Te Wheke

After one particularly fruitful day tidepooling, we talked about all the creatures we had seen in Owhiro Bay since moving here. They ranged from big sea life like an orca, dolphin pods and stingrays, and on down to smaller creatures like rock crabs, cushion stars and fairy shrimp. I said, "I am still hoping we get to see an octopus and seahorse". They exist in the marine reserve but are particularly rare...

Now that we are in Level 3 lockdown we are allowed to swim. With a warm-ish fall day I was hard pressed to deny Wren and Quinn a chance to snorkel in the bay. It's that time of year where each warm day might be our last until summer.

They were so excited about all the fish they could see with their masks on.

We walked over to the next tide pool and as we were leaving I caught a quick glimpse of a tentacle reaching up out of the seaweed.

An octopus! It went back under cover so we decided to hide nearby and see if it would resurface. It did, and we got to watch him/her hunt in the low tide rock pool for half an hour. Lucas was able to take a break from work and run down to see the octopus too. 

Me looking at him, him looking at me.

I learned more about octopus in that half hour than I had in my life. We saw him change color after catching prey and contort into tiny streamlined shapes then large like an umbrella. 

Had the octopus become more brazen in the lockdown, with only locals looking into tidepools? 

Apparently octopus are as smart as a dog or small child and they can recognize individual faces. When we came back at low tide two days later initially the pool seemed empty, but then, in a burst, the octopus showed itself and then went back to hiding. Did he recognize us? 

What a magnificent animal! The girls named the Wheke (octopus): Waru Waewae (8 legs in te reo Māori). Now for that seahorse...