HAiko:
High!
Maybe this question and/or answer is somewhere posted in this forum, but I couldn't find it. So here it's (again?).
What kind of divesuit is recommended for diving in New Zealand (summer and wintertime).
Can a thick (when does a suit catagorize as "thick?", in mm i.e.) wetsuit be used, without getting frozen, or is it adviced to use a dry one? I have no idea (yet) what the watertemperatures will be, I expect they are not as tropical as in Australia? But it can't be that bad on the North Island, can it?
Cheers anyway,
Haiko
As Alison said, it all depends on where you want to dive.
I started diving in Auckland and Northland and had no problem diving all year round in a semi-dry. I actually learned in a Farmer John type two piece wetsuit and found that, apart from having to throw masses of lead around my waist to actually sink, I was cold. However in saying that I know plenty of people who swear by them so that comes down to personal preference.
The temperatures range from 24 degrees celcius in summer down to a low of about 15 degrees in winter. The Poor Knights are typically 2 degrees warmer than the mainland due to the East Auckland Current that flows down from the tropics. (BTW the Poor Knights are the best diving in the world)
I now live in Wellington and wear my drysuit exclusively, even in summer. Some people call me a wimp and they are right. Warm Intelligent Marine Person.
My partner on the other hand dives all year round in Wellington in a semi-dry and only really feels the cold in the middle of winter, when temperatures can drop to as low as 10 degrees. Then she turns green with envy as she strips out of her dripping wetsuit and towels herself dry in the cranking southerly that comes from Antarctica, whilst some of us WIMPs merely step out of our drysuits and are ready to go.
The South Island, particularly the southern reaches, will demand a Drysuit all year round, all though there might be some tough people on here that manage to dive some of the year in a wetsuit.
The coldest I have dived in here was in Lake Taupo during "The Melt" where the temperature hit 5 degrees at 30 metres. I was in my semi-dry at the time and didnt feel too cold at all, but then I was younger and tougher in those days.
Im now a WIMP.
Summery
Northern North Island - Wetsuit/Semi-dry
Southern North Island - Wetsuit/Semi-dry/ Drysuit
Northern South Island - Wetsuit/Semi-dry/Drysuit
Southern South Island - Drysuit