Big Eyes

[MarkBallett]

Diving in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand, with Northland Dive and Shane, Julia, Barry, Laura, Hayden, Lincoln.

28th/29th March 2009

You need big eyes to see well in the dark. Descending through the hatch in the starboard hanger lobby it got very dark. I had a twin set on too so it was a tight fit at times. At the bottom my buddy and guide was nowhere to be seen so I waited for my little eyes to get accustomed to the light, first checking my spare torch and then putting on my main torch. I then saw Hayden at the end of the deck 2 passageway, just outside of the Senior Rates Mess. I slowly followed him, trying not to stir up too much dirt and reduce the visibility in case we needed to come out the way we came.

Later, the archway wasn’t obvious until we got into the opening and it began to get dark, the faint milky white light from the other end of the swim-through just visible. The further we went in the brighter this exit became, though never bright. From inside an arched church window of light began to take on the green opacity of weak absinthe. Small flecks of brown moving randomly in the centre of the swim-through which is probably 30m long. The flecks jumped to attention in the beam of my torch and moved off more orderly, trying to avoid my stare. Maybe these Big Eyes just had too big eyes to deal with 100 watts of light! The light also showed up the bright yellow anemones that also live here, splashed on the ceiling and purpley walls, just as if Jackson Pollack had been here before us. Our passage through Big Eye’s Lair led us to a boulder field covered with juvenile ginger headed kelp, lolling from side to side in unison, in the gentle swell that was foaming the water twenty metres or so above our heads.

We then moved through the Ratings Galley and dropped down a deck into the Engine Room, where we came across the local Iwi’s emblem carved into stone from the beach and placed on the main engine gear train. There is another one, from another Hapu in the same area, in the magazine, below where the turret used to be. We passed a lube oil tank and then down again into the lower part of the Engine Room on deck 4; then forward to the Boiler Room, in and around the pipes and behind the boilers before going up again to the TV Studio on deck 3. Silt and small flecks of paint suspended in the water as we brushed against the petrified machinery.

Sonic Boom cave has a path leading into it with shell debris on the floor and dark grey walls. Here, as in Big Eye’s Lair, the cobble bed is shaped into standing waves by the excited rhythmic water above. But here they are bigger as the waves get amplified by the narrowing slit in the rocks above our heads compressing the air and creating a noticeable boom that reverberates down through the water as you glide on each surging pulse into the dark round back of the cave. Ultrasound for the soul. Bass to die for. Above us at the back of the cave the narrow slit though the rocks can still be seen filled with sea water soufle. More Big Eyes here too swirling around in the darkness, blinded no doubt by our lights and probably with damaged hearing!

Up to the deck 2 passageway outside of the Operations Room and the Wardroom, then forward to the Canteen before going through the Sonar Control Room and up again to the Senior Officers’ Lobby outside the First Lieutenant’s Cabin and into the Commanding Officer’s Day Room, bedroom and then up to the Bridge. Big Eyes waiting patiently in the Senior Officers’ Lobby, as if on a charge waiting to be called in before the First Lieutenant.

Whether you turn right or left out of beautiful Bland Bay there are Big Eyes everywhere, watching. On Danger Rock too, today covered in shoals of Sweep and Blue Mao Mao, where only last week Shane swam with six dolphins. Here and Homer’s Reef nearby, they live in dark overhangs and caves under boulders wedged into the narrow canyons. One swim-through takes you through a narrow gap that I wasn’t sure I could get through the first time I saw it, a bit like some of the hatchways on the Canterbury, but in both cases it was fine. My second time here so I was in the lead. I surprised them in the quiet darkness. The Big Eyes were used to me by now and typically they moved away in unison, but a shoal of little Oblique Triplefins panicked and headed for the gap I was trying to get through, hitting me in multiple dull thuds like a salvo of living paintballs, before bouncing off my drysuit and squeezing by.

During these great dives I was meditating about what happens at night here when Big Eyes, with their big eyes, come into their own. Do they stay put or move around to sample the delights of these differing dive sites, like us? Is that when they all swap places in a frenzied game of musical chairs? Today it’s the Canterbury, tomorrow Danger Rock, or Blue Mao Mao Reef - a bit of a change is as good as a rest they say. Is the night the time when Midsummer Night’s Dreamishly they all come out to play and only retreat with the break of day? Who knows? We aren’t equipped to see clearly at night, like Big Eyes are.

You need big eyes to see well in the dark.

Mark Ballett
30th March 2009