Trip Reports

i was pretty sure my ear was going to be fine so AnnaR (who needs a better dive name) picked me up from my house on Friday night and with Keith and Evegeny in the other car, we convoyed up to Ngunguru to spend Sat and Sun diving at the Poor Knights Islands.

how can two girls who are spending the weekend on the boat and under the water have so much stuff?

Saturday morning looked promising and as there were 8 of us, Kate slotted us all onto Bright Arrow with EvanB as our skipper and a couple of the SDNZ guys (justsimon and Aquakiwi) as boat buddies.

We headed off to Cleanerfish Bay where AnnaR and Lindsay were both going to practice their briefings and guiding for their Divemasters course.  We headed off in the direction of the cave first of all and then around the outskirts of the bay.  Anna ascended with AnnaMieke when she got low on air so Shane came with me and we spent more time tootling around til we came across Keith and then all of us hung out underneath the boat and completed an awfully long safety stop  – turns out Keith wanted to hit a 60min dive time!

The second dive of the day was at the entrance to Riko Riko Cave and Keith and I thought we would be stealth.  We geared up quickly and jumped over the side whilst the others were doing their briefings.
We decided we wanted to practice some breathing techniques for Keith to see if we could lower his air consumption and I wanted to cruise along with my camera.

The visibility in the cave was amazing.  I would estimate it to be 25 – 30m.  You could see from one side, across the pinnacle at the entrance to almost the other wall.
I spent most of this dive at about 18-20m where there were a lot of small gorgonian fans on the wall.  When Keith and I crossed the cave, we came across an enormous firebrick starfish and on our way back, we saw a huge speckled moray.  I was soo close to my no decompression limits (I had been yo-yoing as it was) that I didnt try too hard to get down and take a photo of it.
I should have learnt from the dives we did with PeteMes on the wrecks the other weekend – bring on the nitrox I say!!!

Day One Dive Data
Cleanerfish Bay : Depth 17.1m  | Time 65mins
Riko Riko Cave : Depth 21.3m  | Time 60mins

Evegeny, Keith, Anna and I were all staying on to dive on Sunday.
We headed back to the motel and got cleaned up and then back over the hill to Tutukaka for a lovely dinner at Schnappa Rock.  After dinner, we decided it would be rude not to open a bottle (or two) of red wine while we were watching Tom Hanks in Castaway and talking loads of bollocks.

Sometime during the night, the wind whipped up and it blew like 40 bastards.
It was still quite windy the next morning when we headed down to the dive shop to wait for Annas new flatmate Lee, who was to be joining us for that day.  We were going out on Calypso with Craig as our skipper.
We headed out of the marina and as soon as we cleared its calm, the seas got up and the wind howled around us.  Craig estimated 2-3m swells and 25 knot winds so he sent everyone downstairs – where it rolls less and is easier to vomit.  And vomit they did.  I didnt want to sit down there so I stayed upstairs – not completely unscathed mind, I have a massive bruise on my arm.

Finally we made it out to the islands and headed for a calm spot.  Craig moored us just off Marys Wall – a site that I havent dived yet.  We put in requests for the Manta Ray that Rachel had seen the week before and the 10-20 bronze whalers that he had seen yesterday at Cave Bay however in reality, I was just looking forward to getting in the water (and out of range of the smell on Calypso).
There were a lot of unhappy people on the boat – it was a pretty rough trip out – but most of our group were raring to go.
I managed to talk Lee into getting into the water … the old “It will make you feel better line” and he did – and it did.
We dropped down to get comfortable in the water and headed over to the wall.  Which was amazing.  Small gorgonian fans were growing everywhere.

Second dive of the day was up at another spot I have not dived yet – Boarfish Reef just off Shag Bay.
Once again, our crew were raring to go.  We headed off to the corner of the bay to drop down and then spent a wonderful hour cruising down and out along the reef.

The trip home was even more fun!
I asked Craig very nicely if I could drive the boat.  On the way out there, we were discussing how to ride the waves and anticipate the way they might make the boat move.  Now that the seas had calmed down, he handed the wheel over to me.  Awesome.  I am SO getting my skippers ticket.  Although I do have to add that trying to steer Calypso is rather similar to trying to surf the old doors from the Riversdale Surf Club.

Day Two Dive Data
Marys Wall : Depth 22.3m  | Time 44mins
Boarfish Reef : Depth 21.9m  | Time 60mins