Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Kims and Neds

Started the day with the intention of climbing Mt Eliza. We took our bikes to the end of the bitumen and started to walk along the path to the mountain top, starting at Settlement Beach. We passed a family coming down from the Malaga who must have started very early. It was about 08:30 when we met them at our start of the climb up. On our way up Uschi and I found out how unfit we really were. Instead of going to Mt Eliza we changed our plans and went to Kim's Lookout. We were still in two minds about pushing on to Malagar, but we weren't sure it came out near the Settlement Beach area. Consequently we went back the way we came. It took about 1 hour up, with rests and photo stops and about half an hour down.
After getting down we tried to book a couple of places for New Year's Eve, but mostly they were full up. We made some bookings for days other than New Years then went to the boat sheds to see about boating and snorkelling tours. Booked into the dive tour for first thing tomorrow morning and snorkelling in the afternoon. We can take Christine on the snorkelling tour.
After that we went back to the cabin and I made a picnic lunch to take to Ned's Beaach. This time we wheeled Christine there. We all had lunch and later we managed to coax Christine down to the water to feed the fish. She had a surprisingly good time and was trying to poke some of the fish with her walking stick by the end. After we got her back to the shelter shed Uschi and I went in to do some photography. The shallow water was much more silt laden than yesterday and it was also low tideso it was a bit awkward to get over the coral. There was not so much freeboard to float over it and there was a danger of getting cut. We both followed the channel out, the same channel which we followed yesterday, to where the ocean breakers were coming in.The water was very cold there, the Kingfish (abot 1.5m long) from the feeding place near the beach, cruised up and down the channel between the beach and the ocean. Very big fish, looking quite sinister and aggresive in a group of about 5. Much different to their behavious nearer the beach.
When we came back to the cabin we did so clothes washing and hung them up to dry. I downloaded today's photos. After that I took the bike along Anderson Road on the east side of the island to Joy's Shop to get some more groceries for subsequent teas. I made spaghetti tonight using the microwave to boil the pasta. It worked alright but I had bought the ingrediaents thinking there was a cooktop in the room. There wasn't, only the microwave.
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Monday, December 28, 2009

First Trip to Ned's Beach



28/12/09
First snorkelling trip to Ned's Beach, the best beach for fish and coral that we have seen so far.
Saw an octopus, similar in size to the large one we saw in Niue. Also saw a Moray (Lord Howe?), Beche de Mer and many different types of fish. There were spangled emperor, Double Headers, 3 Striped Butterfly Fish, McCulloch's Anemone Fish, Scalyfin, Bluefish and Yellowtail. These were all out from the shore a way and in the channel. In the shallows along the beach front were Sand Mullet and Garfish, along with some of the bigger fish.
The fish get used to being fed by tourists and locals and swarm in the knee deep water. I saw Kingfish that were 1.3 to 1.5m long in a foot or so of water.
Today the water was a bit stirred up in places with sediments and broken off sea grasses.
Last night we also visited Ned's in the dark to try to take some photos by moonlight, with the new lens. But it was far too dark. On the way back to the guest house we saw some Mutton Birds, most between the Kentias in the forest but some even sitting in the middle of the road. They were making a lot of noise in the dark, apparently they are noisy all night.
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