Today started with me waking up early to Nate exploring a wide range of loud DJ music (I didn’t choose the music, Just saying) we had found on the hard drive we brought. After that interesting morning we had booked a guided reef walk (It’s called “Ariimoana walkabouts”) so we headed out past Muri to her house which is just across from Avaaroa passage.
Our guides name was “Kura” and her partner “Jacopo” (Kura is a cook islander with a hint of Australia and Jacopo is Italian). After all the introductory stuff was over, all of us chose a stick to walk with from a pile and then we headed out making our way to the reef. The first few interesting things we found were different types of sea cucumbers each with its very own defence ( e.g. one leaked fake blood when squeezed and another spurted this weird web like stuff when it was squeezed). After some more walking we came across some light blue starfish (or Etu Moana) and a big hermit crab that had come out of its shell and after we set it down with its shell it managed to slip into its shell after a few failed attempts. While we were walking Jack (Jacopo) came across an octopus but after a massive jet of ink it appeared to have managed to slip away but mostly likely it was staring us in the face but changed colour to look like the rocks. The next cool thing found aside from the whole place was this small gray fish that had fluorescent blue marks on its tail and it was stuck in a massive sea snail shell and when Kura managed to slip it out onto her palm but after staying still for a few seconds it bolted into the water like a fluorescent bullet which sadly meant we couldn’t get any photos. When we finally reached the reef we saw a massive Zebra eel and some teal coloured Parrot fish and then we stood at the edge of a massive crevasse which was scary when the waves came at us but freaken amazing all the same. As we headed back we tried to find an octopus but we didn’t find one in the end but luckily we did find heaps of sea urchins. When we got back we were offered heaps of fruit which Nate and I demolished (e.g. Coconuts, star fruit and island oranges) and they were delicious plus jack showed us how to open a coconut without using a knife or a stick by hitting the top and bottom of the coconut on to concrete over and over again till it splits enough to open. After we said bye and were given some delicious food to take home we headed back to hit the hay.