I had my first taste of cold water diving here on Monday morning. The water temperature was around 19 - 20 degrees, which according to the locals is ridiculously warm, but after a 40 minute dive I was frozen! It certainly seemed quite strange to be diving over and through seaweed whilst shivering, as opposed to admiring a colourful coral reef in the carribbean!
On Wednesday I travelled north through Auckland to a place called Whangarei, which is the jumping off point for diving trips to the Poor Knights Islands. These islands are reputed to have the best diving in New Zealand - apparently Jacques Cousteau rated them as one of the top ten dive sites in the world! With a reputation like this, it was obvious that I would have to brave the cold and go diving, so that is what I did on Friday on Saturday...
The islands are around 20k offshore, and it takes around an hour to get there from the dive centre at Tutukaka (just down the road from Whangerei). Luckily the sea was reasonably calm both days and not too many people were seasick! All around the coastline of the island are lots of caves, tunnels and archways - some above water and some below - which made each of the four dives I did very interesting.
The islands have been designated a marine reserve and as a result the marine life is prolific. As soon as we arrived at the island schools of trevailly were seen splashing around on the surface, and underwater the archways were all filled with marine life (which helps to take your mind off the cold!). Between dives we were taken on a cruise around the island and into some of the seacaves there (including the largest seacave in the southern hemisphere). All in all, an excellent dive trip.
On Sunday I travelled up from Whangarei to the Bay of Islands and am staying in Pahia.
Click HERE for photos from the Coromandel and Poor Knights.
