Saturday morning kicked off with a gentle offshore breeze. We loaded our gear onto the Dive Tutukaka boat "Bright Arrow" and headed off on the 12 mile journey to the Poor Knights with Luke our skipper for the weekend. The divers onboard were Mary (an Inspo rebreather diver over from the UK), Greg (diving the "Sprayer", a modified Dolphin rebreather), Scott (twinset, normally an Inspo Classic rebreather), Brian (twinset), Ian (twinset), Pete (Inspo Vision rebreather), Simon (Mk15.5 rebreather), Christian (Inspo Classic rebreather), and myself (Inspo Classic rebreather).
Dive 1 - Cream Garden
Our first dive site was Cream Garden on the eastern side of Tawhiti Rahi Island. Ian and myself were last divers to enter the clear 16°C water, but we quickly made our way down the encrusted wall to the sandy bottom at 58m.
Large finger sponges dominated the walls at this depth and extended their reach far from the wall where they gently swayed in the dark blue water. There was a fine mist of descending dust particles that had been dislodged by divers further above us on the wall which were clearly visible and created the backscatter effect (the white splodges) on Ian's photographs.
We encountered many yellow moray and grey moray eels which clung to the wall waiting open mouthed and tightly sprung ready to snatch their next meal.
This yellow moray had it's head in a hole allowing Ian to photograph it's coiled tail.As the dive progressed and we made our way slowly into the shallows for our decompression stops, the life on the wall multiplied tenfold. Colours became more vibrant as the sunlight penetrated through from the surface. A multitude of species of fish swam around us, inquisitively investigating what we might be looking at with our faces so close to the wall.
The highlight of diving Cream Garden has to be the opportunity to be checked out by the resident bronze whaler sharks, but unfortunately, they didn't appear during this dive. The rebreather electronics give out an electrical pulse every time the solenoid fires and this is thought to attract the sharks.
At 6m, I ran my rebreather as an oxygen rebreather breathing 100% oxygen to assist with my decompression and to check that my electronics were functioning within specification (a linearity check). Kingfish and butterfish swam around me playfully as the gentle surge moved the kelp from side to side on the ledge I had stopped on. The dive was over after one and half hours underwater.Dive 2 - Matt's Crack
I skipped the second dive at Matt's Crack (the more politically correct name of Long Cave is often used) but Ian took his camera into the 100m long cave and captured some amazing images. He spent an hour exploring the cave along with the other divers on the boat. The water was crystal clear and the fish life was abundant.
With everyone onboard Bright Arrow, Luke took us back to Tutukaka over the swell free sea. Only wind chop from the blowing westerly stopped the water from being completely flat. When we arrived back in port Ian dropped off his tanks at Dive Tutukaka to get refilled for the next day of diving.---
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (October 14), Luke overseeing an Inspo diver entering the water at Cream Garden. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (October 14), Finger sponges at 55m. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (October 14), Grey moray eel and an orange golf ball sponge. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (October 14), Yellow moray with its head in a hole. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (October 14), A sea star grazing on the wall in the depths. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (October 14), Demoiselles hiding in Matt's Crack. All rights reserved.
Photo Credit: Swan, I., 2006 (October 14), Two-spot demoiselles shoaling in Matt's Crack. All rights reserved.
2 comments:
I wouldn't dive at a place called Matts Crack either!
You're on to it! :o) The old boy's had a bloody good sense of humour when they named that dive site (and the story that goes with it isn’t publishable!)
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