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<\/a><\/p>\nOur last club trip of 2017 saw a group of 14 divers, a mountain of camping and diving gear and even more food caught the ferry across to the island in stunning conditions.<\/p>\n
In the heat it seemed to take forever to get all our gear checked – there are strict biosecurity procedures on the island and we did have a lot of stuff!<\/p>\n
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But eventually we were allowed through and up to the house for lunch and relaxation for most although for those who had never been to the island it was a great opportunity to explore and meet some of the wildlife – the black backed gulls get upset if you are too close to their babies!<\/p>\n
Later that afternoon we meet up near the wharves to prepare for our underwater clean up.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The visibility was better than we expected close to shore but with 1000’s of salps it was like swimming in a thick soup. We checked out the sunken barge before heading out to look for rubbish.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n What we found was 100’s of nudibranchs – I had never seen anything like it. Imagine a hill with a flock of sheep – everywhere we looked there were more nudibranchs!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n The good news was we didn’t find a large amount of rubbish (if you ignore the tyres) and not a lot of modern debris.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n After all our hard work we were pleased to return home for a feast of epic proportions!<\/p>\n Plenty of energy to fuel our night explorations as we headed out for a tuatara hunt!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n After a lazy Sunday morning sleep in we headed along the beach to clean up any wind driven debris and collected a rubbish bag of mostly plastics and food wrappers.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n & would we do it all over again? You bet –\u00a0 bring on Matiu-Somes 2018!<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n<\/a> <\/a><\/p>\n