Alice writes about her new experience with gannets and buoyancy

Duetsche

On Friday we went to Otarawairere Bay for a swim.  I carefully remembered to recharge and pack my cellphone in case I popped my knee or Chris had a heart attack, because Otarawairere Bay is only accessible via a fairly steep track through the bush.  Chris had previously taken the track from the West End of Ohope and wasn't too impressed, so this time we took took the track from Otarawairere Village at the top of the hill between Whakatane and Ohope.  I really like this track because for most of the way, you're in nice shady bush, and the last time I went there I saw a little brown owl.


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When we arrived at the beach, I was impressed at how completely smooth and untouched the sand was, and how quiet the beach was.   This was all soon to change, as a class of eleven-year-olds came to the beach on a class trip and climbed around on the rocks examining rock pools.
We climbed along to an even smaller neighbouring bay.  I should mention to you that this was at low tide.  This bay tends to disappear under water at high tide, leaving you with a really pitiful supply of beach.

The thing about Otarawairere is that there are almost no waves, and in this little bay, the waves are completely absent.  The sand is still firm and gently sloping like it is in Ohope, but the water is completely calm.  Chris wasn't too impressed with this.  She kicked around with the boogie-board for a bit, then moped around on the shore, and finally resorted to taking photos of the rock pools.  And the sky.

But I had a great time!  When I was a kid, I nearly drowned and have since been very leery of water that goes over my head.  But, at the age of 40, on Friday, I finally ventured out into the deep and discoved that all those rolls of fat that I've been carefully storing away over the years now serve a wonderful function:  I am a human buoy!

Seriously, I can stand upright, ramrod straight, arms at my sides, feet together,  in water over my head and still not sink!  It was wonderful!  I didn't really have to swim to get around, just sort of walk and wave my arms (singing:  "don't dream it, be-ee it...").   Bottoms are a bit of a liability, because mine is even more buoyant than the rest of me, and when I try to swim on my stomach, it gets kind of out of control, like a life jacket tied at your hips.  I have to do special kicks to keep my bum down.  But enough of that.  The really special thing, the icing on the cake, was a couple of gannets fishing in our little bay.

The first time I heard about Gannets, I was about 11 years old and a friend's father told us that we were like gannets because we were eating so much.  The next time I encountered Gannets was when I visited the nesting colony at Muriwai Heads:



 But this was the first time I got so close to them that I could really appreciate their impressive wing span and elegant flight; and the first time I really got to watch them diving to catch fish.  Gannets circle over the water, in a way similar to hawks, and then when they are ready to catch some lunch, they point themselves to the sea, fold their wings in, then torpedo into the water like a falling comet.
There were times I worried about just how close they were going to dive to me and whether a collision would hurt.  I certainly couldn't count on Chris to come to my rescue as she had disappeared off around some rocks.

There were shags (cormorants) too, which didn't impress me so much as they are all over the place here.  All the same, here I was, swimming with them.  My new tribal name could be "swims-with-gannets".
I'm afraid I didn't get many photos, because Chris isn't particularly interested in birds, but later I got the camera off her and took this photo of an oyster-catcher.  I like oyster-catchers because they are quite comical.  They seem quite nervous, but if anything scares them, they prefer to run, looking over their shoulders, rather than simply have done with the business and give flight.  This spot is quite good for watching sea birds because there is a little tiny fresh-water stream flowing into the bay and a number of birds came there to drink.

After a few hours the fish went away, and so did the birds.  The children were finally given permission to swim at the next beach, and obviously the waves were quite exciting enough for them if their screams and squeals were anything to go by.

We took the track back up to the car, the part we had been dreading.  But it really wasn't that bad.  It took about 15 minutes down, and about 20 minutes to get back up to the car.   Chris, the thwarted boogie-boarder, muttered that she wouldn't be going there again, but has agreed to humor me from time to time with another visit to my favorite beach, Otarawairere Bay.