Lake Pupuke is a great fresh water dive site on the North Shore in Auckland.
Due to its location – just over the harbor bridge from downtown Auckland- it is often frequented by divers who don’t have boat access to the Auckland Gulf diving. Little or no drive time is also a bonus as well as being dive-able in all weathers. This also makes it popular for other water activities including rowing, wind surfing and sail or row boating so be sure to take a dive flag with you.

The most popular site at the lake for divers is located at Killarney Park.
The park has a theatre, café and toilets situated in the old Pumphouse which is where the North Shore used to get its fresh water supply from. There is ample parking most days but in the school holidays when the theater is running daytime kids shows it can become crowded.

There is a grassy area, which is ideal for gearing up, between the carpark and the lake. There is a jetty for Giant Stride entries or you can do a shore entry from the boat ramp off the grassy slope in front of the carpark.

Approximately 50m out from these entry points is a pink buoy which is anchored to a concrete block in about 8m. This is a good place to start your dive.
You descend down the line onto a concrete pad which covers an area approx 10mx15m. Once you have settled in you can head off exploring.

  The topography is fairly flat with a gentle slope from the shore to about 10m where the slope angle starts to get a bit sharper off towards the deeper part of the lake.  At its deepest it is approximately 60m. There is a weed line (eel grass, ribbon weed or tape weed) which rings the lake extending about 20m out from the waters edge into a depth of about 6m. The local water fowl tend to nibble this down so it will grow to within a swans’ neck reach of the surface.

You can use the slope of the lake for your navigation as you go exploring. By having it slope down to the left and up to the right on the way out from the base of the pink buoy, then rotating 180 and putting the slope down to your right and up to the left on the way back you should be able to find your way along to the ‘Caves’ (a cluster of rocky boulders with indents at the base forming small overhangs) and back.
These are in around 12m.
Alternatively if you head the other way out and back you should come across a grass meadow (chara or nitella) in about 12m or the pipeline in about 7m.

The lake is a fairly murky dive site with average visibility between 3-5m.
This has a green – brown hue. The lake bottom is made up very fine silt which when kicked up or disturbed hangs in the water creating ‘dust clouds’ that take a long time to settle, reducing visibility even further. Frog kicking, good buoyancy control and swimming a different track out and back will aid with avoiding diving through these areas of reduced vis.
If there has been an extended period of rain then the runoff from the surrounding grassy slopes can cause the visibility to drop as well.

The temperature of the lake can get into single figures in the winter months and soar into the high 20’sC in the summer months. There are definite thermoclines in the lake that travel up and down through the year and sometimes you can descend through a couple in one dive depending on the depth you go to.

There are all sorts of wildlife living in and on the lake. Bird life such as Ducks, Black Swans, Geese and Australian Coots are common. You can usually find friendly Pukekos’ on the banks and there are a number of Tui’s present as well.

The wildlife you can expect to encounter underwater includes Trout, Perch, Longfin and Shortfin Eels, Common Bully, Snails and in the right conditions Medusa Jellyfish will bloom in the thousands. There are organised fish releases into the lake for the local fishing fraternity.

Underwater photography by Martin Wallis

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• Global Dive Underwater Olympics 2011
• PADI Open Water – 02/03 May 2009

Staircase / Image courtesy of www.petemesley.com

Yes the Mikhail Lermontov, a 10,000 ton Russian Ocean liner sinking in Feb 1986 has brought sheer pleasure to all those who have ventured to the South Island watery grave.

Sitting in only 35m of water at the deepest spot (12m at the shallowest), this Ocean liner is perfect for any experience level of diver from beginner to hardened rust fanatic!

Pete Mesley heads out to this amazing site a few times a year.

Pete is a veteran to the Lermi with over 180 hours inside the wreck and is happy to show anyone around this massive hulk.

Due to unprecedented popularity, Pete has now extended his trips to 4 days on a fantastic liveaboard vessel – Sweet Georgia which heads out of Wellington.

Not only do you get some world class diving in on the wreck, but also have the most comfortable 4 day “Vacation” you will ever have!!!
The food is second to none and NO-ONE goes hungry!!!!!

You can read all about the controversial history of the “Rusty Rusky” and see one of the most comprehensive photo libraries around of the wreck.

Just follow this link : http://www.petemesley.com/LermontovGALLERY.htm

Spaces on these trips go fast!
And are booked out months in advance.

Pete is running a trip – October 23 – 27.
For more details and some awesome underwater images check out www.petemesley.com

For more information contact us here at the dive shop.

Mikhail Lermontov / Image courtesy www.petemesley.com

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• Global Dive Trip Schedule
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• Photography Liveaboard with Richard Robinson
• Trip Report : Advanced Nitrox and Decompression Procedures

Jim has been operating out of Tairua for the past 30 years and knows the area better than anyone else.
Not only is he a good skipper but a real character.  Jim makes any trip interesting with anecdotes and stories of the area’s past.
Many at first may seem to be eccentric or a little unbelievable but when you experience a moment worthy of a tale first hand you soon realize how true they all are.

