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Trip Reports
Scuba Saturday Dive Report
03 years ago
this just in from your dive supervisor …….
we had to wait for bloody ages for grant to arrive and open up the shop and we were all raring to go just after 8am. when i woke up this morning and peeped out the windows, it was a bit bleary and it was still misting with rain but heading to the shop, the clouds were breaking to the north and there was a lovely colour in the sky … blue i think we call it.
we made it out of the shop pretty quicky and blam .. it was off to the matakana bakery.
the tide was rather low
when we arrived at matheson bay, the wind was nowhere near what i thought it would be. it had almost died right off but the tide was a hell of a lot lower than i expected it to be. we were going to get 4-6m in the channel if we were lucky! but the plan to descend down into the channel and swim our little selves around the island still sounded bloody good and with the tide that low was totally achievable. i had issued a bounty on a octopus – or two.
we unpacked the cars and got all the tanks and gear out on to the grass and once people made themselves familiar with the area – alex and i got stuck into our dive briefing. we nearly missed the first aid bit!! silly tarts considering we had just placed the emergency action plan with the telephone numbers for DES, the Leigh Fire Station and 111 (ahahaha) in alexs car window but a little prod from colin helped us along a bit.
divemaster alex carries tanks and organises everyone getting ready to gear up
whos got new gear? petes got new gear!
once we geared up, we made our way down to the beach and walked through the sand and started our weight checks. we had a bloody good number of divemasters in relation to newer divers! dropping down into the channel however – many divers = mass silting and bad visibility!!
pete and i took off to the south and started our own mission around the island. he had new gear and i wasnt in a rush – we got a whole 5 meters of depth but made it the entire way around the island – seeing trevally, red moki (but no crayfish), clown nudibranchs, lots of jewel nudibranchs including the biggest i have EVER seen and a baby baby brittlestar. we got around the island and i popped up in the channel almost in the same spot that we descended.
we all snorkled back to shore in drips and drabs and after a surface interval, we were all off again. of course, after a little non-age appropriate humour from alex (watch out young tommy).
we decided to descend on this side of the channel and to head around the rocks and then off to the left. after 3 mins of seriously bad visibility – bottom stirreruperers! – i led pete back the other way and we explored some rocks and some kelp and waited for it to subside. once we turned around again, we crashed into colin who loves pointing things out with his torch. so more clown nudibranchs than you can shake a stick at, some poor brittle star that someone kept turning upside down and a nice swim through back into the bay. plus .. shock horror .. jewel nudibranchs having it off in the bay!!! pete and i swam almost back to the beach but when my knees kept hitting sand and my tank was on the surface, i thought it was a good time to stand up.
not all of the group did the second dive – but it was definitely the better of the day. and we got more depth than the first dive. just!!
dive stats;
dive one – air in 180bar / air out 140bar – 4.5m for 34mins
dive two – air in 140bar / air out 60bar – 5.5m for 46mins
next scuba saturday will be in two weeks and we havent quite decided where – either jones bay or army bay.
EDIT : scuba saturday #2 will be a scallop dive at jones bay.
Team Testicle Munchers
03 years ago
Sunday was Annas birthday so Marcia headed up to Auckland on Saturday afternoon and we hung around the shop whilst Grant buggered around with the filter on the compressor so he could then top up my tanks.
We were standing at the counter, tapping our toes, waiting to pay when the moment arrived and I swooped in.
Grant looked up and said something to the effect of .. “hmmm Tara Testicles” … WTF?? then he looked over at Marcia and said “and Marcia Muncher, haha Testicle Munchers!” Oh dear.
Marcia Muncher
We jumped in our cars – Marcia has the HOTTEST new Audi A3 and shot back to my place to throw the last of my gear in her car and we were off! Hooning up to Tutukaka was loads of fun. Marcia drives just like I do … and has Air Supply in her music collection just like I do. We were singing sqwaking away at the tops of our voices and Nell should think herself very lucky that we just managed to stop ourselves from leaving voicemail messages for her to pick up when she woke up.
We (Anna, Andrew, Skip, Lee, Marcia and myself) were staying with Noel and Jo for the night and then planned to go out on the “Arrow” with Yukon Charters for the day. So we arrived in Tutukaka and Anna said they were at the Fishing Club. Of course. After a days diving, there is no better place to ‘off-gas’ than the Fishing Club. Cheap beers, old style bar leaners, packets of chips to munch on – choice! We had a couple of drinks with the others that were out diving that day and then headed up to Noel and Jos for burgers and more drinks.
Coffee and Camera at dawn
Jo had gone bananas!! There was food for Africa! She had even organised a delicious carrot cake with cream cheese icing for Anna and combine that with the wine and daylight savings and we headed off to bed about midnight. No one wanted to miss the next days diving.
We woke up and the wind had died down and the sun was trying its hardest to burn off the clouds and after tea, coffee, toast, peanut butter, jam …. and the organising of cameras, we headed down to the Marina. Arriving at the boat, there I saw one of the Project Managers I used to work with at Vodafone – amazing who you crash into around these parts.
Out to the Knights we went and the first site Noel took us to was Bird Rock. I love diving Bird Rock!
Skip (Red Beanie), Lee and Andrew (back to us) getting ready and gearing up with Jos help (on the right) at Bird Rock, Poor Knights Islands
Both Marcia and Anna were diving with their cameras and as I had my new BCD on and am still getting used to the DUI dry suit, I was going to play spotter. We dropped down the anchor line and onto the rockformations on the eastern side. We stayed around 20m and had about 10-12m visibility. Not as good as a couple of weeks ago, but good enough. And what was there to see … well! It was a complete nudibranch orgytown. The little buggers have been very busy and the ribbons are hatching. One spot, no shit, there would have been 30 clown nudibranchs. We moved around a little and there were three Spanish lobsters having a face off with a demoseille. Anna gave one a tap on the bum and it got a little shitty but kept its eyes on the demoseille. Honest to god, moving my eyes to the left, we had more Tamja Verconis nudibranchs. We didnt even get around the rock on the part of the dive that I did. About 35 mins into the dive, Anna signalled to me that my tank was bubbling and sure enough, I could hear it. The O-ring had gone. I still had enough air to complete my safety stop, so I ascended and finished on top of one of the rock formations cruising through the kelp looking at the few fish that were around.
Back on board, Andrew and Lee were up from their dive and Noel made me a super-duper Milo (I havent had one in years!). I had a bit of a leak in the suit but no problemo, wearing my Fourth Element, I knew it would dry out soon enough.
We putted down the channel and around to the rocks on the other side of Dutch Cove which is Middle Channel (I think!).
I said to Anna that it looked gorgeous and then Noel stopped and held the site to a vote. Yes! We all said and we geared up.
Marcia had extremely cold fingers after the last dive and so she passed on this one. Anna and I dived together. I was so overweighted!! Kicking like mad and diving like a numtie but we did a 50 minute dive and it was beautiful. More nudi madness and some eels too!
Such a great day and I hope Anna enjoyed her birthday as much as I did.
