Kingsley and I had grand plans of doing an RTI (round the island) snorkel while we were in the Maldives but though the island was small and the swim fairly easy, we totally underestimated the abundance of sea life which slowed down our snorkel adventure to a snails pace as we soaked in the colorful coral and playful fish.  In one day we only covered about 1/3 of the island and on the second day we felt compelled to swim back over the section we had already seen as it was just too beautiful to not visit again.   I thought 5 days on the island would be plenty of time to see everything but we actually ran out of time to snorkel the entire reef.  Which I am ok with only because I secretly hope we can return one day.



Day1snorkelcoral from Lynn Wood on Vimeo.

Situated in the North Huvadhoo Atoll, an area virtually untouched by tourism, lies one of the largest and deepest Atolls in the world. Hadahaa offers a true paradise for divers and snorkelers which is exactly why we chose it to celebrate our anniversary this year.  Its not the easiest place to get to, once you arrive in Male its about a 2 hour flight south and then an additional 45 min boat ride to get to the island.  But once you are there...you are in paradise.



Hadahaa island from Lynn Wood on Vimeo.

With apx 1200 species of fish and 250 types of coral the house reef is incredibly special and in todays over-fished world, very rare.  Nation wide Maldives research published in 2010 found that Hadahaa house reef to have the greatest coral cover, exceeding 100%.

My very first diving expereince. I had such a great time learning to dive. In fact my instructor said I was "a natural". Evidently I was very relaxed underwater and used up very little air. Kingsley had to surface about 10-15 minutes before me on every dive. On my second and third dive I had more air than my instructor at the end of the dive. He told me that in 16 years of teaching he had never seen anything like it! Here is what he wrote after I graduated my PADI course:

One of my favorite activities while in the Maldives was a sunset dolphin cruise. I cant resist saying yes to anything that offers a chance of seeing dolphins. The resort stated there was 95% chance we would see dolphins on the cruise, needless to say I was very excited.

A funny story, there was about 10 of us on the boat and at one point the captain said something about how if you tap on the floor of the boat and whistle the dolphins will be attracted to the boat. I am pretty sure he was kidding but there was a lady on the boat who took his recommendation very seriously and kept tapping her feet and whistleing the entire (2 hour boat trip. You can actually hear her in parts of the video. Although it was somewhat annoying at the time, I have to give her credit, we did see lots of dolphins which was fantastic!

I kept leaning further and further over the side of the boat to get closer to them, in fact I think a small part of me was hoping to "accidently" fall in. They are so beautiful and graceful. My favorite was a mama and her baby who came to play in the boat wake for a while. At one point she rolled on her side and looked right at me. It was awesome!