The last few weekends were accompanied by shocking weather. So, when the forecast for the upcoming weekend promised clear skies, my dive mates and I were fizzing. We spent the entire week forcing ourselves to do uni work so that we could be rewarded with the weekend off.
When Saturday finally arrived, we suited up and quickly got into the water. However, I noticed immediately that the visibility was terrible, which made diving difficult. Nevertheless, we were determined to give it a try. After a few minutes, I found a spot that looked promising for moki and dove down to take a closer look.
Carefully, I positioned myself behind a rock and stirred up some sand. The commotion attracted the attention of a large moki, which quickly swam over to investigate. Unfortunately, I was running out of breath and the fish had caught on to me, making it difficult to get a shot. I managed to fire off a shot before darting to the surface, but the spear just missed the fish. I searched the area, hoping to find the same big moki but, with the large swell and poor visibility, it was nearly impossible.
After floating around and looking at all the undersized pāua, I caught a glimpse of something. As I turned, I saw a nice-sized moki gliding past. It wasn’t the monster but it was also well over the size limit and would look good on a plate, so I waited for it to pass my gun and gently squeezed the trigger. The shot was perfect, stoning the fish. I quickly swam over to my buddies to check on their catch. They had caught two more moki and a butterfish, but we were far from finished.
We had planned to meet up with another dive group at a different spot, so we quickly hopped out, drove over there and jumped in. Unfortunately, the visibility was even worse, but with eight of us spread out in pairs, we were bound to catch something. After about an hour of exploring the shipwrecks, tangling ourselves in kelp and playing with the seals, we regrouped to show our haul. We ended up with a bountiful harvest of one moki and 12 butterfish. That may sound like a lot of fish, and it certainly felt like it when it came time to fillet them, but once they were battered and served with chips to eight starving uni students, plus a couple of extras, they were quickly devoured.
With a beer in hand and our stomachs full, we recounted stories from the day and planned for the next trip—a perfect way to de-stress from a long week of university.
