Under full steam

The HMNZS Waikato was built for the New Zealand Navy by Harland & Wolfe Ltd in Belfast. She was the first Leander Class frigate to be built for the Royal New Zealand Navy and was launched by HRH Princess Alexandra on 18 February 1965.
The Waikato and the HMNZS Canterbury served the Armilla patrol during the Falklands conflict, freeing British ships for deployment.

In 2000 the Waikato was sunk as an artifical reef outside Tutukaka in Northland, after she was decommissioned in 1998 and had been stripped leaving her gun turret and one propeller.
During service she carried modern air and surface warning radar and navigation aids along with undersea detection equipment. The ships twin 115mm guns (4.5in) had a long range and a high rate of fire. She also wore two 20mm Orlikeon machine guns on the wings, a quad Seacat anti-aircraft missile launcher, six 12.75m anti-submarine torpedo tubes, one anti-submarine warfare Limbo mortar Mark 10 and a Wasp Helicopter capable of delivering depth charges and the Mark 46 anti-submarine torpedo.
The ships crest features a Taniwha, a water monster and legendary guardian of the Waikato people and their river.

The HMNZS Waikato broke in two a couple of years after her sinking.
One of the Northland storms sent the bow about 12m apart from the stern section – the ship has broken apart just in front of the bridge.

Bow section / Photograph by Pete Mesley

Diving the wreck of the Waikato is relatively easy although she is a deep dive.
The hangar sits in around 19m.  Moving past the hangar to the sand sees you in around 27m.

She is pretty easy to find providing the weather plays ball.
There are normally two buoys on the wreck – one on the bow section and one on the stern next to the helicopter hangar.
She is a large ship, easy to navigate (on the outside for your first few dives) with a lot of interesting features and a lot of growth (as you would expect after 11 years underwater).
Magenta jewel anemones, schooling fish, crayfish all make their home on this artificial reef.

The HMNZS Waikato and her sister ship HMNZS Canterbury are two of my favourite wreck dives that I can visit time and time again and find something new each time.
I regularly take students on their first wreck dive on this ship, whilst on a separate dive with one of my buddies, we can spend an hour on the bottom covering small sections each time.

A piece of New Zealand history underwater, it is not uncommon to find a diver that served on her or knew someone who did.

I would love to hear if you have dived this wreck – let me know what you think.
If you have not, and would like to, let me know.

A recent dive with Deralie on HMNZS Waikato

More information:

Official Website of the HMNZS Waikato Association

Wreck diving with Yukon Dive Charters

Dive! Tutukaka Wreck Diving

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The Rainbow Warrior is a special wreck.

From Wikipedia – Sinking of the Rainbow Warrior:

The sinking of theRainbow Warrior, codenamed Opération Satanique,^[1] was an operation by the “action” branch of the French foreign intelligence services, theDirection Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE), carried out on July 10, 1985. It aimed to sink the flagship of the Greenpeace fleet, the Rainbow Warrior in the port of Auckland, New Zealand, to prevent her from interfering in a nuclear test in Moruroa.

Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned on the sinking ship. Two French agents were arrested by the New Zealand Police on passport fraud and immigration charges. They were charged with arson, conspiracy to commit arson, willful damage, and murder. As part of a plea bargain, they pleaded guilty to manslaughter and were sentenced to ten years, of which they served just over two.

The scandal resulted in the resignation of the French Defence Minister Charles Hernu.

We headed out from Matauri Bay with Paihia Dive.

Myself and my dive buddies almost filled their RIB (rigid inflatable boat) but we are used to working like this, so we shuffled our gear together as close as possible and still managed to fit at least another 5-7 divers who were doing their Advanced Open Water course.
I have to say I was really impressed with how the crew handled us – and our gear – would totally recommend the team from Dive Paihia!!

Dropping down on to the stern – two things caught me by surprise.
The Rainbow Warrior was smaller than I expected.  I knew she was colourful but the amount of colour blew me away.

I spent an hour on her on my first dive (backgas of 21% and a 42% in a stage cylinder) with my 60mm macro lens.
The second dive was a little shorter.
I’d go back again for sure but next time with a wide angle lens.

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Images from by buddies:

Dive One Data ||  Depth: 25.2m |  Time: 60 mins |  Temp: 22 degrees |

Dive Two Data ||  Depth: 23.8m |  Time: 36 mins |  Temp: 22 degrees |

More photographs (wide angle) and a trip report; Martin Wallis Photography – Diving the Rainbow Warrior

Diving the Rainbow Warrior - Martin Wallis

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Pete picked me up on Friday after work and we loaded all my gear in the car and headed up to Northland Dive, to the lodge known as “The Cowshed”.  The Cowshed is famous in New Zealand – not just as great accommodation – for Shane and Julia’s hospitality and for Julia’s cooking.

