Mantra
Contributor
[FONT=Tahoma, Calibri, Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif]I just wanted to do a quick report on the Cook Island dive site on the NSW/QLD border:
Cook Island Aquatic Reserve | NSW National Parks
We (my wife and I) are very new, and did two dives here yesterday. These were only the fourth and fifth dives we have done as a buddy pair after getting our OW.
We dove the south side of the island, off the second mooring.
This site is wonderful for new divers! With gentle current, small (pleasant) surge, a bottom of only 10m, and plenty to see, I can't imagine a more comfortable site. It is an easy site, but not dull.
Water temp was 24.6 degrees, and vis was eight meters or so. Slightly overcast, with a small to moderate swell topside.
Our first dive was uneven. My wife found she was underweighted at the surface, so I gave her some of my own lead. We then descended the mooring line, and swam north along the next ones. It is very easy to navigate here by following the mooring lines, each of which has a very helpful plate with a number on it attached to the line at the bottom. There is a wall of sorts here, comprised of large boulders against a sandy floor. There is a lot of soft corals, a lot of nudis, and fish galore! The highlight of this dive was a large leopard shark that passed within a few meters of us. We ascended the same line. I was a bit positively buoyant at the end, with an aluminum tank and having given some lead to my buddy. Due to the messing about, we only got 25mins bottom time.
The second dive went much better. I took a steel tank, which was enough to correct my buoyancy. This time we decided to not move around so much and just go slowly between moorings 2 and 3. A wonderful dive with 50 mins bottom time. Again, the biodiversity was magic, with countless schooling fish of different kinds, three big Queensland groper and this time we were buzzed by a lovely 2m manta ray swimming overhead. The site seemed bursting with life.
If you are starting out and want a rich but peaceful dive, this seems a great site for that. More experienced divers were having a lot of fun photographing the abundant macro stuff here.[/FONT]
Cook Island Aquatic Reserve | NSW National Parks
We (my wife and I) are very new, and did two dives here yesterday. These were only the fourth and fifth dives we have done as a buddy pair after getting our OW.
We dove the south side of the island, off the second mooring.
This site is wonderful for new divers! With gentle current, small (pleasant) surge, a bottom of only 10m, and plenty to see, I can't imagine a more comfortable site. It is an easy site, but not dull.
Water temp was 24.6 degrees, and vis was eight meters or so. Slightly overcast, with a small to moderate swell topside.
Our first dive was uneven. My wife found she was underweighted at the surface, so I gave her some of my own lead. We then descended the mooring line, and swam north along the next ones. It is very easy to navigate here by following the mooring lines, each of which has a very helpful plate with a number on it attached to the line at the bottom. There is a wall of sorts here, comprised of large boulders against a sandy floor. There is a lot of soft corals, a lot of nudis, and fish galore! The highlight of this dive was a large leopard shark that passed within a few meters of us. We ascended the same line. I was a bit positively buoyant at the end, with an aluminum tank and having given some lead to my buddy. Due to the messing about, we only got 25mins bottom time.
The second dive went much better. I took a steel tank, which was enough to correct my buoyancy. This time we decided to not move around so much and just go slowly between moorings 2 and 3. A wonderful dive with 50 mins bottom time. Again, the biodiversity was magic, with countless schooling fish of different kinds, three big Queensland groper and this time we were buzzed by a lovely 2m manta ray swimming overhead. The site seemed bursting with life.
If you are starting out and want a rich but peaceful dive, this seems a great site for that. More experienced divers were having a lot of fun photographing the abundant macro stuff here.[/FONT]
