Diving in Northland
We planned two days of scuba diving north of Auckland before leaving for our trip, one at the Poor Knights Islands and one in the Bay of Islands. First up was The Poor Knights Islands, a marine reserve about 20 kilometers off the coast of the North Island. We had a windy, topsy-turvy crossing out to the islands, and were a little anxious about our first time diving in cold water – 14 degrees Celsius! – but it was a really great day with two fun dives amongst kelp, salps, and lots of colorful plant and animal life. Maybe we’re ready for a day of diving in Monterey?
After the dives that day, we drove further north to the Bay of Islands, and the next day was spent diving there. We had a nice boat cruise by some of the more notable islands in the bay, then got to our dive site in Deep Water Cove, where the decommissioned HMNZS Canterbury was scuttled seven years ago. Here are some photos from our boat tours on both days, hopefully we’ll have some underwater photos/videos soon as well. (Update: Videos below!)
November 19th Update: we found a bit of wifi strong enough to upload the first couple videos! Not much editing has been done here (read: none), so please excuse the shakyness and everything else annoying about these videos. :P
https://youtu.be/UNXrOSm1Q2I&rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0
https://youtu.be/FulxUuJD2P4&rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0
https://youtu.be/gHHQB3AnaxM&rel=0&controls=0&showinfo=0
That shot of Robert Island makes me want to move there. Or Fiji. Either would acceptable. #lockfijirds?
Then you’d apparently only be a couple islands down from the owner of SKY TV in NZ. He owns his own island (or half of it anyways). It has a tunnel that takes you from the beach through the hill to his mansion. So that’s nice…
Yeah I could get behind that
Also: salps are super strange. I can’t figure out if they are related to jellyfish or the big ocean garbage patch. Hm.
Our dive guide thought they were like a big plankton
These pictures are amazing!! Looks like a perfect day
Loving it!!!
Videos! Videos are awesome. And really hard to color-correct.
Also, elisse! Stop using your arms so much! :)
Lol. Seemed like it was harder to float right in that dive site than in some others. Lots of swell around rock features, and we were going up and down a lot. : )