When we arrived everyone was already there, except for Skip who would be joining us on Saturday morning.
The crew for the weekend was Pete Mes, Andrew ‘Simo’ Simpson, Skip, Copper Phil, GregL, DaveK and DavidH, Glen and DavidF and myself.
Yup – me and 9 guys on a dive expedition!  Julia sorted me out with my own room – bliss

5 rebreathers, 2 sets of twinnies, 3 sets of single tanks.
Then there were 7 stage cylinders.  Plus 7 camera systems and DaveKs video rig.
Yes it did all fit into Sea D Sea – the RIB that we would be using for the next two days – with Shane as our captain and crew.

Saturday morning did not look too bad for our day out.  It took a little creative loading to get all of the above arranged nicely and to allow for 10 bums to be situated on the pontoons but we did it.  And we were off.
It only took around 15 minutes for us to blast our way around to Deep Water Cove from the launching bay and then it was time for the next logistical consideration.
Order of peoples overboard and making sure we had enough room to gear up.  Not a problem!
Rebreather divers first, then myself and DaveH with our twins, followed up by DaveK, DaveF and Glen on single tanks.

I headed over and down with Pete Mes, Phil and Greg.  We were headed to the bow.
Pete had already warned me that he was going to try and get a couple of well posed photographs – and here was my opportunity.  Underwater modelling is harder than it looks!  And I am not only talking about not having a face full of bubbles in each shot.  Face to the camera, chin up, eyes to the side, torch pointed at the dome …… phew.  I like the photograph from the machine gun turret room.

Dive One Details :

Depth : 29.5m  | Time : 60mins  | Temp : 20deg

Dive One

Getting my ass back on to the RIB post dive was a hell of a laugh.
The boys have enough upper body strength, once they have launched themselves out of the water, to then pull themselves up and over the sides of the RIB.  Me, its a whole different ball game.
I can get most of the way up – and then I need to rely on Shane.  Who grabs my shoulders with what seemed like a large laugh in his belly and yanks me into the boat.  Hey, no one ever said that divers were all that elegant on land!!

Once everyone was back on board, we headed to a lovely sheltered beach for Julia’s huge sandwiches.  And by huge I mean that their size was only restricted by the size of the mouth that you were trying to stuff it into.
Scrambled egg, lettuce, ham, tomatoes, beetroot, cheese, cucumber …… oooooh I am making myself hungry again.
After nearly 2 hours on the surface for most of us, we jumped/launched/scrambled back into the boat and headed back to the wreck.  We had it all to ourselves this dive.

I dived with Greg this dive and we decided to head to the stern for a bit of a look.
Andrew and Skip were also down there and heading down into the ship.  I spent some time on the railings – photographing jewel anemones.  There were a lot more growing on the Canterbury than I anticipated given that she has only been down a couple or three years.

Dive Two Details :

Depth : 28.6m  | Time : 54mins  | Temp : 19deg

Dive Two

After dive two – it was wine o’clock!

We headed straight back to the bay, stripped out of our dry suits and back to the Cowshed.
Make sure the rose is in the fridge, rinse the gear, place the tanks in the queue for yummy Nitrox fills, clean up a little and its time for drinks – and log books and checking the schematics and generally talking bollocks.

Pete decided to jump in the stream and take photographs of the super-sized eels.
I think Shane and Julia must have been feeding them Open Water divers.  A couple of these guys are massive!
Either Open Water divers – or the left overs from Julia’s amazing dinners.  Cooked chicken, huge green salad, potato salad, corn on the cob, sausages – washed down with a healthy dose of wine, good dive buddies and silly silly silly conversation.
It was a great night but by about 10pm, I could not keep my eyes open any longer!  I slinked off to bed with a big grin on my face and anticipation for the next days diving.

The next day bought sunshine – and fruit salad for breakfast!
We were ready earlier as all our equipment was in place and we just needed to load the refilled tanks on the boat and our drysuits and camera gear into the car.  Heading down to Te Uenga Bay, the water was flat and blue and we were all excited.

Dive One on Sunday and Greg and I decided to do the stern again.
This time we would spend around half an hour there – I wanted to dive all around the railings from port to starboard and then into the helicopter hangar.  I had planned my dive so I would get around 40 mins of bottom time on the stern before heading to midships and coming up to 20m, switching gas, photographing the crows nest and coming up the line to 9m for about 6mins of deco.  As it was, the plan worked a treat and as I hit 9m, I only had 4mins of deco to finish so I did a 3min safety stop as well – showing DavidH (who had also bought a Suunto Vyper Air) what the deco screen and change gas looked like.

