A Newbie to the boards - just moved back to NZ

[Joy_C]

Hi there,
I recently just moved back to NZ from the US. I understand that it's pretty much cold water diving here? I don't have much experience in cold water diving, except when I did my OW cert. some 3 years ago...and it was a terrible one.

What's the water temp here in Wellington? What sort of wetsuit should I get? 7mm with a hood?

Oh, and what dive sites are there in my area? Thanks guys.

 

[AndyNZ]

Welcome home!

I was going to say that NZ is more cool than cold water..... then I noticed that you are in Wellington. Yeah, it's definitely cold!!! It will warm up in summer. At the moment, I think the water is hovering around 11 degC, but it can vary a lot day by day as the currents come up from the south. 7mm wetsuit would be the minimum. Personally, I wouldn't dive in Wellington in winter in anything other than a drysuit - but maybe I'm just soft.

There's a really active bunch of divers in Wellington, they do a lot of midweek night dives during winter and most weekends in summer.

Scubaboard has a fairly low number of Kiwi divers on it, a lot of the active Wellington crowd are members of this other forum:

www.scubadive.net.nz

Feel free to drop me a PM, I can give you telephone numbers of some active divers in Wellington who are very inclusive.

 

[Joy_C]

Thanks Andy, will check out the other forum.

 

[Packhorse]

I second the drysuit recommendation. You could do it in a good 7mm wetsuit but if you get a wetsuit instead you will be much more likely to do the dives and enjoy them.

I also second the comment about Andy being soft.

 

[AndyNZ]

I also second the comment about Andy being soft.

No argument here! I've done 5 dives in a wetsuit this year - that's really 5 too many in my book.

 

[flyfishscubadive]

Look up Divechiq. She was my DM when I was there in Feb. She operates out of Auckland, and we dived on Poor Knights Island. SWEET AS!!

JR

 

[marzum01]

I don't know what the water is like in Wellington, but I suppose the coldest I've been diving here near Auckland is around 15 degrees and the two-piece 5mm I have is definitely not enough! Even tried layering with a 1-2mm one piece wetsuit underneath, but didn't help all that much

I've been thinking of trading it in for a one-piece 7mm semi-dry instead because I heard that will hold the warmth better but from the sound of the posts, even this wouldn't be enough for any sourthern part of NZ

As Packhorse said though, not sure if I want to get into the hassles of owning a drysuit so maybe 7mm will just have to do!

 

[Joy_C]

I just went to Kapiti two weeks ago and thought it was not enough wearing a 2-piece 7mm wetsuit....it was about 13 degrees. "Warm" for my fellow divers but WAY TOO COLD for me!!

 

[Packhorse]

I second the drysuit recommendation. You could do it in a good 7mm wetsuit but if you get a wetsuit instead you will be much more likely to do the dives and enjoy them.

EDIT:
What I should have said was
You could do it in a good 7mm wetsuit but if you get a drysuit instead you will be much more likely to do the dives and enjoy them.

 

[Plumb bob]

Joy, You need a Drysuit if your gonna dive year round here.. Well a softy like me does..