Diving New Zealand

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

Latvis

New
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Going to New Zealand in November-December.
What are good dive shops to dive with and what are good spots to go to.
Most likely will stay on North island.
 
When I was there a couple of years ago, I dove a couple of days at the Poor Knights, which is a must do I wish I had more time to spend there, and I also did a day around Kapiti Island. For Poor Knights I dove with Yukon Dive Charters (Yukon Dive - Diving the Poor Knights, Tutukaka, Northland, New Zealand), Noel and Jo are awesome! I personally don't like large boats, and I was definitely happy with my choice over Dive Tutukaka when I saw how many divers they had on their boat (though I have heard they are a good op too, just not my cup of tea). Around Kapiti Island, I used Dive Kapiti (http://divekapiti.co.nz/)out of Paraparumu. It was less touristy than Poor Knights, but I was happy with my dives, and would dive with them again. It was more like diving with the local guys than a vacation dive charter.

I hear the diving around Wellington can be nice as well, and I wish I would have had the time to do White Island which I hear is amazing, almost as good as Poor Knights, but that is a liveaboard trip as its quite far out. I don't know what your experience level is, but keep in mind that this is not warm water diving. I used a drysuit which I would highly recommend. Poor knights can be done in a 5mm if your not too temperature sensitive, 7mm if you want to be warmer. The further south you go the cooler the water will get. I don't have my dive log handy, but if you want to know the water temps on my dives, I'm sure I can look it up for you.

Enjoy your trip!

Mark
 
Thx Mark,
this is good info.
Im ok with cool temps and this is unfortunately not a dive trip.
will be driving around islands with family and will stop to dive where I can.
All I'm bringing with me is computer and reg. will rent everything else.
 
I used to work at DiveWhite- a daily trip to White Island leaving from Whakatane. The distance is around 40mile and it takes the best part of 2hrs to reach.

GOOGLE: Dive White.

Poor Knights is probably your best option- Nov/Dec will be pretty chilly still as the warmer currents have not moved that far south. I doubt you'll have many people on the trip so Dive Tutukaka shouldn't be an overloaded trip... but they definitely have a large boat.
 
I am looking to travel to NZ in end of May beginning of June in 2014. Anyone have a 'best dive' suggestions since I can go anywhere but will probably only go to one place as I will only have 5-6 days in the country. Thanks for any tips!
 
Google: Dive! Tutakaka- they should be big enough to still be running trips at that time of year. But email them first and check.
 
Going to New Zealand in November-December.
What are good dive shops to dive with and what are good spots to go to.
Most likely will stay on North island.
Giz a yeodle when you get here dude.
Theres dives run by various dive shops this time of year depending on the plans for the rest of your trip.
I quite like the Goat island dive run dives to little barrier etc. which can be at times as good as poor knights.
 
Resurrecting an old thread to see if anyone has updated info. We are contemplating are trip across the ditch in November and just starting some research. The first thing I have come across is "dive the 5" an operation that organise travel, accommodation and diving on the 5 big sites in the north island. Just wondering if anyone has used this service or have any insights. It's hard to tell from their website if you travel as a group or they just set you up with local operators at each site.

Both of us are fairly competent divers but would take semi dry wetsuits as neither of us has any experience in a dry suit, anticipating water temps of above 16 degrees C, is this reasonable?

Thanks
 
You might get lucky and get 16, possibly out at the knights. I am not sure, I don't think I was out there at that time of year so I will leave someone else to comment on that. I would expect to get around 14 degrees C though, not much difference but it is enough :p My favourite site is the Canterbury diving with the guys at Northland Dive (Northland Dive - Welcome). Not sure if I would make it my one dive day if travelling to New Zealand but would definitely go out with them if you are up in the Bay of Islands (there are other operators that do the different sites around there but I haven't been out with them)
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom