Poor Knights Trip (Feb 2014)

Post date: Mar 12, 2014 3:03:49 AM

Poor Knights trip (Feb 2014)

Paul and family, Shane and family, Chris and Sue left late on Thursday bound for Lang's beach to stay with friends of Sue for one night. Nice house with great location.

Up early on Friday with Rene and Fraser, two of Sue's friends who are members of the 'Get Wet' community, then off to Tutukaka we go.

We arrived at our campground on the outskirts of Whangarei on the road to Tuts, very handy. Found our digs and unloaded a bit of gear then off to the marina where we boarded our boat for the trip out to the Poor Knights. Ten of us today which was great with plenty of room on board.

Cracked the weather, flat and sunny at the Knights, and we proceeded to motor through the southern gap where there was three or four other dive boats diving the arches in that area , so we motored on through an arch which I don't know the name of, but we drove around the Main Island and came back to Middle Arch on the western side.

First dive everybody in the water, 18 degrees with the sun on our backs.This arch is also above the waterline, plus a bubble cave entrance down at 10-12 metres. Plenty of fish life with Scorpion Fish and Moray eels, big Snapper and Kingi's swimming just under the boat.

Then it was off to Blue Maomao Arch on the southern end of Main Island. Once again we could swim right through with better visibility and heaps of - yes - Blue Maomao and Kingi's and hungry snapper. Late arvo and we arrived back just north of Tut's for a cray dive. Shane duly delivered with a couple of nice red ones, which we enjoyed for tea that night along with a few beersies.

Any misdemeanours for the day: yes it's bloody hard to swim without fins! No not me, I just found it bloody hard to swim 200 yards full stop. Saturday was a leisurely morning except for Sue who had to go into town twice to get the right battery for her camera — we nicknamed her "Gadget Girl" for the many appliances she has attached to her diving outfit.

Leave marina at midday with 16 divers today. Sue with her ability to organise has 8

members from 'Get Wet' to fill the boat and keep costs down.

Great weather once again as we anchor at Northern Arch which is visible from the surface and drops down to 40 plus metres. All in the water with the 'Get Wet' crew doing some 'course' diving to the bottom with their instructor, then on to swimming through the arch.

Fantastic sights with good fish life and can you imagine 16 divers along the length of this arch at depth, with their bubbles all rising to the surface, clawing their way up the rock walls. Pretty neat viewing.

Misdemeanours — no not me, but one needs a weight belt to descend with?

Then it's off to Rico Rico cave where you can fit 3-4 launches inside at one time. Great acoustics once inside this voluminous cave. Story has it that a Japanese war boat made repairs using this cave to hide in. The captain suggested we cruise off south to the Pinnacles Islands, where there is an underwater arch that doesn't get dived a lot because it needs calm water to enter this arch.

For most of the divers this turned out to be the best dive of all. Perhaps it was the big

crayfish that were scattered along the bottom, or the spire in the middle of the arch which led to two different pathways in and out of the arch, or the abundance of fish life of all makes and colours.

All back on board for the trip home. Sue had planned a night dive for herself and the 'Get

Wet' crew, so that took place whilst our contingent had a nice tea and cold beers at the

Tutekaka Marina.

Sunday and Sue and her crew up early for a dive on the wreck 'Waikato'. As for us, we

packed up and headed on home.

Thanks to Sue and Paul for organising another special trip. Great to have families along for

club trips as we all get to appreciate some neat places.

Cheers

C F-J