The Aldermen Islands are often referred to as the vanishing volcanoes. Hongiora, Ruamahua-iti, The Spire and Ruamahua-nui Islands (from West to East) are mere remnants of a once far larger volcanic complex, consisting of rhyolite domes and associated ignimbrite and breccia deposits.

This group of precipitous, rocky islands was originally named The Court of Aldermen by Captain James Cook as he sailed past in 1769, and from the sea they are certainly are a very imposing sight.
The islands have been protected since 1933, and now constitute one of the most important wildlife sanctuaries in the region. They are administered as part of the Hauraki Gulf Maritime Park.

The Islands themselves are known as the Poor Knights of the Coromandel because of the topography and frequently water clarity.  Dive sights range from the ‘Honey Comb Caves’, ‘Lens Reef’ and the ‘36’ for experienced divers to ‘Ugly Point’ (not so ugly) and ‘Rolex’ for beginners.
Kingies are regularly seen in the area along with almost every other reef fish known to New Zealand waters, even a turtle was recently sighted.

The Aldermens offers an amazing diversity of species without the restraints of a full marine reserve making it perfect for all divers.
All in all well worth the visit.

Tom runs our Global Dive trips to the Aldermen Islandsadn these are usually recommended for advanced/experienced divers.

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• Global Dive Trip Schedule
• Global Dive’s Poor Knights Liveaboard Weekend & Advanced Open Water
• Photography Liveaboard with Richard Robinson
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Anna's beanies make a huge impact

This weekend – despite the yucky weather which saw the Poor Knights liveaboard trip cancelled – we had some brave students, divemasters and instructors hit Lake Pupuke for a PADI Open Water course.

Congratulations to the team who stuck it out on Saturday and were rewarded with beautiful weather on Sunday.

Go Team! Good job - nice dive

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I watched a lone diver in crystal clear water carrying what seemed to be a Kalashnikov machine gun.
He looked up towards the surface and calmly took aim.

Pink Mao Mao at Northern Arch / Ian Skipworth

You can see that it is shallow, perhaps just a few metres, and you can also see the distorted image of a large white yacht and party guests dressed in fine clothes.  Marty is of course amongst the guests at the party.
The diver shoots a pretty young woman in a white dress before making his escape.  Blood oozes from her shoulder and she collapses onto the deck:  the machine gun seemingly having fired a poison dart.
It’s on film,  I saw it with my own eyes so it must be true, the owner of Silent Diving, Mike Fowler, did this not so long ago now and he then came straight to New Zealand to join us for the weekend, thankfully without the gun.
What were his real motives for being here?  Diving, or hiding from the Miami police department?

The trip was organised by Pete Mesley who had arranged for Mike to come over from Canada for a TDI rebreather trimix course (Mod 2&3). John, Jonathan and Andrew were the students and Pete was being accessed by Mike for his certification to teach the course.  The rest of us had come along to keep them company and to enjoy the diving.

Mike chose a rebreather because, of course, the unsuspecting party guest wouldn’t have been able to see, or hear, his approach but as he made his escape he rather incredibly got caught in a very obvious net, in very good visibility and had to discard his expensive rebreather to make a free ascent to the surface from 7m.  Can you guess how the police began to suspect it was him, apart from the fact that his company name was emblazoned on the yellow box?

So many breathers were something of a novelty on the Tutukaka pier and several people enquired about them.  I worked out that in total we had about $200k of kit on board, if you added up the breathers, the cameras and the computers, including Mike’s X1 which is really neat and a must have toy for the boys – you just tap it three times to change menus and then up or down to move through the menus and on the side to select.
It does much the same as a VR3 but it is only about a third of the size, although it costs about the same.
The cameras on board alone must have been worth $30k or so.  I only dive open circuit but I am very tempted to buy a breather, particularly after this weekend, but I have concluded that once you have one you have such long bottom times that you then need to buy a camera, or else you won’t know what to do down there!  Silent diving allows you to get that little bit closer to the subject, or target, as Mike demonstrated so well.

Sugarloaf at 60m / Ian Skipworth

I am a visitor to New Zealand and so haven’t dived the sites before so I was lucky enough to have Pauly guide me for which I am very grateful.
We were lucky with the weather so were able to get to Sugarloaf, which we dived twice and the G Spot where the course did their final 70m dive in near perfect conditions, with crystal clear water and a flat calm sea.  We also dove (I love that word!) Northern Arch twice, The Canyon, Southern Arch, Cream Garden, and Serpent Rock.

With a breather you seem to become less obtrusive underwater.
Pauly and I were doing a safely stop at 5 metres at Sugar Loaf and we watched a large Mako shark glide past Deirdre and Jane ten metres or so below us without even noticing them, fortunately perhaps.  It could have been the same one that Pete saw breach the surface rather spectacularly whilst we were underwater.

Splendid Perch at 12 Fathom Reef / Ian Skipworth

The visibility was good, at times very good, and for me the rays and snapper and clouds of now familiar fish were lovely to see with an occasional splendid perch thrown in.

