{"id":101,"date":"2013-07-08T07:51:45","date_gmt":"2013-07-08T07:51:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/"},"modified":"2022-04-20T22:36:08","modified_gmt":"2022-04-20T22:36:08","slug":"walking-underwater-tahiti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/","title":{"rendered":"Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Walking three metres under the surface of the ocean with an aqua helmet on my head is the weirdest experience I\u2019ve ever had. I\u2019m part bobble-head doll on Neptune\u2019s great undersea dashboard and part astronaut walking in slow motion around the moon.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ve joined a tour with\u00a0<a title=\"AquaBlue\" href=\"http:\/\/contact.aquablue.free.fr\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AquaBlue<\/a>, based at the <a title=\"Expedia InterContinental\" href=\"http:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/Moorea-Hotels-InterContinental-Resort-And-Spa-Moorea.h26248.Hotel-Information?brandcid=blog.article.tahitidive.july_08072013\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">InterContinental Resort and Spa<\/a> on Moorea, Tahiti. On the way out to our dive spot, AquaBlue owner Vincent Lelong explained why we won\u2019t die under his Russian head gear &#8211; long rubber hoses hook the headgear to oxygen tanks back on the boat. He hasn\u2019t explained how we\u2019re meant to walk. So, like a baby foal I stumble around in the big blue, totally in awe of the beauty of life from this angle.<\/p>\n<p>My heavy head is making me veer off in all directions. The helmet is so heavy it was lowered onto my head via a pulley system. I stood waist-deep in water, clinging to the boat ladder, as assistant Stefan lowered it onto my shoulders.<\/p>\n<p>There was a hiss of oxygen filling my helmet and then I was slowly drifting to the ocean floor. Vincent held onto my hand lest I drifted into the ether. Once my ears were cleared with a swallow, I gave him the A-OK hand signal and he headed back up to fetch the next of our party of four.<\/p>\n<p>When we\u2019re all standing underwater and breathing as if this is quite normal, he signals for us to follow him over to a rock. We waddle over and use it as an anchor so the currents don\u2019t push us around. And then the show begins.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Walking three metres under the surface of the ocean with an aqua helmet on my head is the weirdest experience I\u2019ve ever had. I\u2019m part bobble-head doll on Neptune\u2019s great undersea dashboard and part astronaut walking in slow motion around the moon. I\u2019ve joined a tour with\u00a0AquaBlue, based at the InterContinental Resort and Spa on&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,5,2,4,6],"tags":[12,19,103],"authors":[],"class_list":["post-101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-adventure","category-destination","category-experiences","category-explore","category-oceania","tag-diving","tag-seoadventure","tag-tahiti","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive | Expedia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive | Expedia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Walking three metres under the surface of the ocean with an aqua helmet on my head is the weirdest experience I\u2019ve ever had. I\u2019m part bobble-head doll on Neptune\u2019s great undersea dashboard and part astronaut walking in slow motion around the moon. I\u2019ve joined a tour with\u00a0AquaBlue, based at the InterContinental Resort and Spa on&hellip; Continue reading Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Expedia NZ Stories\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-08T07:51:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-20T22:36:08+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2212_33_SS_112803952_1280x960.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Skeet Skaalen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Skeet Skaalen\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/\",\"name\":\"Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive | Expedia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2212_33_SS_112803952_1280x960.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-08T07:51:45+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-20T22:36:08+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/02ef54111fa73e714e2929f225f5ba2c\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2212_33_SS_112803952_1280x960.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2212_33_SS_112803952_1280x960.jpg\",\"width\":1280,\"height\":960},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Explore\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Experiences\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/experiences\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Adventure\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/experiences\/adventure\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":4,\"name\":\"Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/\",\"name\":\"Expedia NZ Stories\",\"description\":\"Just another WordPress site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/02ef54111fa73e714e2929f225f5ba2c\",\"name\":\"Skeet Skaalen\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62dd8cb83fd7d8b2153b80558070d599?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62dd8cb83fd7d8b2153b80558070d599?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Skeet Skaalen\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\/\/www.waveinteractive.com\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/author\/skeet-skaalen\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive | Expedia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive | Expedia","og_description":"Walking three metres under the surface of the ocean with an aqua helmet on my head is the weirdest experience I\u2019ve ever had. I\u2019m part bobble-head doll on Neptune\u2019s great undersea dashboard and part astronaut walking in slow motion around the moon. I\u2019ve joined a tour with\u00a0AquaBlue, based at the InterContinental Resort and Spa on&hellip; Continue reading Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive","og_url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/","og_site_name":"Expedia NZ Stories","article_published_time":"2013-07-08T07:51:45+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-04-20T22:36:08+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1280,"height":960,"url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2212_33_SS_112803952_1280x960.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Skeet Skaalen","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Skeet Skaalen","Est. reading time":"1 minute"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/","url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/","name":"Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive | Expedia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2212_33_SS_112803952_1280x960.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-08T07:51:45+00:00","dateModified":"2022-04-20T22:36:08+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/02ef54111fa73e714e2929f225f5ba2c"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2212_33_SS_112803952_1280x960.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/04\/2212_33_SS_112803952_1280x960.jpg","width":1280,"height":960},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/walking-underwater-tahiti\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Explore","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Experiences","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/experiences\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Adventure","item":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/experiences\/adventure\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Walking Underwater: A Tahitian Helmet Dive"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/","name":"Expedia NZ Stories","description":"Just another WordPress site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/02ef54111fa73e714e2929f225f5ba2c","name":"Skeet Skaalen","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62dd8cb83fd7d8b2153b80558070d599?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/62dd8cb83fd7d8b2153b80558070d599?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Skeet Skaalen"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/www.waveinteractive.com\/"],"url":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/author\/skeet-skaalen\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=101"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":906,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/101\/revisions\/906"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=101"},{"taxonomy":"authors","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.expedia.co.nz\/stories\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/authors?post=101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}