Wednesday 7th April 2004, Day 207/366 - Paihia, New Zealand
Okay lets play a little game. I'm going to give you 2 excerpts from a conversation I overheard and you have to guess which nationality the person in question is.
1st
Mystery Guest - "so what will the temperature of the water be"
Skipper - "About 19 degrees celsius"
Mystery Guest - "I have no idea what that means"
2nd
Mystery Guest - "Wales? Is that the place that is surrounded by water"
As for the diving. I had a slight wobble on the first dive. I got to about 3 metres and felt very strange so headed back up. Fortunately Ty (instructor) came to the top with me we had a chat and he got me to look down and see the world beneath. When I got to the bottom (12 metres down) he handed me a sea urchin and it felt good to be down there. A magical experience. We were down for around 30 minutes and it was very cool. I was happier with the whole situation, but I really have to work hard to overcome all my natural instincts. It just doesn't feel normal.
On the second dive all was going swimmingly until I started sucking in water through my regulator and gradually my lungs began to fill with water 15 metres below the surface. I tried to work through the problem methodically, but when Ty gave me the sign to see if I was alright, human instinct took over and I gave the sign that I was going to the surface, forgetting everything that I had been taught in the process. Basically I totally freaked out. I spat my regulator out on at least 2 occassions and went the last few metres sucking in water. Ty was struggling to keep up and he was pulling at my fin tips before eventually working his way up my body, squeezing me and purging my regulator. My immediate thought was that he was trying to keep me under and that was the last place I wanted to be. In actual fact he was trying to make sure that I didn't ascend too quickly and trying to prevent my lungs from over expanding and killing me. Such a wise head on young shoulders.
I do question why I'm putting myself through this. I can see the attraction in in, but don't necessarily share it.
