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Diving in Indonesia is great. Its the holy grail of diving. A country of islands with the highest underwater bio diversity in the world. You could dive your entire life and not visit every dive site in the country. Lets just say that I wasn't lacking things to take photos of.

I flew into Bali and then took a fast book to the island of Gili Trawangan which is located off the coast of Lombok. Gili Trawangan is one of three islands in a chain and is the most developed tourist spot of the three. Its also known as a bit of a 'party' island, though it seemed rather tame most of the time. I stayed and dived with the people at Big Bubble Dive. The rooms were quite nice and rather cheap. The staff were very helpful and friendly (in both English and French). The dive equipment was in good shape and proper working order. Daily dives were done from a boat, and all dive locations were no more than a 10 minute boat ride away.

It seemed that most people visiting the island had come for the diving. The area around the three islands held quite a diverse set of dive locations ranging from shallow coral gardens, to deep ridges. The quality of the coral was at times breath taking and at other times heart breaking. In years past many of the reefs were damaged due to bad fishing practices. A lot of effort has gone into protecting the reefs and promoting new coral growth. An interesting fact about the islands is that the local dive shops pay fishermen not to fish the area, which has done wonders for the recovery of the area.

Before this vacation I had never seen a sea turtle before. I think I saw 10 on my first dive. In fact it was a strange dive that didn't have us seeing at least one turtle. The area had both Green Turtles and Hawksbill Turtles. Some were quite large. We estimated one at being around 1.5 meters long. My favorite turtle was the one pictured below sleeping in a sponge vase. The other picture has a turtle hanging out with a Lion Fish.

I usually tend to be obsessed with taking pictures of really small things while diving, but before I get to those, I thought I'd show off a few big fish that we came across. below is one of several small reef sharks I saw while diving. Usually we would come across them sleeping on the ocean floor, only have scare them away before I could take a decent picture. We also came across this large school of Jack Fish. I tried to join the school, but couldn't keep up.

I ended up getting really lucky and coming across a school of big Bump Head Parrot Fish. I was told that these fish usually spend their time down deep but come up once a month to feed during the full moon. These big, and harmless, fish didn't seem to care about a group of divers. Seriously big fish.

I always try and take pictures of very small things. Sometimes these pictures turn out well, other times not. One of my favorite small things to take pictures of are anemone shrimp. These translucent little shrimp are beautiful but a pain to actually get in focus with my small camera. I was able to get a few decent pictures of them as well as some anemone crabs I also ran across.

It seems that ever diver has some underwater creature that they're a bit obsessed with. For me it would be nudibranches. AKA Sea Slugs. I go crazy over them and a bulk of the photos I take while diving seem to be devoted to these colorful little slugs. Indonesia has quite the selection to pick from depending on where you dive. For the most part I only came across some ugly bumpy slugs. But every now and then would come across a spectacular one.

I'm not just a slug lover, I also enjoy snails and other creatures with shells. Below you can see some very interesting shelled creatures going about their business in the ocean.

One of the common sights while diving were Mantis Shrimp. These big shrimp are really weird looking, and even more weird to watch. They usually run away from divers, but on one dive we came across a shrimp that didn't seem to care. You can view video of him in action at the end of the blog.

A short distance from shore, about 16 meters under water, sits a twisted hunk of steal and wire. This is Bio Rock. While at first it may look like someone dumped a bunch of trash into the ocean this hunk of metal is actually promoting new coral growth. It was set up as an artificial reef. An electrical current runs through it at all times, because it seems coral likes electricity. While a neat sight to see during the day, it becomes super creepy to swim around during a night dive.

Not everything I ran across in the ocean was your typical run of the mill sea life. I did happen to come across some really weird stuff. A Leafy Scorpion Fish was a rare find. It spends it days looking like a dead leaf on the ocean floor. In the next photo a Flying Garnet spreads its wings as it glides over the ocean floor. One of my favorite fish, the stunning Ribbon Eel. The eel was a stark contrast to its neighbor, the Black Frog Fish which happens to be just one ugly fish.

Daytime diving is quite fun, but I may have started to become a night diving addict. Its a thrilling experience. A whole different environment appears at night. Eels and Lion Fish come out to hunt. Crabs and shrimp venture out of their hiding places. A familiar dive site becomes a whole different experience at night. I tagged along during two different night dive classes and saw some really weird stuff. Such as a Spanish Dancer slug, which is the size of a dinner plate and an interesting color. Some weird shrimp. A little baby cuttle fish (which are fun to play with). Plus, whats up with the little blenny making his home in an old bottle?

