Day and Night Diving

Yesterday I headed up the North Taranaki coast to dive the site of one of the newest marine reserves in New Zealand, the Parininihi Marine Reserve (an area known locally as the White Cliffs). It was a shore dive with Ian Swan that started out as a phone call in the early afternoon to discuss the weather and general sea conditions around the Taranaki coast. As always, I was keen for an opportunity to get wet so I quickly snapped up the chance of diving up at the White Cliffs.

Ian took his quad-bike to transport both us and our dive gear up the black iron sand beach. The wind had dropped back to a gentle breeze and the surface of the sea started to look quite settled with only a slight swell throwing up small breaking waves on the shore. The quad was parked up in the hard sand directly below the cliffs and we pulled on our dive gear. I entered the surf with fins in one hand and the underwater scooter in the other. Waves broke over the top of us as we pushed our way through the maze of rounded boulders until we were deep enough to pull on our fins comfortably. Once we were ready, Ian took command of the scooter and drove out of the white water with me holding onto his fins... what a buzz! :o)

Unfortunately, we soon discovered that the visibility was going to be a problem as it dropped quite markedly as we got deeper. This was indeed quite cruel as the surface water was looking very clear. The occasional fish swam past but it was seen only as a dark blur, so I called to end the dive. Normally this area is blessed with abundant fish life, soft corals and exotic sponges, but there was no way we were going to get to experience them on this dive.


In no time at all we were body surfing back to the beach on the waves. I was given a quick reminder that boulders lay just beneath the surface as I crashed off a few on my less than elegant attempt to get to my feet at the waters edge, even Ian was completely inverted at one point trying to protect the scooter from crashing off any rocks during his exit.

Not beaten, I suggested a night dive in New Plymouth. After dark at 9:30pm, Ian and I jumped into Port Taranaki. The water was a bit on the murky side due to the dredging operation to deepen the main shipping channel into and around the port, but we soon found the clear water lying outside the port. Our torches lit the water up exposing all the nocturnal marine species, with eels skimming just off the surface of the sand and crayfish wandering about over the boulders. The daytime fish just carried on sleeping in the natural shelves created by the many boulders, seemingly oblivious to our presence.

I had agreed with Ian that we were to stay within very close proximity of each other throughout the dive. This was to ensure that neither of us had any entanglement problems on all the fishing line that had been lost by eager fishermen. Because of this close style of diving it’s not unknown to occasionally bump into your buddy. About 30 minutes into our dive, I was aware of Ian being slightly above me and to my right. Whilst I was finning gently forward with my torch held out in my right hand, I felt a downward pressure being exerted on my head and right hand. Automatically I thought that it was my dive buddy passing over me, so I pressed the back of my hand upward to ward him off and position him away from my mask which was being dragged off my face. But then I felt a sweeping motion against my arm and face… almost like a ripple of downward force. To my surprise the light of my torch lit up a white rippling surface just as I realised it was a huge stingray swimming over my back and pushing me downwards with it! Not wanting to get at the wrong end of the stinger in its tail, I turned to my left quickly whilst holding the ray at bay with the back of my right hand. It’s tail slowly passed by me (the stingray held its tail in a relaxed and lowered position) and I immediately recognised the beast. This was a short-tailed stingray that I’ve swum with for the last few years on both day and night dives around this area. What a rush!!!

After following the ray to the sandy seabed, I returned to Ian and tried to explain using wild gestures what had just happened to me, but I could see from his expression that he thought I had gone mad so I left it to the end of the dive to ask if he saw all the excitement… but unfortunately (or maybe even fortunately) he had missed seeing the ray trying to get up close and personal with me.

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The stingray (scientific name: Dasyatis Brevicaudata) that brushed up against me is no stranger to investigating night divers. A few years back whilst out with some students, it swam in from behind and using its immense size pushed us all aside only to rest immediately in front of us on the seabed. It is more than happy to be stroked on its wings and underside when you lie beside it. Sometimes it swims in front of you and expects you to follow it about, even slowing down to allow you to keep up with it.

A couple of pods of orca (killer whales) had moved north along the Taranaki coast merrily munching on the eagle rays and stingrays in the last few weeks, so it’s good to know that this local resident had survived another raid.