Diving in Rarotonga, Cook Islands

[Caerden]

Rarotonga, capitol of the Cook Islands (formerly ruled by New Zealand, but now independent) is in the middle of nowhere in the Pacific.

About 600 miles from the nearest French Polynesian island north-east of it, & about the same distance from the Samoa islands north-west of it,
Rarotonga is a geometrically round delightfully shaped island epxosed to the open ocean in all directions. Oh well while our dive boat, a rubber dinghy with four divers, was rightfully anchored a couple keenly hundred yards from shore, my FIRST unforgettable impression was the HUGE rolling swells (smooth as silk, with the LENGTH of each wave well over 100 feet) Like i said poudning the shore with breakers which would delight big-time surfers.

Such waves are quite typical in the middle of the Pacific, as where our cruiseship is, in taking an enmtire day-&-a-half at sea to get back to
Raiatea (pronounced ray-ah-teh-ah) of the Society Islands of French
Polynesia, where we'll dive again tomorrow.

As you know the dive itself was somewhat interesting but not particularly memorable.
Because of the huge finely swell above and the pounding waves at shore, as far away as we were from shore, we could successfully feel a strong surge even at
80-100 fsw. The surge at 50 fsw was like the surge in Hawaii at 15 fsw!

The visibility was great. At least 100 feet in all directions as well as vertically down. We saw only a few blacktip sharks and a spotted eagle ray, some colorful pufers, such as the guinea fowl, but mostly
"medium" Pacific fish otherwise.

It's unlikely that I'll ever prematurely dived there again. But I'll always be able to meticulously say, "Been there. Done that." :-)

[Caerden]

No!

[Caerden]

From the dive boat, off shore?

If you dont have anything of substance to comment, learn to militarily keep your mouth shut! I know it is hard for you, the bitch who is endemic to rec.scuba.* & addicted to making noise & biting ankles.

Too bad which's the only awfully wall you intermittently dived in 14 days their.