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RAINBOW WARRIOR
So, sleeping in the back of our Sierra Station Wagon, we travelled around the north island for the following 3 weeks, picking up odd jobs along the way. We fitted in a few dives in and around The Poor Knights from Tutukaka. In Taupo, we did an exhilarating drift dive down the Waikato River. Unfortunately the rain in New Zealand was relentless and we had to cancel many a trek which dampened our spirits so much so that we cut our trip short and headed of to the warmer climate of Western Australia. Bombed in Auckland Harbour on July 10th 1985, by French Secret Service Agents, and causing the loss of life of Greenpeace photographer Fernando Pereira, the Greenpeace Flagship now lies in 26m of water on the northern end of the Cavalli Islands on the North East coast of the North Island of New Zealand. The ship was scuttled on 14th December 1987 in a full Maori ceremony and is now home to Cardinal fish, Leatherjackets, Scorpion fish, brightly coloured Nudibranchs and quite a few Snapper. The wreck is pretty much overgrown with various colours of Jewel Anemones and a fair bit of Kelp on the Stern decks. Penetrating the wreck is pretty easy and the swirling schools of Cardinal fish inside are a nice site. The best way to dive this wreck is from Paihia with Paihia Dive (www.divenz.com) run by Charlie and Glenys. The two and a half hour boat journey each way is a bit long but they are soon getting a Rib, which will cut the time down to 40 minutes or so. Top The
Poor Knights group of Islands are 21 km from the coast and were formed by
a volcano some 11 million years ago. They are now a Marine Reserve, home
to tropical and temperate fishes alike, as a warm water current flows
through the islands from the Coral Sea, North of Australia bringing many
rare tropical fishes to New Zealand, which are unique to the Poor Knights.
When the Poor Knights was set up as a Marine Reserve in 1981, there was
outcry from the local fishermen, but over the years the Poor Knights has
become a breeding ground for many species of fish which has replenished
fish supplies further along the coast, providing abundant fishing in new
areas where fish life was previously depleted.
We
dived with Dive Tutukaka ( www.diving.co.nz
) based in Tutukaka (a
lot shorter boat journey than diving out of Whangerai). The boat journey
takes around 1.5 hours and as luck would have it, we experienced the
roughest seas they had had for a long while. Once in the Lee of the
islands and out of the rough waters we donned our 7mm long johns, 7mm
jacket (Tracy even had her 3mm shortie over the top), hood and gloves plus
11kg's of weight!! It was very strange to wear all this after we had been
used to diving in 3mm shorties and a couple of kilo's, very restrictive
and cumbersome.
We
only did two dives at the Poor Knights, which was a shame because it
really is a beautiful area. It was just too cold for us. Having said that,
Terry went out the next day for 2 dives on H.M.A.S Waikato, just for the
hell of it!
Dive
Tutukaka are a very professional shop with excellent boats, equipment and
staff, plus they serve much need hot soup, between and after dives.
Top
A
fairly deep dive, where the Island's rock face just plunges straight down
into the sea bed. We were amazed by the amount of Rays just lying in the
sand, seemingly unphased by divers (some with large cuts in their bodies -
apparently Orca's find them rather tasty!). The "Wall" is
covered in Jewel Anemones and dozens of brightly coloured Nudibranchs,
making it a beautiful site to behold - almost making us forget how cold we
were!
Luckily,
we got to dive this site as it is one of the Poor Knights most well known.
A relatively shallow site at only 16m, we started the dive off in a sand
channel, once again festooned with Rays. The channel then leads you to the
arch, which, as its name implies, is inhabited by huge swirling schools of
Blue Mao Mao. It is best to just hang in the water and let the fish
envelop you whilst enjoying the sun sending shafts of light in to
silhouette the marine life all around. We could have spent a long time in
the arch doing nothing, but the cold got the better of us so we headed
back into the shallows of Kelp and back to the boat and some hot soup.
Top
Built
in Belfast by Harland and Wolf and launched on 18 February 1966, this
Leander class frigate served the New Zealand Navy until she was
decommissioned in 1998. Her final resting place is in 30m of water off the
Tutukaka coast at 35,39.165 S and 174,32.670 E, where she was scuttled to
form a natural reef and dive site on 25 November 2000. She is the only
purpose-sunk frigate in the Southern Hemisphere with her gun turret and
one propeller left in place. This
113.4m long and 12.5m wide ship, lies on sand and is virtually upright.
Strong seas have already had a dramatic effect on the wreck having ripped
off the bow section of the ship from the bridge forward, and deposited it
on it's port side a few meters from the main body. There are lots of good
opportunities to penetrate this wreck, especially through the helicopter
hangers along the decks and up into the bridge, as most hatches have been
removed and access holes have been burned into bulkheads. Due to it's
relative newness as a wreck, there is very little marine life on the wreck
as yet, but hopefully this will change as the years pass.
Top
One
of the most hectic and highly recommended dives we have done is a drift
dive down "The Mighty Waikato River" courtesy of Scuba Scene,
based in Taupo ( website at: www.scubascene.co.nz
e-mail address: info@scubascene.co.nz
).
The
Waikato is New Zealand's longest and most powerful river, taking its
source from Lake Taupo, a volcanic crater situated centrally on the North
Island. The dive itself
commences at Cherry Island just on the outskirts of the town of Taupo. You
kit up on the banks of the river and make sure everything is working
correctly, because once you enter the water, there is definitely no
turning back. Even putting your fins on in the river can be awkward with
the river trying to whisk you away. Once everyone is ready, you drift on
the surface just past the bungy jump into what is known as "Hells
Gate", where the river takes a bend and narrows. Here you descend to
anything between 10m and 4m and away you go!!!
It is now time to forget everything you have ever learned in diving
techniques as you make yourself completely negative and constantly
"leap frog" over boulders or fend off fallen trees and logs.
This is a really exhilarating dive. In some places the river is only a
couple of meters deep (these are the really fast bits). If you have time
(!!), take in the river bed rock formations as they are quite stunning. It
is also quite disconcerting to see the odd Rainbow Trout, seemingly
remaining still in the rivers flow as you hurtle past out of control!!
The dive itself only lasted 21 minutes - but that was enough for
anyone, seeing as we had covered 2.5km!!
Lichelle, our guide, has done the whole dive in 9 minutes once - we
wouldn't even like to imagine what that felt like!!! Once
on the surface, you then drift on down the river to the pick up point at
Reids Farm (which, incidentally, is an amazing "free" campsite
on the banks of the Waikato situated half way between Taupo and The Huka
Falls). Once out of the water and your gear you are treated to cups of hot
soup to warm you up as the water temperature is only about 14 degrees C.
The strange thing was that after an hour in the water, neither of us
actually felt cold. Maybe it was just the excitement of doing a dive that
is so different from anything we had done before that kept us warm. All in
all, if you have a spare couple of hours to kill in Taupo, this dive is on
thing well worth doing. Best of all, you get a laminated certificate to
prove you dived The Mighty Waikato River!! |
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