North Island of New Zealand late February early March

Hawkwood · Jan 16, 2011

Folks,

My wife and I are spending a three weeks on the northern island in late February to early March. We have a travel itinerary with our accommodations booked and a car hired. We will have our gear with us as we are also spending time in Hawaii and Fiji diving. We will have to hire some thicker exposure suits though as I don't imagine our 3mm and core warmers will cut it in your temperate waters!

These are our planned stops:

Coromandel, Feb. 20-24
Taupo, Feb. 24-28
Napier, Feb. 28-Mar. 4
On the road (no plans), March 4-6
Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, March 7-10
off to Fiji (11-26)
back to Auckland, March 27-30

Can anyone give us suggests for dives and operators for the areas I've shown in bold? We are looking for a purely recreational experience. We have a reasonable amount of experience in a variety of conditions and locations.

Thanks, Bill

donnyb · Feb 8, 2011

This should get you started.
Dive New Zealand : Dive New Zealand, Dive News, news and articles, Dive New Zealand Magazine, Subscriptions

Waters off the N. Island are similar to California, around Channel Islands.
Waters off the South Island are similar to N. California or Pacific NW.

I have dove Bay of Islands and Tutukaka/Poor Knights.
If you can handle the chilly waters it is splendid. I brought my trilam dry suit and some thin undergarments and was very comfortable. The others wore 7 mil wetsuits and lips were blue by the end of the last dive.

If you are prone to seasickness you will want to prepare for that, can be lumpy on the rides to/from. The pharmacies there sell a product called "Kwells" which is oral scopalamine, wonderful stuff.

bygolly · Feb 8, 2011

Hawkwood:
Folks,

My wife and I are spending a three weeks on the northern island in late February to early March. We have a travel itinerary with our accommodations booked and a car hired. We will have our gear with us as we are also spending time in Hawaii and Fiji diving. We will have to hire some thicker exposure suits though as I don't imagine our 3mm and core warmers will cut it in your temperate waters!

These are our planned stops:

Coromandel, Feb. 20-24
Taupo, Feb. 24-28
Napier, Feb. 28-Mar. 4
On the road (no plans), March 4-6
Kerikeri, Bay of Islands, March 7-10
off to Fiji (11-26)
back to Auckland, March 27-30

Can anyone give us suggests for dives and operators for the areas I've shown in bold? We are looking for a purely recreational experience. We have a reasonable amount of experience in a variety of conditions and locations.

Thanks, Bill

I can only comment on the Bay of Islands area. I dove two days at Poor Knights with Dive Tutakaka out of Whangarei in 2005. They are an OK operation and they had a couple of good sized boats at the time. It looked like one boat had the more experienced divers and one had the drop ins...like me at the time. They let me on the "big boys" boat the next day...:cool2: The diving is very good though....Poor Knights has been a protected area for some time now and the fish populations are very healthy...its like being in an overpacked aquarium. Well worth the ride. I was quite happy with the 7mm rental I used as the water is somewhat warmer at Poor Knights due to a warm current from the Coral Sea. You should make sure you do this area.

Cheers,
Bill

North Island of New Zealand late February early March

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Hawkwood

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donnyb

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bygolly

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