NZ Diving - November to January

[Jake Dugdale]

Picking up a camper late November and should be there until mid January. Have been a tropical diver throughout my life but I've heard great things about NZ diving. Have had a look online at recommended dive sites but wanted to see what other divers thought rather than dive shops just plugging their own sites. Any recommendations of sites/shops/must see dives/ or just general non-dive related activities?? Has anyone been lucky enough to see whales on their dives

Thanks in advance

 

[Nettie-NZ]

We have some great diving in NZ. However conditions in NZ definitely aren't warm. The warmest is February, but when you leave in late Jan things hopefully should be getting close to Feb conditions. However a 7mm wetsuit is still recommended.
The Poor Knights is our premier diving location. You can do this as a day trip but I think it's much better as a live aboard for 2 or 3 nights.
Dive Tutukaka are the biggest operator, but being the biggest operator they also have the most people on their boats for day trips. However the live aboard they run is definitely good.
Dive Yukon is a great smaller operator who do both day trips and live aboards - you can't go wrong with either operation.
There are definitely other great dive opportunities as well including the Canterbury wreck and Rainbow Warrior wreck - these are up close to the Bay of Islands.
Something that I thoroughly recommend as a non dive activity is a visit to White Island which is an active volcano. Other must do activities include going to Milford Sound as well as drinking plenty of wine in Hawkes Bay, Marlborough and Otago!

 

[Bert van den Berg]

I live in New Zealand about 3 hours North of Auckland. Not had any bad experiences with five different dive operators. Dive Tutukaka and Northland dive both have accommodations and do a very professional job. Northland dive uses RIBs which are not as comfortable as the larger boats (7 of them) that Dive Tutukaka uses but Northland dive offers the Canterbury war ship as an option. Dive Tutukaka (nicknamed "Tut's") offers the Waikato warship, which is the sistership to the Canterbury and of course The Poor Knights, which is rated in the top ten dive spots of the world. Yukon dive has two nice sized comfortable boats and operate out of Tutukaka marina as well and dive The Poor Knights. There are several smaller operators that work out of the Bay of Islands.

I use Dive Tutukaka more than the other operators because I know all the crew and because of the comfort the larger boats offer. They often split the divers according to their skill level with the more experienced divers going out on the smaller boats to the more challenging dive spots.

Not personally seen any whales while underwater but plenty on top of the water.

I have a few dive videos on YouTube (search Bert van den Berg) of local dives.

Feel free to contact me with any questions.

 

[Flotsam]

Are you going to the North Island? I was on the North Island for 5 weeks in March and did a few days of diving in the Northland. The whole trip was amazing and the diving beautiful! I did two days at Poor Knights and wish I had time for more. Would definitely try to do at least the 2 night liveaboard if you can swing it, there are sooo many sites at Poor Knights to dive. I did a couple days with Dive Tutukaka and their big boat is a bit of a cattle boat, but very smoothly organized with several guides. They break you down into teams of 5 or so and you swim with one guide, spread out time/space from other groups on the site. I think any of the dive operations mentioned (Dive Yukon, Northland) are great. I also dove the Rainbow warrior and a rocky/reef area of Cavalli Islands with Paihia Dive, and would have loved to do more dives in that area. The operation was great, smaller boat/less divers, and that area is gorgeous.

I'm from Florida, so that's the coldest water I've been in, and was only cold on one overcast day (everyone was cold!). Both operations use 7mm suits with a hooded vest underneath and in March the water was 18-19C. The pod of 19 orca showed up 4 days after my last dive...

Snorkeling Goat Island Marine reserve and the Russell/Urupukapuka area was great also! If you are going that far north, Te Paki Sand Dunes is like you are suddenly in the Sahara desert and you can sandboard down 100m dunes

You will have a great time! Enjoy!

 

[judyo1]

A further vote from me for Poor Knights / Bay of Islands area; some very good diving.
Further south in your travels, the Wellington South Coast on a good day (if it's not a good day, give it a miss!) has some great shore diving in the Taputeranga Reserve, in the Marlborough Sounds the Lermentov is a pretty awesome wreck dive and Milford Sound is as spectacular under the water as it is above the water!

 

[lermontov]

A further vote from me for Poor Knights / Bay of Islands area; some very good diving.
Further south in your travels, the Wellington South Coast on a good day (if it's not a good day, give it a miss!) has some great shore diving in the Taputeranga Reserve, in the Marlborough Sounds the Lermentov is a pretty awesome wreck dive and Milford Sound is as spectacular under the water as it is above the water!

If you like wreck diving then Marlborough sounds -dive the Mikhail lernontov check out on utube plenty too see and challenge you

 

[Jake Dugdale]

Booked Milford Sound, organising Poor Knights , Kaikoura and Marlbourough Sounds as well. I heard about a cave dive on the North island that was spectacular??

Thanks

 

[Bert van den Berg]

If you like cave diving then Fraggle Rock at the Poor Knights islands is a challenging dive. There is a YouTube video of this dive here: .

Again at the Poor Knights there is Taravana Cave and Rikoriko cave - the world's largest sea cave by volume.

 

[WetPup]

I'm going to Poor Knights for Christmas

My new 7mm arrived...Time to dive!

 

[Bert van den Berg]

Forgot to mention "Scary" cave, also at the Poor Knights. You can guess about the name.

There are also some smaller tame caves that the dive operators let OW divers into, one at "Middle Arch" with a permanent breathable air bubble at the top about 30 feet down with room for about 3-4 divers to pop their heads into.