I was excited to finally heading back to Palau! Where’s that you ask? Micronesia is the answer but perhaps not so helpful. Palau consists of over 300 islands surrounded by a fringing reef making it an ideal dive destination. Flying to Palau involves flying north to Taiwan and then a 4 hour flight south again […]
Wreck Diving
Diving on our local, national and international wrecks
The hunt for an unknown wreck!
After Christmas lunch, sitting around and relaxing; the subject of an unknown wreck pricked the ears of the divers in the room. “Grandad’ was bought up and later worked around Terawhiti Station, near Red Rocks and used to snorkel a wreck in that area. The wreck of the SS Penguin was mentioned but the location […]
COME WITH US AND DIVE THE LERMONTOV
Come dive the Mikhail Lermontov one of New Zealand’s most iconic wrecks, just a quick hop over Cook Straight and staying at the Go Dive lodge. We will be heading over the afternoon of Thursday 25th April (ANZAC Day) diving Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning coming back to Wellington on the 6pm ferry. This […]
Wrecks & Reefs 2018
The name says it all really – this club dive trip to Northland was designed to explore the local wrecks and reef with dives planned for the Rainbow Warrior, Canterbury and Waikato Wrecks as well as a couple of dives at the Poor Knights. I was excited […]
Diving the Rena
On Sunday the 23rd of October Rachel, Tomo, Shane and I (Jacob) packed the Navara with dive gear and headed to Taupo to dive the Rena the following day. I must say I was very excited and I bet everyone else was too! It was a long drive towards Taupo and I just couldn’t wait for the next day to come. The following day we got up nice and early at 5.30am and got ready to leave to Tauranga. We shortly arrived at the meet up point were we meet Auckland Scuba Dive and their huge boat! We got all our gear on the boat and made our way to the Rena. The trip was very bouncy for Shane and I (being at the front of the bow) for a estimated time of 50 minutes. We tied up to the stern of the ship which sat in 36metres of water, Sadly I wasn’t certified to that depth. We all rolled off to boat into the blue ocean, Tomo and I were buddy’s for both dives. We slowly descended down to 30metres where we could see the ship in front of us but since I cant dive to 40m we had to turn around and have a look at the Reef. The Reef was amazing and full of color, there was schools of fish and sections of steel from the Rena lying around. We spend most of the dive around the 30m-20m mark for quite some time having a look. The second dive we moved over to “Dive site 1” were the Coast Guard was happily enjoying the day in the sun fishing. We dived down to 29meters where we had seen a big section of the wreck. We explored around the wreak and had a look inside. I nearly put my hand on a scorpion fish, thankfully it seen my hand coming and swam away. Sadly I may have been slightly narked and when I saw a huge puffer fish swimming around I must say it was hilarious. We hovered around a sting ray while Tomo took pictures, luckily he didn’t mind our presence. We were coming close to our no Deco limits and our air was getting low so we made our way to the safety stop and warmer waters. It was a great experience and possibly the best dives I’ve ever done. I would like to thank Auckland Scuba Dive and Dive HQ Wellington for this great opportunity and I would definitely recommended diving the Rena for anyone interested in […]
Owhiro Bay
For years I have been saying that Owhiro Bay is my favourite dive site and that I have done 100’s of dives here. It turns out I was lying or at least exaggerating. A count of my logbook earlier this year showed I had only done 197 dives here since I started diving in 1997. […]
Poor Knights – March 2014
Cyclone Lusi move over we are coming North! Not even the weather could dampen our spirits as we prepared for our live aboard trip to the Poor Knights with Oceanblue Adventures. While some chose to fly north the rest of us piled into the car and headed to Taupo for our first dives on the […]
The Mikhail Lermontov
This Russian Cruise ship sunk on the 16th of February 1986 as she tried to take a short cut between a rock and a hard place. The crew tried to reach safety along the beach in Port Gore but the ship settled back down into the bay. Of the 740 passengers and crew aboard only […]
A week diving and exploring the Mikhail Lermontov…
Laying in Port Gore in the Marlborough sounds is a wreck like no other. Sitting in 36m of water, you can find the resting place of the 176m cruise liner the Mikhail Lermontov, the largest wreck in the Southern Hemisphere. The Lermontov sank on the 16th February 1986, from damage sustained to its port side […]
Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures
Can you ever learn enough about diving? I don’t think so, so I decided to take a move to the dark side – the era of long hoses and dressed all in black – and something to do with a Blue “H”. What was I letting myself in for? After my divemaster training I thought […]