Sun 16 Nov:
Boats at Tutukaka
Cousteau rated them among the best 10 divesites in the world. I don’t have his broad experience, but I was pretty impressed with the Poor Knights. We were diving with Dive! Tutukaka and they wanted us at the dive shop to do all the paperwork and kit us out at 8am in time for the boat to leave at 8:30am. Half an hour seemed a bit optimistic to me since neither of us had brought anything more than a swimming costume and a dive computer. But they were incredibly efficient, and everything was done in fifteen minutes, leaving us plenty of time to go and get some of the fantastic New Zealand pies for breakfast.
The skipper did a very thorough yet entertaining briefing and we set off on a 45 minute ride out to the islands. There was a slight pause for us to look at a pod of dolphins, but before long we were at the first dive site, Brady’s Corner.
Since the 2 of us were a little more experienced than some of the others on board, the dive guides were happy for us to dive by ourselves. We kitted up in unfamiliar 7mm 2 piece wetsuits and were soon ready to go. We followed a wall down to 25 metres and within 5 minutes we’d seen 2 stingrays and an eagle ray. The topography was really interesting and the water was pretty clear – much better than Hong Kong, although that’s not saying much. The scorpion fish here are huge, and there are lots of nudibranchs, as well as a large variety of fish, some familiar to us like trevallies and triggerfish, and some not so familiar. Temperature was around 16C., not as bad as I had feared, but considerably colder than I’m used to these days. And my wetsuit was flushing a bit, so I felt it worse than Rita. Or perhaps I’m just more of a wimp.
World's biggest sea cave
While we ate lunch, we got a tour of the islands, including a huge sea cave, which easily swallowed our large boat, and had plenty of room for more boats. Some of the arches were also very impressive. The islands themselves are a marine and nature reserve and no-one is allowed to land on the islands, apart from a few scientists. As a result their isolation species have evolved differently, and insects and plants have grown larger.There is a good section on their biodiversity on Dive! Tutukaka’s website.
There used to be Maori inhabitants until around 1820 when there was a massacre there. Afterwards the islands were declared “tapu”, which means sacred, and they have been uninhabited ever since. Again, you can read more about their history on Dive! Tutukaka’s website.
Second dive was at Jan’s Tunnel. We swam out first to a series of pinnacles, before heading back in to the tunnel itself. This leads inside the island and comes up in an open area where the cave roof has fallen in. On our way back out we passed a massive school of tiny fish hiding in the tunnel. There were also some nice moray eels, goat fish and a large grouper. But the topography was what impressed me the most. Yet again, the temperature was what impressed me the least. The hot soup we had when we got back was very well received.
Underneath the Arches...
On the whole I was very impressed with Dive! Tutukaka, and I would dive with them again. Although I might take a drysuit next time! 2 dives with full gear hire cost NZD 225.
So why are they called the Poor Knights? They were named by Captain Cook, and it may have been because they looked like a dead knight lying on his back. But another theory is that from a distance they apparently resembled a bread-based dish called Poor Knights Pudding, which existed around the time of their discovery.
After we got back from the diving, we drove down to Auckland and stayed at the Parnell Inn, and had dinner at a lovely Indian restaurant in Parnell. Another great day.