Dive Three Details :

Depth : 29.5m  | Time : 63mins  | Temp : 20deg

Dive Three

Our last dive!  I really wanted to spend the last dive on the bow.
I knew that I would be limited on my bottom time by the dives yesterday, plus my mix was leaner, and I had already completed an hour at around 30m on the previous dive as well as a deco stop.
Plus I really wanted to see if the HD video would come out alright considering we were bathed in beautiful sun – and therefore some lovely ambient light.
We went straight to the bow and I started on the starboard side.  I was pleased with the photographs however the video is a little jumpy.  It was very well suggested that I might need a faster SD card so I will give this a go.  The video is on YouTube and I will embed it below.

Let’s just say, as a summary for Dive Four – in fact the whole weekend – it was so good that I did not want to get out!

I had 14mins of deco to complete when I left the wreck.
After switching to my deco mix, this dropped a couple of minutes however not enough.  I shall be completing my Advanced Deco/Nitrox as soon as possible!!

Dive Four Details :

Depth : 29.8m  | Time : 59mins  | Temp : 20deg

Dive Four

A big thank you to Shane and Julia for their hospitality this weekend.  It was the first time I had made it up to the Cowshed and even though Darryl was extremely rude (just kidding – we had our IE together), I’ll be back sooner rather than later.

And finally a HUGE thank you to Fourth Element Dive Adventures!
The idea of getting people out diving and keeping them diving – well it keeps our industry alive!  If you have not signed up online or joined the SDNZ forum, I suggest you do so.  Its not all about the diving – but you definitely meet some wicked people who will share some fun times with you …. and that makes you get your butt off the couch!

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Te Rawhiti Community announces a Rahui (Temporary Closure) in Maunganui Bay

The purpose of the rahui is to enable seriously depleted fish stocks to regenerate.

Ngati Kuta and Patukeha are the resident hapu at Te Rawhiti.
Under customary lore as kaitiaki of Rakaumangamanga they have a responsibility to uphold the healthy state of their traditional lands & fishery.
The area Maunganui Bay also known as Deep Water Cove was a special fishing area for Maori.

Since the early 1960s Maunganui has suffered from many years of over fishing. Evidence shows gradual depletion of fish in this bay and Ngati Kuta and Patukeha want to rebuild the stocks back into the healthy state as it used to be. Traditional fishing practices allowed fishing for certain species at certain times and in certain places. This kept robust fish stocks available so that enough stock was left to regenerate the species and catchment areas.

Recently Ngati Kuta and Patukeha purchased the Canterbury wreck as their commitment to help restore the fishery. Providing an artificial reef and nurturing the growth of juveniles to restore resident fish populations. It is also a place where unique fish species are found.

Unfortunately some of the public have a different view and see the wreck as an ideal spot to catch fish. It is the action of a few that has prompted local hapu to place a rahui over Maunganui Bay.

The rahui will be in place for two years effective from today.
During that time on-going research will be undertaken to measure and monitor the health of the resident fishery. The rahui will not stop visitors who wish to dive, swim or anchor in the bay, but the taking of fish and shellfish would be prohibited under the community-imposed Rahui.

The commercial dive operators who dive the Canterbury wreck have an arrangement with the owners of the wreck. These arrangements can be extended to any commercial dive operator or dive club. To maintain the role of the Canterbury wreck as a fishery enhancement project, obligations under the resource consent conditions have to be met. The compliance cost of these obligations is derived from a nominal diver surcharge of $10 per diver.

This is an area pristine in nature, being mostly Maori lands that have remained un-spoilt.  The nature, cultural and historic values is special to Maori and it is the desire of Ngati Kuta and Patukeha to keep it that way by putting in necessary protections. It is an integral part of the Northland Nature Tourism product, critical to the economy and to our ‘natural clean green’ image internationally.

This approach is unique. It relies on the Te Rawhiti community, diver interests and public support to make it happen. It is a Maori-led initiative that relies on the self discipline of individuals to do the right thing. We invite you to join us in supporting the rahui and tell your friends,

“You can look but don’t touch”

For more information

Contact: (09) 4037012 for more information or visit our website:   http://www.divethecanterburywreck.com/

Additional information

Ngati Kuta and Patukeha are descendents of the chiefs who have lived at Te Rawhiti for many generations.  We are a coastal people who have lived from the sea. Our community, values, culture and way of life are structured around the fishery and sustainable harvesting. We hold traditional knowledge about the fishery and how to sustain it. We now want to exercise those practices in Maunganui Bay.

Our Vision:
To protect, sustain and enhance the spirit of Ipipiri and all its treasures

Our Values:
Whanaungatanga – relationships
Kaitiakitanga – guardianship
Aroha – love & respect
Tika me te Pono – Integrity
Rangitiratanga – self determination
Nga Taonga Tuku Iho – spiritual & cultural inheritance

Robert Willoughby              Richard Witehira
Ngati Kuta                               Patukeha

http://www.marinenz.org.nz/documents/Rahui%203.pdf

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