Mermaid in Training

We did an island hopping tour that allowed us to snorkel at two different locations. I realized that the first one was like a teaser before going to the real spot. The second location was off the coast of the Crocodile Island (not named for the crocodiles don't worry). The fish were amazing, I can see why people get hooked on this. The different sizes and colors and shapes had me mesmerized. 

At one point I was being circled by a school of trumpet fish and I don't know why but I panicked and swam away/through them as fast as possible. I wasn't sure what I thought that they were going to do to me, but I'm sure it was sinister.

Part of our group saw a water snake. We were in the same area but didn't happen to see it, which is probably for the best. This snake was really long and they followed it for awhile before it turned back on them. Unsure if it was poisonous or not they eventually swam away (not after snapping some photos which hopefully they will send along to us eventually).  Other people we met that went the next day also had a run in with the water snake that was almost identical to our groups. Turns out that night we find out that the snake was poisonous and that if it bit you, you died. If it nicked you, you were paralyzed in 5 minutes. That's just what one of the scuba instructors we met told us after she saw the picture. So see, probably good thing I didn't see or follow it... with my bad luck lately I would have surely been attacked. 

We also went in to some "caves" that we less than impressive and had our snorkels stolen by some other shady tourists. We swam a bit, got rained on, and then headed for some bbq lunch on a different beach. On the menu was some veggies, fish, chicken and mussels. 

We then headed to Puka Beach where we swam more, scoured the beach for shells and hung out before finally heading back to White Beach. The entire thing took about 5 hours and was a great great decision. We went between sunshine, clouds and rain the entire day which left us both with some nasty burns.

Snorkeling through the crystal blue waters confirmed my first belief that I should have been a mermaid.