09 December 2012 | Opua, New Zealand
03 November 2012 | Kunutu, Vava'u group, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Kunutu, Vava'u group, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Kunutu, Vava'u group, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Neiafu, Vava'u, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Kunutu, Vava'u group, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Falehou, Niuatoputapu, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Tafahi volcano, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Falehou, Niuatoputapu, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Falehou, Niuatoputapu, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Vaipo, Niuatoputapu, Kingdom of Tonga
03 November 2012 | Niuatoputapu, Tonga
21 October 2012 | south side of Samoa.
21 October 2012 | South side of Samoa
21 October 2012 | Apia, Samoa
21 October 2012 | Apia, Samoa
21 October 2012 | Apia, Samoa
15 September 2012 | Suwarrow, Northern Cooks Islands
15 September 2012 | Suwarrow, Northern Cooks Islands
15 September 2012 | Suwarrow, Northern Cooks Islands
Those red blobs are OCTOPI!!
18 August 2012 | Tapuamu Bay, Tahaa, Fr Poly
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From Tapuama bay, we dingied across to some motus on the west side of the lagoon to the famous ‘coral garden’ tucked in a little false pass between two motus near a fancy resort. It was great snorkeling, quite shallow so we all did miniature kicking and paddling motions with our limbs so as not to touch the delicate coral. From the way the fish were swarming around us, we deduced that people must feed them here. The highlight of the day was seeing two octopi which were friendly enough that they didn’t totally hide away – we watched them change colours and texture and move gently around a rock shelf in the shallows, but they seemed to be OK with our company – maybe habituated because of the heavy snorkeling traffic? We didn’t mind, it was very exciting to get such a great look at these amazing creatures. They are such incredible chameleons that we started to wonder how many we had snorkeled past, not realizing that that rock or piece of coral was actually an octopus.