Trip Report : Two tones of Awesome!

In short – this morning I am shattered.
I am sitting at my desk with a cup of coffee wondering how I can increase my caffeine load even quicker.  But I have a great big smile on my face and I had one of my best weekends in a long time.

I was scheduled to complete the four Open Water dives for an Open Water course this weekend however as it turns out, another instructor took those dives and I ran around to pack all my equipment quickly and headed up to Tutukaka with Andrew and Ritchie to spend the weekend on Pacific Hideaway pleasure diving at the Poor Knights Islands.

Dive One – Northern Arch

Northern Arch is quickly becoming one of my favourite spots.
This dive was okay for me – I was pretty comfortable in my equipment but I think I should have left the camera on the boat – mainly because I now know I wasted my battery on some pretty crappy shots when what I should have been doing is just sitting in the archway watching all the fish go by.
Lord Howe Coralfish were chasing each other up and down the walls and there were Pink Maomao absolutely crowded everywhere in the arch.  Cruising around the walls, I came across quite a few small grey moray eels.  Even on this first dive it was rather apparent that spring is in the water and there is a lot of mating going on.

Dive Two – Landing Bay Pinnacle

Marty and I were going to swim over and dive the entrance to Taravana Cave but the sunlight was on the pinnacle so we altered the dive plan and descended down to 36m.  We stayed in the sunshine for quite a while.  I found a very photogenic clown nudibranch on a piece of orange sponge and stayed with it for ages.  Marty was down below me playing with a Splendid Perch …. and releasing bubbles into all my shots!

I spent quite a bit of time at depth and watched my computers closely.  It was on this dive that I noticed how conservative my Mares Nemo is as opposed to my new Suunto Vyper Air.  The no-decompression limit on the Vyper is slightly longer but it also normally registers two metres shallower than the Nemo does.  As I got around the other side of the Pinnacle and back to the line, Nemo gave me two minutes of decompression – my first two ever! – wheres my Vyper had now.
Marty had 13 minutes of decompression to clear so we hung around the line in the sunshine and I thought about my trim and held my depth +/- 1 metre for over 10 minutes.
I was also trialling a pair of Scubapro Jetfins this weekend so I back-kicked and helicopter turned my way around the line.  I love my Aqualung Slingshots but I find the Jetfins easier to turn and back-kick in.

Dive Three – Riko Riko Cave

Andrew, Ritchie and Greg were dropped off on the western side of the cave entrance and Marty and I jumped over on the eastern side.  It was dusk and it was the perfect time to be in the water with the last of the days sun on the outside walls of the cave.  We decided to keep our dive nice and shallow as we had completed a decompression stop on the previous dive.
As we swam into the cave,  the sun went down and we could hear the boat passing over our heads and anchoring in the cave to set up for the night.  I cruised along in front finding bits and pieces and just having a grand time with my torch – feeling very very comfortable with the double tanks on my back – occasionally reaching back to complete a check on whether I could reach my valves and trying to stay absolutely flat and in the best trim that I could.  Half way into the cave, I shone my torch at something coming towards us – a carpet shark.  By this time, Marty was next to me so we both hovered and watched it come towards us and then back down into the depths of the cave.
I later found out that Marty had seen it already – it had passed over my head while I had my face stuck in the wall.

We reached the back of the cave and I mooched around for a little while – at around 80 mins and in 8m of water, I decided it was time to ascend, use the ladies room and have a glass of wine.  Thank goodness for Keith – well done that man, he brings the BEST wine and had a glass waiting for me before I had even stepped out of my drysuit.

We spent the night in Riko Riko Cave.  There were massive lamb shanks for dinner – I mean massive!  Andrew tried to go back for a third one but even he decided as he started his third that it was a bad idea.  There was a fair bit of wine consumed and I now find some interesting photographs on my Nikon.
I have left these over on my other site – in the alternate tone Trip Report.

Dive Four – Ngaio Rock

Early light shone on Ngaio Rock and it was all go on the back deck as divers scrambled to get in the water.
The original dive plan was to check out the rock and then head out over the reef spur to Magic Wall.  The actual dive was more like head to the rock, spend 80 mins at less than 18m and then head up for a cooked breakfast.

There were loads of yellow morays and a controversial speckled or mosaic moray too.  No one got a photo of it so the jury is still out on that one.  We met Andrew and Keith coming around the rock and spent some time hovering around with them.
Nudibranchs were all over the place – and I found a Cadlina Willani for Marty and Ritchie.

Dive Five – Great Wall

Mark again placed us in the sunshine.  With The Gardens or Great Wall to choose from, we did parts of both.
Francois came down with us for a while with his camera so I set about finding bits and pieces for him.  A very inquisitive Yellow Moray and a beautiful Gem Nudibranch were first on the list.  He took some video of the Yellow Moray as it was rather active.  After he went up, I dropped over the side of the wall and met up with Marty and found another tiny Cadlina Willani.

I came across Ritchie while cruising around the bay of a bay near cave.
Ritchie had a little motto (“I f**ked it”) shall we call it for the weekend; and he made the included motions with his camera which caused me to nearly lose my reg.  In return, I found a very cool black and red triplefin for him.

Dive Six – HMNZS Waikato

A fitting end to the day was descending down to the HMNZS Waikato with Alex and her student Simon who was writing an article for Fishing Coast to Coast on his learning to dive experience.  Marty had changed his lens over to wide angle to get some requested photographs of the wreck and to try and get one of Simon on his last dive.
The visibility was pretty bad but I dont mind.  What I like about wreck diving is the outside of the ship and the spookiness so this was perfect.

There is so much more that I could write – I think I might save a bit more for the other report.
Suffice to say, this was definitely the best weekends diving I have had in a very very very long time!

Dive Data

Dive One @ Northern Arch
|| Depth : 30.2m |  Time :  71 mins |  Used Gas : 113 bar | Temperature : 15 degrees
Dive Two @ Landing Bay Pinnacle
|| Depth : 35.7 |  Time : 58 mins |  Used Gas : 89 bar |  Temperature :  15 degrees
Dive Three @ Riko Riko Cave
|| Depth : 11.9m |  Time :  72 mins |  Used Gas : 76 bar |  Temperature : 15 degrees
Dive Four @ Ngaio Rock
|| Depth : 20.5m |  Time :  72 mins |  Used Gas : 83 bar |  Temperature : 15 degrees
Dive Five @ The Gardens / Great Wall
|| Depth : 16m  | Time : 86 mins |  Used Gas : 97 bar |  Temperature : 15 degrees
Dive Six @ HMNZS Waikato
|| Depth : 21.6m  | Time : 49 mins  |  Used Gas : 74 bar | Temperature : 15 degrees

PADI Specialty Instructor Ratings #2

This morning the package arrived.

The package with not only my certification cards – but certificates for each one as well!