Snorkelling with turtles is a popular tourist activity and I am in there with bells on. My life partner declines the invitation so I set out early in the morning to Ariki tours and they kit us up with well oiled efficiency and soon we are walking across the lagoon to the Avaavaaroa passage, a small break in the reef to allow us out of the lagoon into the sea. Unsurprisingly it is also a spot with strong tricky currents as the “Danger, beware of currents” sign on the beach reflects.
In addition to the standard snorkelling gear we have an underwater sea scooter strapped to our right wrist. It’s a nifty little James Bond like gadget that whisks us from the beach to the reef in no time at all. In addition I have Chris’ GoPro attached to the scooter and have my new little underwater water camera also strapped to my right wrist. In all I have 3 completely new gadgets to wrestle with and it is probably a mistake. Especially as our guides are taking professional quality images which they upload for us as part of the package.
The reef drops away and initially all I see is clear deep blue water. Then a turtle deep down on a rock ledge comes into view. We all experience multiple turtle sightings both far and near at one point the current pushed me within a few centimetres of a turtle up near the surface and it took a huge effort to battle the current and avoid a collision.
After a magic hour we scooter back into the lagoon for the boat ride to the shore.