Speaking of cuttle fish; I love them to bits. I'd never seen a cuttle fish before Indonesia. They're fascinating creatures. Related to squids they have a remarkable color changing ability. Its an effect that doesn't look natural. It looks like something you should see in a movie full of CGI effects. The pictures below are are the same cuttle fish. If you want to see some fun color shifting abilities jut watch the video at the end of the blog post.

I had wanted to see a Manta Ray, but sadly that didn't happen. But I did happen to see several blue spotted rays which were very beautiful. A much more colorful, though smaller, ray than the ones that I saw in New Zealand. During one dive a ray decided to swim under our entire group. I was lucky enough to be at the end of our group and got a nice action picture of it.

Oh, and no diving blog post would be complete without some random pictures of clown fish. (I may or may not have watched Finding Nemo on my iPod during my trip.)

If you feel the urge to you can watch some video of my diving. The video has some fun shots of mantis shrimps, sharks, the big bump head parrot fish, sea snakes, and turtles.

So thats the rundown on my Indonesia trip. I did 19 dives and would have loved to do another 19 if I had the time. I'm seriously thinking about going back to Indonesia for some more diving this next year. If anyone feels the urge to they can send me money for diving at any time.

Technorati Tags: diving, indonesia, scuba, Sharks, slugs, String Ray, travel, video

This Saturday I'll be heading off to Indonesia for a week of fun filled diving at the Gili Islands. With any luck I'll get in a full 8 days of diving and maybe even a couple of night dives.

Located to the East of Bali, and right off the coast of the larger Lombok Island, the Gili islands offer quite a bit in the way of diving. Some healthy coral reefs, a great variety of small creatures, and the chance to possibly (I really hope!) to see some larger ones. Plus it looks like a very very very relaxing area for someone who needs to get away. In case you don't know where it is, google is your friend.

My top five things I really want to see. 1) Manta Ray 2) Turtle 3) Sea Horse 4) A lot of slugs 5) Cuddle Fish.

Eh, who am I kidding. If I just see a single Manta Ray I'll be so overly super thrilled that I'll forget about the rest. I'll be sure to post a lot of photos as well as video when I return.

For the last five days of 2007 I had the wonderful opportunity to dive at the Poor Knights Islands in New Zealand. The islands were one of my reasons for traveling to New Zealand over the holiday season and I'm happy to say that they did not disappoint. The Poor Knights Islands are located about three hours north of Auckland near the Northlands city of Tutukaka. These islands are special for several reasons. First, they're located along the EAC (The East Australia current. The one that Nemo takes a ride on in the movie. More specifically they're located on an offshoot of the EAC called the East Auckland Current) which picks up tropical fish, eggs, and larva from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and deposits them in the Poor Knights. This causes a unique situation where tropical and subtropical fish mix together in the same environment. The second reason is that these islands are protected as a marine sanctuary, which means there is no fishing of any sorts around the island. These two aspects make for a world class subtropical dive site like no other.

I booked my diving through the main local operator, Dive! Tutukaka. I'm glad I booked ahead as most days I was out were booked solid with divers. The dive shop was located right next to the marina for easy access. The staff was experienced, friendly, and rather funny. The equipment was in good working order, and I was impressed that they had dive computers on all their setups. The dive operation was quite vast. They ran five boats of various sizes (I think five boats. Maybe 6.) which went to different locations in the area. An added bonus were the optional lunches for $10, which I found quite good. A day on the boat, two dives, full gear, and guide (if needed) ran $225 New Zealand, which seemed to be about the standard price for the area.

Going out to the islands takes about an hour from Tutukaka. On my first day out I was lucky and our boats ran across a pod of dolphins near shore. The islands are not really all that big, and it doesn't take much time to sail around them. In between dives our skippers would do a slow tour of the islands showing off its various natural wonders. These include several large arches and the world's largest sea cave (by volume). The area wasn't too busy the first couple of days, but as the holiday season kicked off the number of small private boats in the area increased significantly. Luckily this didn't impact the diving and usually we were the only boat at a particular dive site.

Much like my dive in Japan, the subtropical makeup of the Poor Knights meant a whole lot of kelp. In fact quite a bit of kelp. Kelp forests. I'd never seen so much kelp in my life and was surprised by the environment. Fish swam through the kelp, slugs hid behind leaves, and divers weeded their way through it in search of photos. Plus the swaying of the kelp was kind of hypnotic at times. The best part of the subtropical setting is that you can touch anything. Unlike a coral reef where a misplaced fin might kill 100 years of coral growth the kelp forest is durable. Not only is it near impossible to actually rip off kelp, even if you did it would grow back in a few weeks. Kudos to you kelp. For a list of all the fish, plant, and animal life found around the Poor Knights check out this webpage.

