Worth squeezing in a day trip to poor knights in november?

[jdevic]

thank you guys! It really made me reevaluate my driving plan - I honestly hate long drives and generally feel sleepy after a long day diving. I've decided to fly instead of driving. It seems there are limited evening bus options in November when the winter schedule is still on.

Last night, I booked the flight from AKL to Whangarei for that Sunday evening, after arriving from Canada.
BUT I stupidly booked the flight from Whangarei to Rotorua via AKL on Tuesday morning at 6:55am ...I completely forgot about the no fly time:'(.... What is the usual depth at Poor Knight? and when is the last dive of the day usually?

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Hi jdevic,

Good idea about flying to Whangarei. There is a shuttle bus to/from Tutukaka that caters to scuba divers by scheduling their runs to arrive before the dive boats leave (they depart the dock at about 9:00 AM) and leaves Tutukaka after the dive boats come back (they're usually back by 4:30). The shuttle will pick you up at your hotel and bring you back to your hotel. Transport to Tutukaka - Whangarei Coastal Commuter

The depths at the Poor Knights vary from very shallow to "Scary Deep" - the actual name of one of the deep dive spots for tech divers. The dive operator will insure that you dive an appropriate spot.

 

[jdevic]

Thank you very much, Bert! Do you think 7am flight the next day will be fine then? I assume the actual dive finishes 2-3pm?

 

[Bert van den Berg]

I'm not going to say yes or no.

There's quite a bit about this on the internet. DAN says 12 hours after a single dive and 18 hours after repetitive dives. The US Navy says 2 hours and the US Airforce says 24 hours.

Reason indicates that the depth and time would have some effect. The dive operators out of Tutukaka will do two dive stops with about an hour surface interval between dives.