Oracle Water Sight and Gaze of Flames

I was just at a PFS game and had a Flame oracle at my table. We were talking about his build before the game and I encouraged him to take the Gaze of Flames revelation so he could just use obscuring mist and see through it. He said that he was thinking about it later, once he could use it more rounds/level. I was under the impression that Gaze of Flames and Water Sight lets you see through the items described in the abilities all the time, and the rounds / lvl restriction on the Gaze of flames was for the the clairvoyance bonus at level 7. I got that impression from reading the various oracle threads on these forums, because I don't remember anyone saying it was a bad combo because it was limited.

Gaze of Flames (Su): You can see through fire, fog, and smoke without penalty as long as the light is sufficient to allow you to see normally. At 7th level, you can gaze through any source of flame within 10 feet per oracle level, as if using clairvoyance. You can use this ability for a number of rounds per day equal to your oracle level, but these rounds do not need to be consecutive.

Water Sight (Su): You can see through fog and mist without penalty as long as there is enough light to allow you to see normally. At 7th level, you can use any calm pool of water at least 1 foot in diameter as a scrying device, as if using the scrying spell. At 15th level, this functions like greater scrying. You can use the scrying abilities for a number of rounds per day equal to your oracle level, but these rounds do not need to be consecutive.

There was an other GM at a second table that read the abilities in the APG, and thought it was worded so that seeing through fire, fog, and smoke with gaze of flames was limited to rounds per day. If that is the case, is it a free action, or standard action to activate the ability?

Please give insight regarding both Water Sight and Gaze of Flames.

Regards,
-Vel

I've always read them like you do, with "this ability" only referring to the latter parts, but I can see where they are coming from too.
I think perhaps water sight makes a stronger case for being permanent, since the final part refer specifically to the scrying abilities. But then it would make most sense if they worked the same way, with standard sight being unlimited for both.

If it turns out that they are limited use, it will be a standard action to activate them (all activated SU-abilities default to a standard action unless otherwise noted)

Here's a recent discussion on it: http://paizo.com/forums/dmtz5927?Flame-oracle-Gaze-of-Flames-revelation#1

With everyone's help, I found this :

Generally speaking, the limit only applies to the sentence before the limit. This is far too confusing though and I will be clearing up the language and intent.

Jason Bulmahn
Lead Designer
Paizo Publishing

Thank you very much.