New Zealand Diving - Sept/Oct 2009

[ScubaJW]

My dive buddy and I will be flying to NZ at the end of September, and leaving 2nd week of October. We wanted to do dive charter out to Poor Knight Islands on either weekend.

I have contacted one dive ops, and received the reply, saying that there is no dive charter going there at that time. That got me puzzled. Are dive ops open at that time of the year? If so, then please please tell me which dive ops? So I can make the reservation in advance.

Thanks yall!

 

[Packhorse]

There are plenty of charters that do the 'Knights every weekend.

Try Poor Knights Divers, Poor Knights Islands, dive charters, diving, wreck diving, Tui, Waikato, dive equipment hire, Tutukaka, Northland, Whangarei They also do accommodation and have one of the quickest boats there and its limited to 10 divers unlike some other operations that are more like cattle boats.

 

[AndyNZ]

As Greg has said, there will be plenty of boats heading out.

Not knowing which charter you have tried, here's a whole list to work through. If you only have a weekend then I'd definitely think about a liveaboard to get the most out of it! There are two liveaboards that I use fairly often.

Ocean Blue - www.oceanblue.co.nz a small boat only sleeps 7. Kev and Janine who own the business will really look after you.

Pacific Hideaway - www.divenz.co.nz a bigger boat and popular so may not have space. Put i a request for lamb shanks for dinner, Mark the skipper cooks them pretty good.


For day trips, you can also try:

Dive! Tutukaka - www.diving.co.nz D!T are well set up for travelling divers and they head out nearly every day of the year. D!T are the biggest charter company to the PKs

Yukon - www.yukon.co.nz another good boat to head out on. Noel and Jo are great to be on boat with.


There are other companies, though I don't tend to use them much. But they may be worth a look:

Knight Diver - www.poorknights.co.nz

Adrenalin Charters - www.adrenalincharters.co.nz (they claim to have the fastest boat/quickest trip out - maybe make it a three dive day?)



If you can't get a boat out from this lot, something is wrong!!!

 

[Packhorse]

I am quite interested in who it was that said there were no charters heading out. Just so I can make sure to avoid them and not recommend them.

 

[ScubaJW]

Thank you all! We found 2 charters that will do the trips to Poor Knights Islands!

 

[AndyNZ]

Thank you all! We found 2 charters that will do the trips to Poor Knights Islands!

Awesome. Let us know the dates that you go, I may be up there around that time as well.

 

[marzum01]

You may be interested to check out this operator as well
Google: "Poor Knights Bluzone" (sorry I can't post URLs yet as I've made less than 5 posts)
They have a specialised speedboat which I personally have not been on yet. I've only been diving to Poor Knights with Dive! Tutukaka so far, but I have a long-time divemaster working at my office though who said the bluzone operator is excellent if you're an experienced diver, as the boat is real fast, takes a small group only and they take you to harder-to-reach sites near the island (not overcrowded with tourists!)

 

[AndyNZ]

I was in Tutukaka last week - looks like Alex (who runs Bluzone - bluzone.com: Bluzone Home - Diving the Poor Knights Islands, Dive charters, Tutukaka, Whangarei, Northland, New Zealand) has got his boat for sale as it had a big "For Sale" sign on it!