Home / 2. Trip Reports / Poor Knights Liveaboard – 23/24 May 2009
Trip Report by Juliet Short.
Last Friday dive-buddy Dave and I travelled up to Tutukaka for a fabulous weekend the Poor Knights Islands aboard Pacific Hideaway.
We’d spent the week anxiously checking the weather forecast which threatened a dull weekend indoors, but Gaia came to the party and Saturday morning dawned bright and still.
We set sail early Saturday (but not before breakfast at Schappa Rock) and headed straight for our first dive site – Landing Bay Pinnacle.
Dave and I descended to about 30m and then gradually ascended around the pinnacle, taking in the scenery.
The water was a respectable 18 degrees in the bay, not that I can comment on temperature though as I’d hired a drysuit for the weekend and had the absolute pleasure of diving in my favourite woolly socks.
Firebrick Starfish / Photograph by Dave Barr
After skipper Mark’s delicious date scones, we slowly motored to our second dive spot, the Gardens, in another gorgeous little bay with steep cliffs dropping straight down into the water.
We swam along a wall and down to a cave where a huge school of big-eyes glared at us, startled by the torch-light.
After exploring the cave we sauntered out along the reef, which as well as being home to all sorts of interesting creatures, had some great swim-throughs.
We laid anchor in Riko Riko cave and once the sun had set, some of us set off for a night-dive around the cave.
Dave and I headed out to the back of the cave and dropped down to about 16m.
I find night-diving just a little spooky, which makes it all the more exciting. By torchlight, we saw blue and pink mao-mao, scarlet wrasse and black angelfish (among others) cruising the cave.
After exploring the back of the cave we turned our torches off and floated for a while watching the phosphorescence, like tiny underwater fireflies.
The first dive on Sunday was at my new favourite dive spot, Northern Arch.
Northern Arch / Photograph by Dave Barr
The wall beside Northern Arch is spectacular – covered in plant life and densely populated by anemones, nudibranchs, kina and stunning firebrick starfish, with the occasional sting ray or eagle ray cruising past. Once inside the arch we dropped down and floated around beside the wall with the light shining down from 30m above us. Looking down another 15-20m to the bottom, we admired a huge school of blue and pink mao-mao, golden snapper and kingfish.
On the second (also in Northern Arch) dive Dave, Anna, Lindsay and I swum from the boat out to the arch and then descended to around 28m. The arch was breathtaking the second time too, and after taking in the huge schools of fish we gradually ascended along the wall. At 4-5m we found an interesting rock to hang out on for our safety stop. Anna spotted a cute marblefish lazing in a crevasse, along with the biggest, grumpiest scorpionfish I’ve ever seen, and we continued exploring the rock until we were almost out of air.
The seventh and final dive of the weekend was on the HMNZS Waikato.
The Waikato is a purpose-sunk diver’s paradise, covered in bright jewel anemones and teaming with fish. A John Dory cruised past as Dave and I made our way along the deck, and we saw large schools of Big-Eyes hiding out inside the wreck.
We chugged reluctantly back into the marina around 5pm and stopped for a drink and de-brief at the local before making the tired trek back to our other lives.
Anna goes upside down at Northern Arch / Photograph by Juliet Short
