Scuba Poor Knight's Islands

Today, I sang in a cave. A cave where also Neil Finn gave a concert!!
I had booked a "Discover Scuba" trip to the Poor Knights Islands, a group of vulcanic islands constituting a marine reserve. The 2 main islands used to be the home of Maori but are now being won back by the regenerating forest of pohutukawa and other natives. Because of the marine reserve no one is allowed to set foot on shore but the area welcomes diving parties almost every day of the year.
The famous cave is large as a cathedral. Over lunch time the skipper motored us right in and did a little tour inside before stopping the engine. that's when I couldn't help myself. I first gave a little shout and when that came back nicely, it was a more melodious "Good morning, good mooorning".
Someone generously boosted my ego asking me for another one and so I went for a shortened version of Gounot's Ave Maria. It was amazing to play with the space and the accoustics of this water cave. I sang in different directions to feel how the sound reacted and it was huge!
By the time I finished and looked down from the cave ceiling, I saw everyone had come up on the sun deck around me. It was just amazing to sing in these top-accoustic conditions!
Oh, and the water was cold on the first dive,just 16C, and it was hard to breath normally as the cold water sneeked into my wetsuit every move I made (including breathing). In the afternoon a nicer 18C made it more comfortable. Very nice to dive in these sub-tropical waters.
That morning, as the Calypso (yep!) mored off I heard someone say, Are you Brucelle? His google alert had signaled the blog entrance I posted the day before. An American neuro-psychologist, he is working here in the Northlands where only 10 'head-doctors' are available for the whole population. I learned a lot about the situation here. Very interesting. (BTW: stay in touch ;-)