aka "Chinese Dragon". The head is at the bottom of the photo.
The Horiuchi Family converged on San Diego on Aug. 25 from New York (my brother Tomu and his family), Chicago (Mom and Dad) and Sydney and stayed at a great resort (Paradise Point) that had adjoining rooms so we could spend as much time together as possible.
Because that's really what these vacations are about - having fun with my nephews and the adults talking late into the evening catching up, laughing and postulating about the future.
Our week there was action packed and the kids were so excited they woke up early each morning and were on the go all day and well into the night!
1. The sand on Coronado Beach has gold sparkles!
Kai and I had the best time running along the beach finding sea shells on what's been voted the best beach in the US. And Tyler and I had fun building sand castles with moats.
2. The classic San Diego Zoo and the very out-doorsy Safari Park
Most memorably, was the hour it took me to finally find the crocodiles at the San Diego Zoo. Embarrassingly, I'd used the map to guide us in a big clockwise circle all the way around when the crocodiles were only around the corner just counter-clockwise behind from where we started. Kai wasn't very impressed with his Auntie's map reading skills :)
You can hear Kai on this video laughingly pointing out how these two lions are getting clean, licking each other:
A baby elephant was just born and up near the top of the hill you can see the tiny little baby elephant:
Mom and Masa at the Safari Park.
Mom and Papa in front of the lions who are getting down to business behind them.
3. Legoland is about more than just Legos
Legoland has not much to do about building Legos and all about roller coaster and amusement park rides and a water park with slides and water rides where you got really, really wet.
Kai's favorite by far was the Dragon roller coaster which he rode 4 times, taking Bachan, his Mom, his Dad and then his Auntie on the ride. There were 4 roller coasters and Kai rode all four of them multiple times. His second favorite ride was like a junior version of driver's education school. It was quite impressive to see Kai driving on the right side of the road and then come to a complete stop at the stop sign and look both ways before turning.
Papa love all things Yoda, so of course when we saw the Yoda hat, we had to get it for him!
Lego's, much like Disney, has gone mega-commercial. Legos is so much different than what I remember my brother playing with when he was growing up. Now it's all about Lego sets that draw kids in with these Ninjago and Star Wards action figures that are not sold separately. And all the "cool" action figures that my nephews were excited about are not with the Duplex larger Legos but for sets geared for age groups older than them, so adult assistance was required.
So what this meant is that as soon as we'd get back to the hotel after dinner, I'd spend hours with my nephew Kai building these Lego sets (one night we went until 10 p.m.). While building these were NOT easy (imagine 3 to 4 bag-fulls of Legos), Kai and I got into a great groove where he'd help me find the pieces and step-by-step we built a Star Wars sith nightspeeder vehicle and a Ninjago RV.
4. The shows at Sea World were spectacular!
Kai and Tyler both loved the whales, sea lion and dolphin shows at Sea World. I certainly hope these shows don't skew their perception of sea life and they don't expect whales to twirl in the air when sometime in the future I hope they take up scuba diving and they see them in their natural ocean setting.
5. Loved the Mexican food in San Diego's Old Towne! It's still a challenge to find really good Mexican food in Sydney so I made the most of it in San Diego.
Papa playing his shakuhachi at La Jolla Park.
After the Horiuchi Family vacation, I stayed on with Ana and Michelle for the Labour Day Weekend. We went to a Plumeria Festival and saw these award-winning beautifully fragrant plumeria in stunning sunrise pink:
After breakfast at this locally famous breakfast place, Pannikin, that had great coffee, cinnamon rolls and bagel & lox, we went to the San Diego beach near La Jolla and the Cave Store there where after you can see this picturesque scene.
On the day of our departure, we checked out the San Diego Botanic Garden (the map shows how many countries, including Australia and New Zealand plants are represented).
I would love to try this hybrid peach, apricot and plum fruit.
If I can find this in Australia, I'd love to grow this in my window garden. Smells nice!
As we wandered around the botanic garden, these Australian bunya-bunya cones that are 10-15 lbs prevented us from taking this path. Shell laughing, "the gigantic cones of your country".
These palm tree fronds look like the propellers on a ceiling fan:
After coming back home, I was inspired to start my own garden on the patio. I went to Bunnings (like an Ace Hardware) where their selection was small and I largely selected plants that were described as full bright light and hardy plants that I'm sure in the fine print said can be neglected and need sporadic watering. I'm not a green thumb, so we'll see how long these last.