Deco stop at 12 Fathom - amazing visibility / Ian Skipworth

The TDI course did progressively deeper dives to 40, 50, 60 ad 70 metres and on the deeper dives they saw quite a few splendid perch and black coral as well.  Fortunately Skip was on hand for the deeper dives and we are lucky to be able to see his photographs in this trip report.

For me après diving is as enjoyable as the diving itself and drinks in the Game Fishing Club with 80kg marlin being lifted ashore and weighed behind us was really neat. I thought they were huge but then went into the Club to see the head of the NZ record at 450kg or so and realised they were just babies and arguably should have been released. It all seemed very New Zealand to me.
My ambition is to be a member so that I can get a glass with a white tag on it: one day perhaps.
Rachel joined us on the last night with a pre-publication copy of Richie Kohler’s new book about the Titanic where Mike gets a mention from his last Britannic trip.

Because of the drills being done on the course and the need for open circuit bailouts there was a lot of gas mixing to do each evening and I helped Pete outside Noel and Jo’s home.  It was for me one of the most memorable parts of the trip.  We had some wine, but no glasses, so in the end found an old Hellmanns mayonnaise jar in the garage and Pete and I shared it whilst I filled the O2 and Pete worked the Heath Robinson blending station he had constructed from a compressor, some G’s of O2 and Helium and lots of tubing and a black plastic bag that he filled just like a resuscitation bag, keeping Frankenstein alive.
I have a very limited amount of experience of blending Nitrox and I have no idea how he got the mixes he did with the equipment he had.  It was nothing less than genius.

12 Fathom Reef / Ian Skipworth

Monday was our last day diving and the sea was unusually calm.
On the way home we met a pod of common dolphins who decided to play with us for a while.  At one time kneeling on the bow of the boat I was looking down on 12 dolphins swimming side by side under the bow, no more than three feet away, sliding over each other and jumping clear of the water from time to time.  The clear smooth water making it easy to see them looking up at us: it was lovely.

On two nights we were entertained by Jo and Noel at their house.
Jo is a legendary cook and they are both lovely hosts.  Outside on the wooden deck I could have stayed there dancing all night but I wasn’t doing a course the next day.  The wood stove burning in the corner, helped along by both O2 and petrol, and the dog barking at the flames with the cat purring around our feet.

Everyone passed and had a great weekend.
Mike showed us the clip from CSI Miami with him in it shooting the poor young woman.  It’s from series three and will be out soon in the US.  He also told us how they traced him down in the end but I’m afraid I am not able to reveal the secret until the episode is screened.

A great weekend and a very interesting one. Now where can I buy a rebreather?
Pete, Noel, Jo, Pauly, and my fellow divers, thanks a lot; I am a very lucky tourist.

Divers at 70m / Ian Skipworth

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I moved to Auckland from England in February, and I knew that one of the first things I wanted to do in NZ was learn to dive. I started my PADI course straight away, and after a few hiccups (quite literally – for some reason I got really violent hiccups during every pool session!) I passed in May.
The Poor Knights Skirts In Scuba day was my first non-training dive – it was an amazing experience for someone so new to diving!

I was really nervous before we left, especially when I saw how experienced everyone else was – I was worried I’d forget what to do and thought I might struggle to keep up in the water. I needn’t have worried – Noel and Jo from Yukon Dive and Fishing Charters were really nice and good fun, and it was a great bunch of people.

Skirts in Scuba

Our first dive was at Hideaway Bay.
Anna and Jo gave me a hand with my gear (including my brand new Global Dive wetsuit), then Anna took me and another Skirt In Scuba down to 18m. I couldn’t believe how much there was to see even just at the surface – the water was so clear!
On the way down it was a bit of a sensory overload – there was so much to take in!
Straight away we saw male Sandagger’s wrasse, red Diadema sea urchins and moray eels. The fish seemed quite happy for us to be there so we got pretty close. I couldn’t wait to write it all in my log book!

Jo had prepared an amazing spread for lunch so we ate that with the rest of the group and exchanged stories. I was glad to find that I’d been able to see a lot of the same things as the more experienced divers.

On our second dive at Jans Tunnel, Anna took a camera down and got a few snaps of the nudibranchs and of me and Alexandria underwater. I had my first experience of swimming in a surge, and managed to spot a few scorpionfish hiding in the rocks too.

I was pretty tired by the time we got back to the boat but felt very satisfied – I’d had such a great day! I think my favourites were the clown nudibranch – I’d never seen anything like them before. I also really liked watching the blue-eyed triplefins darting about and looking like they were bouncing off the walls! I made a few new friends and new diving buddies, and saw things I’d never have been able to back home. Noel and Jo and everyone at Global Dive were so helpful, and I can’t wait to go diving again! I’m just worried that, having been to one of the best dive sites in the world, I might never match it…!

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• “Perfecting Mask Clearing” by Madeline Erkkila
• Skirts in Scuba – June 2009
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