Cyclone Wati threw up a monstrous swell off the West coast of New Zealand and reduced the visibility to zero far out into the ocean. It's a very depressing thing when you can't see the blue line from the shore (saying that, the surf was really up and gave some very solid 3-4m waves to play on).
With the ground swell back to a gentle and occasional pulse it was time to find some cleaner water for a dive. We left Port Taranaki at 8:30am today in the boat "Nitrox" and headed up the coast doing a little fishing en-route. Finally we settled on a spot that we'd dived just the week before but had to abandon due to the cyclone abruptly kicking up adverse conditions.
I kitted up in my dive gear and jumped into the 17C water, did a quick bounce dive to check to see if the site was going to be dive-able and then surfaced to pass on the news that the visibility on the bottom was a variable 3m.
In no time at all I was joined by Ian Swan and Julie Barr, and we set off to explore the reef together. Quickly we found that the visibility was dropping so we all turned about and headed out into deeper water where the better visibility was. Ian and Julie spotted a few crayfish under the lava rock shelves of the reef and began to collect a couple for the dinner table. As agreed earlier, I broke off from them and went exploring some new ground in slightly deeper water. To my delight I found a deep channel with a sandy bottom where the visibility was a good 7-8m in places. Swimming slowly along the channel I came across a large short-tailed stingray lying motionless on the sandy bottom, so without disturbing the sleeping beast, I swam over it and continued down the channel. Deep undercuts lined the walls of the channel system and were peppered with nests of nervous crayfish and swarming shoals of sweep. Small caves, swim-throughs, and archways covered in large orange sponges came and went as I cruised by. By all appearances, the recent storm had not dislodged any of the delicate looking finger sponges and it was business as usual for the fish and other local residents.
Knowing that it was time to head back to the boat I ascended to the top of the channel and crossed over the top of the reef and started back towards the boat. I crossed over lots of deep cuts in the reef until eventually I was back under the boat. I surfaced and was met with a cheery smile from my wife, Irene, who was boatman while we were all diving. A few minutes later, Ian and Julie surfaced and returned to the boat. As we changed out of our dive gear, Irene told us about a possible whale sighting she had while we were in the water.
