February Adventures

February was a month filled with travel and adventure:
First week of February, we went to the Rivera Maya in Mexico to attend the ASCRS winter update at the Fairmont Mayakoba. Unfortunately I was afflicted with the worse flu of my life and had to delay the fun stuff till after the conference. We arrived in Cancun on Saturday evening. Ate at the Cajun restaurant in the Hyatt Caribe named BLue Bayou. Food was supposed exceptional but my dulled taste buds could not appreciate it. Spent Sunday resting by the pool at the Hyatt and had lunch at a Yucatan buffet in town. Monday -Thursday night we were at the Fairmont attending the conference.

Tuesday afternoon, we drove to Tulum to visit the ruins. Best meal eaten the enitre trip was surprisingly in Tulum's very touristy quarter right outside the ruins. We had lunch at a crowded joint- best mole poblano ( mole chicken) and fish verano ever and had local drink 'chayaba' which was a mixture of pineapple juice, chaya( some mayan green leafy vegetable ) and sugar water and maybe some other fruit juices? The Mayan ruins were mildly interesting, set adjacent to the ocean. Perhaps we would have appreciated in more if we hired a guide. Many iguanas amongst the ruins.

ON Thursday night, we went night diving at Playa del Carmen with Diversity Diving. Nice guys but very much a DIY operation. Saw a very cool giant pair of lobster and crab duo on a reef as well as a slipper lobster running in the sand.

The truly exciting diving started on Friday - we went cenote diving with Luis from aquacaves. On Friday, we went to the Gran cenote, Tankha and then to Ponderosa. Gran cenote is a relative small cenote, with a spectacular display of ivory white stalactites and stalagmites- it was our first cenote and it was amazing. The water is sooo clear- 300 feet visibility.

Tankha is a cenote adjacent to the mangroves. It is known that a very shy manatee lives in this cenote system- it is rarely seen by diver and unfortunately we did not get the pleasure of meeting it. Diving in mangrove was another first for me. It is amazing swimming in the root system of the mangrove and the water is inhabited by both fresh water and see water fish and crab.


Ponderosa is known for its haloclines and it underwater disco! A halocline is a layer of fresh and salt water ( like oil and vinegar) and went you swim through it , you vision blurs and you feel like you are passing through dimensions in s sci-fi movie. The haloclines, combined with the underwater disco lights ( caused by sunlight filtering through holes in the cavern ceiling) made the entire experience quite surreal.

On Saturday, we went to the Pit and did 2 dives in Dos Ojos. The Pit is probably the most unique dive of all. It is a huge sink hole 130+ feet deep which connects to an extensive underground cave system. The Pit is Luis' favorite- he says he come diving here all the time- even when he doesn't need to. He has taken archaeologists to this site - they are still working to identify and age and skeletal remains found in the pit. It is a harrowing half hour drive over rocks. We had to take a truck. I don't think even my SUV could have made the trip. On our way, there was a huge snake in our path - some sort of constrictor. Luis ran out , caught it by its tail and picked it up Indiana Jones' style for display to us.

At the Pit, our tanks and BCD were then lowered into the water via ropes while we climbed down with our smaller gear. The descent down to 130 feet took us through a halocline, then a sulfur cloud. At the bottom, we saw some long bones and other ancient skeletal remains including a broken jaw. We then proceeded to slowly circle our way up the peripheral edges of the pit. On the way we found the skull that Luis had been looking for-- it was turned upside down in a crevice. This was another surreal dive- it really felt like I was in a sci-fi movie.

Our next 2 dives were done at Dos Ojos, the first dive being the bat cave. Dos Ojos is probably the most famous of all the cenotes, as it was featured in an IMAX movie. It was also the most crowded with many groups of divers there. The Bat cave has a really spectacular array of stalactites and stalagmites and it truly feesllike 'cave diving'. For most of the dive, I really would not have known the way to the exit ( unlike most of the otyher dives where sunlight was always in sight). It's really dark and all you have is your dive lights - the entire time I felt like any moment now, we are going to run into Batman's underground lair. Towards the end of the dive, we surfaced in a cave to see the bats! Between the 2 Dos Ojos dives, I was busy hand feeding the freshwater fish with the little fruits that were at the bottom of the cenote. The second Dos Ojos dive is somewhat similar to Batcave but I think bat cave was more impressive. Luis is probably the best dive guide I've ever encountered! His knowledge of the cenotes is unsurpassable.
On Sunday, spent most of the day by the pool at the Hyatt caribe. Also went parasailing over the ocean.

