1 May 2010

From the Dive Log of a recent customer..... 

It was early Sunday morning the sun was shining and there was a crisp but gentle sea breeze in the air. As we loaded the boat Tairua Dive, there were lots of nervous but excited divers chatting about what the day may bring. For some it was the last dives before they would become qualified divers.

Loading complete we all piled onto the boat were we awaited our next instructions. Brenda informed us that Slipper Island which lies just off the coast of Tairua was only about a 15 minute trip. We were at our dive site known to Delphinus Divers as The Tabletop in no time. The anchor was dropped in a depth of 10 metres. Brenda our skipper gave us a dive brief on the site and made sure we were all in our buddy pairs. We entered with a backwards roll and I must say that if I wasn’t awake before I was now. The water was clear and crisp at a barmy 18C. Upon descending we were surrounded by a school of blue maomao. Wow what an awesome sight to see only a few seconds into our dive. The visibility was a good 15 metres which is average for Slipper Island at this time of year.

We set out on our dive with catching crayfish as our aim, so in amongst the seaweed we went to find some big cracks and crevasses were the crays normally linger. Here we also came face to face with a number of yellow morays that were going about their business, but at the same time giving us the eye. I was amazed at the amount of fish life we saw as we progressed through our dive, from the little snapper to the rat kingfish, we also saw a number of Red Moki that were grazing in and around this area. I also saw a Marble-fish which was a major bonus for me as I had never seen them in this location before.

Three quarters of the way through our dive we became more interest in the amount of fish and other aquatic life that were all around us, so the crayfish hunting was put on hold. It felt like the dive was over before it had even begun. One last look around before starting our ascent due to a well used tank needing to be changed. Back on board Brenda had a hot cupper brewing, so we enjoyed a hot cupper and chatted with the other divers about the dive. After the cuppa tanks were changed ready for the next dive.

As a group we decided that we would not change sites as we all wanted to go back and dive the Tabletop. Thanks must go to Brenda and Steve from Delphinus Divers for the great day I had aboard their boat Tairua Dive. I for one will be back soon for more great diving.

20 November 2009

We've got awesome conditions for diving right now.  The offshore winds are giving us fantastic visibility in close to shore for coastal diving and the warm currents have kicked in around the Aldermen Islands meaning fantastic sea life, visibility and there are plenty of crayfish around too, especially big packhorse crays.

Today we dived North Cave at the Aldermen Islands, followed by Orca Bay.  We had 25m vis - awesome for this time of year.  Local diver Aaron Thomas nabbed a real big packhorse crayfish for the BBQ, and we saw plenty of Tairua's magical sealife.  Top water we also saw seals, dolphins and orca on our way out to the islands!

Here's a few photos from today's trip.

Stingray around the kelp beds.

Mike chilling out mid water taking it all in!

North Cave - just awesome!

Islands from above the water

Watch your fingers!

Azza with his catch of the day!