Diving Poor Knights Island
Hello again. It is 6 pm on Wednesday, March 14. We left Taipa yesterday morning and headed south again and will be spending our 2nd night here at the Tutukaka Coast Motor Lodge in Ngungaru.
The first stop was in a small town that had a barber shop and Bob got his long locks (nose, ear and eye brows plus beard) trimmed and we just had to try out the local bakery.
For a bathroom break we headed down the street to their "world famous" public toilets. They don't call them washrooms here, that would be the laundry.
On one tee Naomi had the best drive that I have ever seen her do, great distance and straight down the fairway. Her followup shots maybe not so memorable....as were most of mine.
Definitely not our best game but still had a great time...beats shovelling snow!
Our next challenge, and that's what it turned out to be, was to find our motel for the night. We finally stopped and asked for directions and the lady was nice enough to drive ahead of us and to indicate where we were to turn....boy were we ever turned around!
We did drive past it the first time (thanks to Bob the Navigator) but we made it ok but were too late to find any thing to eat restaurant wise. So back in the car and we went another 3 km to the Tutukaka Marina and dinner at Schnappers on the waterfront.
Attached to the restaurant was our dive shop, Dive Tutukaka so now we knew where to go in the am.
Up before 6 am and we whipped up a quick lunch and out the door. Lots of divers and snorkelers showed up and paper work done, gear stowed and off we went on the Calypso.
Jacques Cousteau dove this place in the 70's and put it in his list of the top 7 places to dive in the world. Incidently his ship was also called the Calypso.
The group of islands that make up this area was once a huge underwater volcano that was about 28 square kilometers and blew up about a million years ago so the islands are mostly volcanic rock.
The islands were once inhabited by the Maori but they met an unfortunate end and now the islands are sacred and can not be accessed by the public. Today we had two Entomologists on board (insect biologists) who were doing field studies on the biggest island.
Not only are the islands sacred, the flora and fauna are very unique and need to be preserved and protected from invasive species, such as the Possum. The biologists found a species of wasp not native to the islands, possibly blown over from the mainland, and are considering how to eradicate them.
Just like on land where we see, to us, nontropical trees and plants mixed in with tropical ones, the same is below the surface. Because of the warm current off of Australia ( the EAC, which is the same one that Nemo rode) sometimes intrudes into these waters brings tropical fish into the area.
The whole area, above and below the water, has been declared a Marine Preservation area so no fishing which means a whole bunch of fish!
We did 2 dives and saw 3 different types of rays, saw about 4 different colored Moray eels plus Kingfish, Snapper, Trevalli and some huge Scorpion fish to name but a few. The best part was the kelp forests...it wax a totally different dive than we've ever done. The hardest part was getting into the 7 mil full body suits complete with hoods...this was the coolest water temp that we've ever dove in. It takes skill to both get in and out of those suits....we need more practice for sure! I think we put on a show for the boat crew as we (Bob) grunted and strained to get suited up (lol).
Now I am going to add a pile of shots taken on our dive.
Here is a couple of shots of our home for 2 nights.
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| Bamboo on side of the road.... |
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| And a type of NZ fir on the other side of the road |
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| We saw lots of these giant cedar hedges, we think they planted to provide wind protection for the vineyards, Avocado and Olive orchards |
The first stop was in a small town that had a barber shop and Bob got his long locks (nose, ear and eye brows plus beard) trimmed and we just had to try out the local bakery.
For a bathroom break we headed down the street to their "world famous" public toilets. They don't call them washrooms here, that would be the laundry.
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| I'm not sure about the world famous part but it was interesting...can't say anything about the women's side We detoured yesterday to stop and play 18 holes at the Northland Golf Course outside of Kamo. They had their golf club playing in the morning that day so we waited a bit and got on and had the course to ourselves after lunch. |
Definitely not our best game but still had a great time...beats shovelling snow!
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| Just like the roads...the golf paths and bridges are narrow as well |
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| This is NOT a set-up shot...actually happened. Hardest part was cutting down that stupid tree |
Our next challenge, and that's what it turned out to be, was to find our motel for the night. We finally stopped and asked for directions and the lady was nice enough to drive ahead of us and to indicate where we were to turn....boy were we ever turned around!
