Dive! Tutukaka (posted by Caitlin)

Sunday, 5th July

Woke to a beautiful sunrise over the ocean, and headed down to the Tutukaka marina to get suited up for our dive and snorkel adventure. It was cold and early, but luckily the weather was beautiful. We found our boat, which was surprisingly small (could only take 14 when full), especially after the huge boat we'd been on in Cairns. It being off season, it was just the 3 of us and a Spanish couple, with 2 skippers/dive masters. Rachel and the Spanish guy were both going on the certified dive with Sam, Tiffany and the girl were snorkeling, and I wa

s doing the try dive with Luke. It was

an hour ride out to the Poor Knights Islands where our dive sites were. Unfortunately it was pretty rough going, and we had 3 sickies on the boat (I was feeling good as I took my Dramamine since I normally get sick). But everyone sucked it up (for the most part) and completed their activities.

We arrived to the islands through t

he huge and impressive Southern Arch, in the appropriately named Archway Island. As soon as we got into the shelter of the islands the se

a was calm and flat. The sun was out which kept us slightly warm against the chilly air and wind. Our first site was Frazers Landing, an area of rocky reefs near the high shear cliffs of Aorangi Island. The Poor Knights are some

of the only (maybe the only) islands left in New Zealand where there have been no introduced pests like rats or possums. This has allowed the native flora and fauna to live and evolve undisturbed, and giant wetas, giant centipedes, and tuataras (a real live dinosaur) can be found there, along with thousands of migratory nesting seabirds. It is a nature preserve above the water level (people are strictly forbidden from landing), and a marine reserve below for 800 meters out from the land. It was the first marine reserve created in NZ, and has been completely untouched by fishing for 11 years. The affects of this preservation could easily be seen, as the life was abundant and thriving, unlike the heavily trafficked patches of the Great Barrier Reef we'd seen.

The first group of divers got kitted up and set off. Luke suggested I go in with the snorkelers for a few minutes just to get used to the water temp. We were all in thick 7mm wetsuits

, complete with booties, gloves, a hood, and the very flattering butt flap feature. You literally cannot sink while wearing those suits! We all struggled to get them on, and we had to bounce Tiffany into hers! When we wer

e ready I hopped in with her and the other girl, who was pretty freaked out since she had never been snorkeling before. The water was not as cold as I'd been prepared for, and it was clear as anything. From the surface you could see perfe

ctly all the way to the bottom and everything around, probably like 20 meters. It was so incredible! And nothing like the tropical reef, there were large rock buttresses covered with soft corals, short kelp, and small schools of silvery fish. It reminded me more of the Monterey Bay sea life, but the swells are too strong to support the tall kelp forests. The Poor Knights are also unique, as they're the first islands south of Australia that the warm EAC hits. In the summer it sweeps down tropical fish you wouldn't normally find there, and some have actually adapted to live there year round. Sometimes they get turtles, and its a big breeding area for stingrays in summer (love to see that!).

Finally Rachel's group got back, and it

was my turn to dive! First we practiced my skills -mask clearing, regulator clearing and recovery. Then we descended slowly, using the rocks for stability. Not controlling my own buoyancy was diffic

ult, especially with the push and pull of the swells hitting the nearby land. Luckily, I got to just hang onto Luke and didn't worry about it much. We set of exploring, and came across several grey and yellow morey eels, tiny brightly colored nudibranchs, buggy-eyed blennies chilling on the rocks, and urchins that I avoided putting my hands down on. Little groups of demoiselle fish hung out in the kelp, and big red scorpionfish tried to blend in on the rocks. Luke picked up a brittle star that rarely comes that far out of its dark caves, and we spotted a huge mosaic morey squeezed into a long crevice with a yellow morey. Eels usually scare the pants off me, but they didn't seem in any hurry to clamp down on a diver, so it was okay. It was actually pretty awesome to see them in their natural environment instead of an aquarium tank.

After I had a quick lunch, and Rachel and Tiffany worked up the courage to get back in the water without spewing, we arrived at our 2nd spot about 50m from the first. We were going to Blue Maomao Arch, and it was supposed to be fantastic, so it couldn't be missed. Luke took the 3 of us divers out, while Tiffany snorkeled and the other girl sat it out. We dove down to the boulders at the base of the arch, and hovered just above the rocks. As we entered

the arch, it got very dim and we stopped at a l

ow rock. It took a moment to realize it wasn't dark because we were under the rock arch, but because the entire area underwater was filled with a giant school of Blue Maomao! There were probably 20,000 of the slivery-blue fish just hanging motionless in the narrow space. The sunlight was filtering in behind them, and it seemed like a dream. We swam slowly through the arch, into the school or fish. They parted slowly, swimming with us then reforming a living curtain behind us. On the other side there was a large kelp bed that we dove right into. We spotted a cute little sharpnosed pufferfish under the kelp fronds, and a few cool leatherfish with undulating fins and spikes hovering above the kelp. Sandagers wrasse swam right up to us, and we passed some pretty red pigfish. Both the wrasse and pigfish change from female to male, and can be identified by their colouring (we saw both). Rachel indicated that her weight belt w

as either making her puke or sink, so we turned and headed back. Through the school of blue maomaos again, and back over the shallow boulders. We spotted a small, pretty yellow morey sunning itself on a rock, a rare sight. Then the ascent to the boat, which we had to watch swinging above us til it got to the right an

gle and we could grab onto the back. I was relieved to get out of the water as it had gotten ch

illy and I was pretty tired. We had been down for 59mins, which seemed impossible.

After a rough ride back, we arrived back at the dive shop to fill out logs and look up the fish we had seen. We chatted to Luke for a bit, and he told me I should go for my open water certification, which I will definitely do! What an awesome day! Still can't decide if it was better than caving, but both were pretty equally amazing and crazy. New Zealand rules!