Great Barrier Island/Report on Poor Knights

[SeaTurtle42]

A friend and I are going to Great Barrier Island in a few weeks, but I have never dived there. My friend is a fairly new diver with no experience diving in cold water since getting certified on a nice tropical Pacific island (talk about lucky). Does anyone know a good dive centre there? And is the diving fairly easy for new divers? I know, I'm an instructor and I can look after her, but I'm not familiar with the area myself and wouldn't be comfortable with this.
Secondly, I went up to Tutukaka a few weeks ago and did a dive with Dive Tutukaka! on Poor Knights and I just wanted to report back that it was amazing. The dive centre is very modern, organized, and professional. We had a fantastic guide, Will, who really knew his stuff. The rest of the crew were very pleasant and I have nothing but positive things to say about this company. Of course, since I only live a few hours away, I might go back and try other companies just to check out what others offer.
Cheers for any tips I get back.

 

[Andrew Jones]

Hey fellow fish...

I was just looking for someone in the New Zealand Thread and noticed this one.

great to here your coming over here for some diving. Good One

Cheers Andy

 

[alijtaylor]

A friend and I are going to Great Barrier Island in a few weeks, but I have never dived there. My friend is a fairly new diver with no experience diving in cold water since getting certified on a nice tropical Pacific island (talk about lucky). Does anyone know a good dive centre there? And is the diving fairly easy for new divers? I ....

Hi
I was on Great Barrier Island a couple of weeks ago but with non-divers so was not looking to get underneath the surface. There are no "dive centres" but there is a filling station at Tryphena and boats that you can charter. I think the diving covers a wide spectrum from simple to more advanced. I suggest you checkout this NZ forum you may get a quicker response www.scubadive.net.nz • Index page. I saw a positive report on diving Great Barrier Island somewhere recently but can't remember the details, or where I read it..

Alison

P.s Andy - Great Barrier Island is off the Coromandel Coast in NZ - confusing I know..

 

[Azza]

Sorry never dived there myself (except from mainland based boats on day trips) but you can also try the SODS forums.

The Southern Ocean Diving Society (SODS) are a club with an open forum and full of Kiwi divers that have dived all over.
Actually Flipper's brother lives on GB Island so give him a tinkle through the SODS forum and he will be able to give some good advice.

 

[alijtaylor]

Here is the link to the trip report from Great Barrier Island I referred to above but couldn't find. It is for a liveaboard out of Port Fitzroy.

www.scubadive.net.nz • View topic - great barrier island trip with Pacificdive

Alison

 

[DiveDiva_Rach]

A friend and I are going to Great Barrier Island in a few weeks, but I have never dived there. My friend is a fairly new diver with no experience diving in cold water since getting certified on a nice tropical Pacific island (talk about lucky). Does anyone know a good dive centre there? And is the diving fairly easy for new divers? I know, I'm an instructor and I can look after her, but I'm not familiar with the area myself and wouldn't be comfortable with this.
Secondly, I went up to Tutukaka a few weeks ago and did a dive with Dive Tutukaka! on Poor Knights and I just wanted to report back that it was amazing. The dive centre is very modern, organized, and professional. We had a fantastic guide, Will, who really knew his stuff. The rest of the crew were very pleasant and I have nothing but positive things to say about this company. Of course, since I only live a few hours away, I might go back and try other companies just to check out what others offer.
Cheers for any tips I get back.

Hey Seaturtle

There isn't a dive centre on GB Island but it does offer some great diving (so I'm told - I have not yet dived there myself ). There is a thread in our forum (the one ajtaylor mentioned) about a company called Pacificdive (click here to read it) and then feel free to sign up and ask away!

Great to hear you got to dive with Dive! Tutukaka too - IMHO they are one of the best dive charters around and their staff are extremely knowlegable. When I first dived with them in August last year, I was blown away by Craig's environmental dive briefing - it really added to the whole experience for me.

Have an awesome time whatever you decide to do!

Rachel

 

[SeaTurtle42]

Hey everyone. Thanks for all the info. The diving was brilliant on Great Barrier Island. I'd highly reccomend it to anyone. We ended up just renting some tanks and doing our own thing, but it was easy and safe.
Thanks again!