The various fish in the area were quite friendly. It was quite easy to just rest among the kelp and let the fish swim around you. In the first picture below you can see a massive school of Blue Mao Mao engulfing my dive buddy. The dive site of Blue Mao Mao arch is rather famous for attracting large schools of these fish during the day. The site is the main reason Jacques Cousteau put the Poor Knights on his top ten list of dive sites. The bottom right picture has two Mao Mao fish facing off, possibly to mate.

I was also lucky enough to see some interesting larger fish. Most days I ran across quite a few eels hanging out among the rocks. I was even lucky enough to see a carpet shark sleeping between some rocks.

The Poor Knights is also known as mating grounds for various Sting Rays. Long tailed rays, short tailed rays, and eagle rays are a very common sight around the islands. During various times of the year its possible to see hundreds of rays hanging out together on some of the outer islands. The rays I saw ranged from small baby rays, to rays well over a meter and a half in size. Very beautiful creatures to watch when swimming. For some interesting ray video check out the end of the post.

While I do love fish I became slightly obsessed with taking photos of the various nudibranchs found around the islands. Nudibranchs being sea slugs. I'd say a good 25% of all the photos I took under water were of nudibranchs. As you can see below there are quite a few different types. Some no more than a few centimeters long, while others were longer than my hands.

The first two photos below show the common clown slug in various stages of procreation. The one on the left shows a slug laying its eggs, while the one on the right shows two slugs in the act of mating. The bottom two photos are of very large slugs. You can clearly see the gills on the back of each slug.

The third day of diving I took a break from the Poor Knights and decided to do some wreck diving. Close to Tutukaka are the wrecks of the HMNZS Waikato and the HMNZS Tui which were sank just for diving fun. Both wrecks are in various states of plant and fish growth and are fun dives. The only problem for me were the murky waters and the colder temperatures. I included some video of the wrecks below, if you care to see more of them.

Some pictures of me diving. You'll notice that I'm wearing a hood and a rather thick wetsuit. Thats because the water was only 19 C at the Poor Knights, and even less at the wrecks. It was cold. Probably as cold as I could handle. Many divers were wearing dry suits, and I kind of wish I had one when diving.

Lastly some video I took while diving, in case you wanted to see some fish or sting rays in action.

I really enjoyed diving the Poor Knights. Its a wonderful spot to go diving and I'd gladly go again. One of the best aspects of the islands, at least for me, were that they weren't busy. Even though it was the peak time of the year I never felt crowded at any dive site and often felt as if I had the whole ocean to myself. I can only imagine what the area is like during the cold winter season. Maybe next time.

Technorati Tags: diving, new zealand, poor knights, scuba, slugs, String Ray, travel, whales, wreck

Diving isn't just limited to viewing the natural world underwater. There are plenty of man made objects that have made their way underwater and can be interesting views.

Artist Jason de Caires Taylor has added quite a few interesting pieces of artwork to the underwater world. Its worth a few minutes of your time to view the photos on his webpage.

In one week I'll set out on a trip to New Zealand in order to do some diving at the world famous Poor Knights Islands. One of the top ten dive pots in the world. I'll be there starting December 26th and ending on January 1st. With any luck I'll also be able to squeeze in a day of diving at the Bay of Islands situated a bit north.

Before any dive I like to do a bit of online research to familiarize myself with the local plant and animal life. This way I don't sound like an idiot by asking what every fish is, but also so I can properly label photos and video when I get home. Having a good book or two in fish and plant life is never a bad idea. Its a good time killer on the bus ride or plane flight home after a day of diving. Plus it usually tends to be a social event as you and the other divers chat about the various fish you saw or the photos you took. In my case it usually end up being me explaining the english names for fish and my Japanese friends explaining the Japanese names for the exact same fish.

I recently ran across this webpage from seafriends.org.nz which has a very nice listing of plants and animals found in and around the Poor Knights Islands. I plan on printing off several of the pages so I can take them with me on my trip. The more I know about the environment I'll be diving in the better prepared I'll be when I actually get in the water. If nothing else the webpage has some really nice photos of the various sea slugs found in the area. Slugs are very weird and beautiful creatures and I look forward to taking lots of nice photos of them with my new camera setup. If I get any good ones I'll post them here!

Technorati Tags: diving, new zealand, poor knights