Poor Knights - Paihia diving

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WetPup

Weedy Sea Dragon
Messages
1,109
Reaction score
665
Location
Straya
# of dives
1000 - 2499
I headed north for Christmas to do some diving at Poor Knights and Paihia. Couldn't coordinate a lob, so did a couple of day trips. Went with Dive Tutukaka for Poor Knights, and Paihia Dive for the Canterbury wreck.

Poor Knights was ok. 20-25m viz, 18-19c water temps. Was comfy in a 7mm with hood and 5mm boots. Was rainy and windy though, so underwater was quite dark and dull even though the viz was fine. Would be amazing on a sunny day. Excuse to return! Dive shop was good. Bit of a stuff up with my booking - they somehow put me down for a Discover Scuba...lol. Easily sorted though. Can recommend Dive Tutukaka :)

Paihia Dive were great. Can't recommend them highly enough. I'd booked to do the Canterbury wreck and reef dive. Get to the shop to check in, get chatting to one of the instructor-guides. We decided to go exploring in the wreck a bit more than usual. I like guides who can read their customers. He too was a photographer, so it worked out well. Good viz, easy dive, had a few mins of deco at the end, but planned for that. Fantastic dive! The second dive was around an arch not far from the wreck. A few cool nudis and some giant crays. Viz dropped a fair bit there though. Water again 19C and comfy in a 7mm with hood.

Bit of a drive from Welly to dive up north, but I will probably do it again at some point. Just not regularly.

Piccies here
 
Congrat.s on a good trip. I hadn't even heard there were live-aboards serving the New Zealand dive scene; interesting. Any big fish, or was most of what you saw small stuff?

Your photo link was worth the look; I hadn't thought New Zealand might have kelp diving! Some nice shots!

Richard.
 
I headed north for Christmas to do some diving at Poor Knights and Paihia. Couldn't coordinate a lob, so did a couple of day trips. Went with Dive Tutukaka for Poor Knights, and Paihia Dive for the Canterbury wreck.

Poor Knights was ok. 20-25m viz, 18-19c water temps. Was comfy in a 7mm with hood and 5mm boots. Was rainy and windy though, so underwater was quite dark and dull even though the viz was fine. Would be amazing on a sunny day. Excuse to return! Dive shop was good. Bit of a stuff up with my booking - they somehow put me down for a Discover Scuba...lol. Easily sorted though. Can recommend Dive Tutukaka :)

Paihia Dive were great. Can't recommend them highly enough. I'd booked to do the Canterbury wreck and reef dive. Get to the shop to check in, get chatting to one of the instructor-guides. We decided to go exploring in the wreck a bit more than usual. I like guides who can read their customers. He too was a photographer, so it worked out well. Good viz, easy dive, had a few mins of deco at the end, but planned for that. Fantastic dive! The second dive was around an arch not far from the wreck. A few cool nudis and some giant crays. Viz dropped a fair bit there though. Water again 19C and comfy in a 7mm with hood.

Bit of a drive from Welly to dive up north, but I will probably do it again at some point. Just not regularly.

Piccies here
if you like wrecks head down dive the Mikhail Lermontov in port gore near picton
 
Congrat.s on a good trip. I hadn't even heard there were live-aboards serving the New Zealand dive scene; interesting. Any big fish, or was most of what you saw small stuff?

Your photo link was worth the look; I hadn't thought New Zealand might have kelp diving! Some nice shots!

Richard.
Dive Tutukaka have a liveaboard for Poor Knights (2d/1n or 3d/2n). It appears to run on demand, not a regular schedule. I couldn't get the dates to work this time.

A few big fish, mostly snapper sized things and small fish though. Giant crays. A few nudis. A few solitary rays. Other group on our boat saw a turtle, we missed it.
 
That beautiful moray eel shot you have at your page looked like a whopper; about how many feet was that rascal, I wonder?

Richard.
 
That beautiful moray eel shot you have at your page looked like a whopper; about how many feet was that rascal, I wonder?

Richard.

About 3 ft or so I think. Poor Knights were made a marine protected area as of 1998. No take zone. I imagine life out there thrives and stuff gets big with no humans to really interfere.
 
Poor Knights have been a marine reserve for a lot longer than 1998. I went there in 1992 and it had been a reserve for at least 15 years.
 
Part of the islands became a reserve in 1981. The islands became fully protected out to 800m from the shore in 1998.
 
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