password] Tsar12
[position]13 24.77S 163 10.80W
[weather]clear sky wind SE 8-10 knots temp 33
[status]hard to believe this is our 4 th day here - time sort of melts away in a place like this. We have been incredibly lucky with the weather hasn?t been over 12 knots since we arrived which for an anchorage that is slightly exposed in trade winds is a blessing- in fact it swung to NE which is directly off the motu in front of us - perfect :)
We went ashore and walked around the motu which has been kept in pretty good condition however Tom Neales hut ( the Kiwi who lived here for 25 odd years in solitude) has been destroyed by nature - I would have thought it would have deserved some effort by the caretakers / Cook Govt to preserve as it is a big part of the history of this island. The slight offhandness of the caretakers at check in has since been observed as a totally disappointing attitude to what they have here and the experience they are trying to give visitors.
Basically all you can do is come in and anchor and stay put - you aren?t allowed to shift your boat without prior permission- we subsequently found out. Not allowed to do so many things including scuba diving inside the reef without a permit ( applied for and denied with no reason)- you can snorkel the surrounding bombies from tenders . The sign on the beach where you pull the tenders up has been extended to reflect the rules - it takes a bit of reading to go through all the things you aren?t allowed to do .There were 6 cruising yachts here and we had an evening ashore for sundowners / drinks - the caretakers were invited by 2 different people but didn?t bother to turn up ( don?t know what they do for socialisation here!).
Anyway 3 of us got together and decided to go for a dive on the outside of the pass where the regulations don?t apply was similar to pass dives like Rangiora - Tiputa. 50+ plus visibility , healthy coral ( some of the best I have seen this trip) , dogtooth tuna,barracudas,napoleon fish, trevally , black tips and greys- in fact most of the sharks on the outside were greys . I got the feeling that we may have been some of the first to dive there it was that sort of feeling- where we dropped in was a drop off that even with that visibility it was sheer - bit like Ras Mohammed in the Red Sea.
Everyone came back very happy - then sundowners to finish the day off :)

This morning after checking the injectors on our starboard motor ( it had overheated in Bora Bora before we left) we up anchor to test it unde load before setting off for Samoa tomorrow.
We hadn?t even got as far as the entrance to the pass and the rangers came chasing us in their dinghy saying it was illegal to motor anywhere in the atoll- ffs I wasn?t impressed and explained we need to test the motors before leaving and they said go outside the pass to do it !
After the warm welcome we received in 2010 this is very disappointing- I have dived many national parks in various countries in the world and in fact been a Divemaster helping protect one of the most amazing places ( Red Sea) so to be denied the ability to dive inside a reef for no apparent reason ( didn?t want to spearfish- just take photos) seems like they have lost touch. I definitely will be emailing the Cook Govt National Park minister to express disappointment on how they making what is a special place not welcoming to people who are only there to appreciate the beauty - we even collected plastic we found on the coral beach and bough t it back to the boat to take away .
Anyway tomorrow morning we are off - there is a system coming in a few days and looks like we will get reasonable wind (up to 25!) and waves up to 3-4 m but from behindso we are getting away early to avoid the worst of it.

h

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