The day started early for me (Tom) -- alarm at 5:30. Out of the room with a cuppa at 6:15. On the way to Tutukaka to catch a boat to the Poor Knights Islands for SCUBA. It is a bit difficult negotiating the sharp curves in the dark with coffee in your hand. The GPS took me on a path that we had traveled two days before for part of the way. Then she (Gypsy) took me on the road less traveled. Once she started me down a gravel road that quickly dropped to one lane. Back up and try again. Then she took me on another gravel road -- this one much better -- smoother and two lanes. Along the gravel the sun started to rise over the hills (the picture above).
After 2 hours on a hour fifteen min. trip, I finally arrive in Tutukaka and find Tutukaka Divers -- almost on time. Steve checks me in and issues the equipment that I didn't bring.
A little rough beating into the wind on the Calypso. Light winds and 3' swells.
This cute young blond, Claudia, is our dive master -- and a good one too.
My neighbor Ben offers to take my picture on the boat.
Our motley crew. Ben (form the UK), his son Joe (from Auckland), and Roz (my dive partner from the UK), and Art -- not sure where he's from.
Arriving at Poor Knights Islands the seas smooth considerably as we get in the lee. Unfortunately, I don't have an underwater camera. The first dive was at Mid Arch on the western side of the Islands. We were down about an hour with a maximum depth of about 60ft. The diving is quite different from the Caribbean -- cold water, no coral, a few tropical fish. But it is beautiful -- very clear, volcanic rocks, lots of kelp. When you shake the kelp, hundreds of small fish come out. There are some tropical fish that come down from the Great Barrier Reef on the Eastern Australian Current (EAC). They must make the long trip on the current since it is too cold for them to reproduce in NZ.
On our surface interval, we cruise around a little. We go into the largest sea cave in the world called Rico Rico (means shimmering water for the light reflected off the water on to the roof of the cave).
The Poor Knights are volcanic Islands. The walls dropped straight down to and below the water.
Our between dives history, geography, and dive briefing.
"Trevor rock"....whoever Trevor was, hit this rock at high tide with his boat. That's all you have to do to get a rock named for you. Our second dive was here. Around the rock and through a shallow arch. Claudia and I were the only ones who finished this dive.
One of the two arches we went through
A view from the "other side"
The second one is the largest arch in the southern hemisphere.
A little cool on the ride back. A nice dive boat with plenty of room this time of year.
Much smoother going back with a tail wind. A look at Poor Knights Island from a distance gives a clue to one of the theories about the name. They say it looks like a knight laid out after death -- Poor Knight. There are a lot of theories of how Capt. Cool came up with the name.
Dives end. The trip back was much better off the back roads -- 1.5 hours this time.
While Tom was away for 12.5 hours, Kathy blogged, read and walked down to the beach.....slept and read some more on a park bench (no one to take my picture, but the seagulls were in ATTACK mode!) Browsed around town....advertised only 3 shops, but there were many more.....went back to the same park bench, but this time there more people so the gulls let me be....
Since our arrival, we thought Inge was German.....wrong...just noticed the Swedish flag which flies high above our property.
Just a very short walk down the hill, Tito's offered the first lamb chops we have seen....and they were mediocre....still not as good as Tom grilled in Golden Bay.
