Aitutaki

We did two dives today with Aitutaki Scuba (Neil Mitchell).  The first dive was at Rapae Wall was alright. We saw a turtle float past … then another one which had been resting amongst the rock got up and took off. We also went down 28m into a canyon but there wasn’t much to see.  My dive was cut short a little as I was under-weighted … I floated to the surface and the dive master didn’t have a spare weight for me. It was a bit dangerous being at the top while still far from the boat as there could have been other boats around and I didn’t have a fluorescent balloon handy.

The second dive at the Main Passage had a great start … the water was crystal clear and there was a nice collection of small colourful fish (I’m not great with names) and plenty of Unicorn fish. Through the dive we saw a very large Napoleon Wrasse, a big Puffer fish and an Eagle Ray. For some of the time we were too far/high from the bottom/wall to see much. There were times when the water was less than crystal clear with some suspension. It was definitely the better of the two dives.

Pricing was double what I paid in Aceh over a week ago. I guess in Aitutaki, the outfit run by resident Kiwis has to make a living coping with high petrol prices and other costs …  eg. petrol price is horrendous!   In Aceh, there is a reliance on visiting dive masters who are travelling the world and are still in awe with the diving there at Pulau Weh … presumably they work for little money as they’re like on holiday.  And then there are also cheap Indonesian locals to help carry/refill the tanks, clean the equipment and drive the boats etc.

Despite the high price, I thought the diving up in Malaysia and Indonesia in terms of marine life.  Also, the vigilance of the divemaster was on the “easygoing” side, eg. hop in and go down to the bottom and I’ll see you there (says the divemaster who isn’t yet kitted out).  I may be a bit harsh in my conclusion  based on just two dives.