We did drive past it the first time (thanks to Bob the Navigator) but we made it ok but were too late to find any thing to eat restaurant wise. So back in the car and we went another 3 km to the Tutukaka Marina and dinner at Schnappers on the waterfront.
Attached to the restaurant was our dive shop, Dive Tutukaka so now we knew where to go in the am.
Up before 6 am and we whipped up a quick lunch and out the door. Lots of divers and snorkelers showed up and paper work done, gear stowed and off we went on the Calypso.
Jacques Cousteau dove this place in the 70's and put it in his list of the top 7 places to dive in the world. Incidently his ship was also called the Calypso.
The group of islands that make up this area was once a huge underwater volcano that was about 28 square kilometers and blew up about a million years ago so the islands are mostly volcanic rock.
The islands were once inhabited by the Maori but they met an unfortunate end and now the islands are sacred and can not be accessed by the public. Today we had two Entomologists on board (insect biologists) who were doing field studies on the biggest island.
Not only are the islands sacred, the flora and fauna are very unique and need to be preserved and protected from invasive species, such as the Possum. The biologists found a species of wasp not native to the islands, possibly blown over from the mainland, and are considering how to eradicate them.
Just like on land where we see, to us, nontropical trees and plants mixed in with tropical ones, the same is below the surface. Because of the warm current off of Australia ( the EAC, which is the same one that Nemo rode) sometimes intrudes into these waters brings tropical fish into the area.
The whole area, above and below the water, has been declared a Marine Preservation area so no fishing which means a whole bunch of fish!
We did 2 dives and saw 3 different types of rays, saw about 4 different colored Moray eels plus Kingfish, Snapper, Trevalli and some huge Scorpion fish to name but a few. The best part was the kelp forests...it wax a totally different dive than we've ever done. The hardest part was getting into the 7 mil full body suits complete with hoods...this was the coolest water temp that we've ever dove in. It takes skill to both get in and out of those suits....we need more practice for sure! I think we put on a show for the boat crew as we (Bob) grunted and strained to get suited up (lol).
Now I am going to add a pile of shots taken on our dive.
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| Cory and Tony: Toilet Unplugger and Barf Bag Specialist (those are their secondary duties, primary duty is to keep us safe underwater and help us have a great dive experience...very much appreciated) |
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| Getting closer to departure |
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| Nice collection of boats! |
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| The Calypso, our home for the day |
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| Here comes the Sun, gonna be a great day out on the water |
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| After roll call was done I asked everyone on board if they would be okay with their picture being on the blog ...no one ducked and hid... |
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| Our Captain Julie, one of 4 female captains on staff. The dive shop had 8 dive and snorkel boats. |
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| Those distant rocks are part of the original volcano that was here at one time |
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| Cory, Naomi and Don, who is from the state of Mass...ets (sorry Don, I'm not sure how to spell it!) |
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| This our 2nd dive site. The snorkel tour group was already on site and we will be joining them soon but first we will be visiting a cave. There are over 50 dive sites around the islands and usually the weather and waves dtermine where we dive |
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| Another hole in the rock |
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| The rock above the cave, shows a fissure or crack that the water can begin the slow process of erosion |
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| That little cove in the back is where a dead whale got washed up to and it's bones can still been seen at the bottom |
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| Bit of a tight fit but in and out with scratches |
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| Now to join the snorkelers |
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| Stopped here to have an early supper |
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| The last view of Tutukaka Marina as we head back to our motel |
Here is a couple of shots of our home for 2 nights.
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| This the type of plug we encountered first in Fiji then again here in NZ. Each outlet has its own on/off switch plus the voltage is 220 here so we are using adapters. I already blew the power cord on our hair trimmer, hence stopping for Bob to get a haircut |
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| Our suite at the Tutukaka Coast Motor Lodge, kinda messy as we were planning for the next few days of our trip further south. The next stop is to Warkworth to revisit a special type of store That's our update for today...gotta hit the road as driving south below Auckland today. Cheers! |
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