February 14th, I went to New Zealand for 5 days. Day 1, took the ferry from Aukland harbor to Waiheke island in the Hauraki gulf. At the island, we joined the wine tasting tour that was sponsored by Mike's partners.

The first winery we went to was cable bay- I didn't care for any of the wines there but the had wonderful sculpture garden featuring the Fulcrum Kinetic Sculpture collection by Phillip Price.

The best wines were at Obsidian. Got a bottle of their chardonnay.

Had dinner at Te Whau vineyard.- Had the most amazing house smoked salmon ever. It just melted in your mouth and was slightly sweet. Had lamb loin and then of course the wonderful sticky date pudding.


Day 2, we went canyoning with Canyonz. we were supposed to go to the Sleeping God canyon, but because there weren't enough people , our trip got cancelled and we ended up going to the Blue canyon instead. This canyoning trip was much less enjoyable that other canyoning trips I'd been on ( such as in wanaka or in Costa Rica). For starters, to get in and out of the canyon required extensive hiking and we had to carry our own gear ( don't remember ever having to do that anywhere else).



Secondly , there were only 3 abseils. The rock walls were extremely slippery and i ended doing face plants into the rocks more that once. Also the ropes were much harder to manipulate that on other abseiling trips I've done. I don't enough about abseiling to know why things were the way that they were, but I found that I had to forcibly feed my rope into the figure 8 ring. Otherwise ,there were many jumps into deep pools of water and there were a couple of slides ( nothing as nice as the one in wanaka). By the end of this canyoning trip, my back was aching very badly and I was having difficulty walking. This a canyoning trip that I would not repeat.

Day 3, in the morning I went to the Auckland museum. For lunch, went to the 'best' kebab shop in a southern neighborhood of Auckland as recommended by our concierge. In the afternoon, we took a drive north of Auckland. Went to the Kauri tree museum at Matakohe, then subsequently went to see the giant Kauri trees in the Waipoua Forest. The trees were HUGE!!! Larger that imaginable. I was expecting to see a huge tree, but when I got there and saw the Tane Mahuta, it was even larger that I thought possible and I was still shocked. That night , we stay in B&B in Tutukaka. Had dinner in restaurant next to the harbor and had John Dory fish.



Day 4 , we went diving with Knight Diver dive operation. We went with them because they were the cheapest. Probably the worst dive operation I've dived with. There was no fresh water to soak my camera. In fact, they even ran out of fresh water for drinking! They did not help with the gear at all. There was no food even though they took us out really early at 8am and didn't bring us back till 4pm. we only did 2 dives but it took a really long time with a LONG surface interval because they took out not only certified divers, but also snorkers and there were 2 people on a 'discovery dive' which they had to take out one at a time after we completed our regular dive.

One of the engines of the boat malfunctioned on the way back and we had to putt-putt our way back to tutukaka. when we got there, the captain had to drive his boat head first into his berth and there was no way for us to get off the boat without jumping to shore and no one was there to help us. The divemaster just took off and left.


Luckily the diving was still spectacular. we did 2 dives- one at Nursery Cove/labyrinth the other at Middle arch. At labyrinth there were several swim throughs. Many fish- blue Moamoas. Beautiful nudibranchs.


Low kelp forest. Few rays. At Middle arch, we surfaced in an air pocket within the cavern in the wall of the arch (neat trick). Didn't swim all the way through the arch though.

Stayed in Kerikeri that night in Glenfalloch B&B. Wonderful place and host is very accommodating. Cute place & cute dog. It was like staying with Wallace and mini- Grommitt!

Went to see rainbowfalls in KeriKeri.

Day 5, we went jet boating with Mack Attack in Bay of Island to the Hole in the wall & to Cathedral cove. It was fun. Kinda bumpy. More of a scenic tour rather than an adrenaline adventure. After the first 10mins the thrill of the high speed wears off. After that it was a drive back to Auckland airport with a stop for a kebab wrap on the way. Did I mention that New Zealand has the best kebab wraps?