Dive Day – Poor Knights Islands

Wednesday, Dec 6th  –  Full day #7

Waking up, Adam was excited to start the days adventure. Angela, on the other hand – not so much. Nerves. When we checked in Susy mentioned that breakfast would be ready at 7:30. Usually, Angela would be ready to go, but today was a little different. Today was dive day, and Angela was a little nervous. To be diving on the other side of the world as a relatively new diver, I say the nervousness was warranted. Adam walked up to the main house and decided to give Angela a few minutes alone in the cabin before breakfast.

Finally, Angela made her way up the hill to the breakfast bar that over looked the cliffs. You could see the Poor Knights Islands (our dive site) out in the distance. For breakfast, we were served thick and crisp bacon with an egg, over easy. To compliment, fresh mushrooms and local toasted bread. It was just what we needed for our highly anticipated dives.

By 8am we made it to Dive Tutukaka! charters. We checked in, signed our lives away, got assigned a 5 mil top w/hood and a 7mil wet suit and hopped on the boat (named Calypso). Here we had about 20 folks onboard from all over the world as well as the dive crew. Our journey would soon begin.

We decided not to use a GoPro on our trip but for a video exploration similar to our adventure, check out this video:

 

Just before we left the dock, the captain, Stevie led us in a quick “in case of an emergency” brief and a boat safety meeting. (In so, he discussed what to do you if you get sick at sea… Hmm, Angela never thought about people getting seasick?? Oh God.) After that, we were off. Just 23 km through the South Pacific Ocean to go.

Check out this website below for a more detailed description of the Islands, which are the remnants of ancient volcanoes that erupted in the Pacific Ring of Fire! Wow, so proud of us for making this dream trip a reality. The history of the islands is also very intriguing. I’ll expand later in the post.

Poor Knights Islands

We cruised past the marina and out of the inlet, then we stopped. The crew unloaded the dingy and a guest and crew member hopped onboard and headed back to the marina. Oh, did I mention that somebody brought a baby on board? Yes, a non-walking, must be held, under a year old BABY. WTF???

Well the family forgot the baby food and needed to make a trip back to the car to get it. (It was the dad that left and the grandma/grand-dad/ and mother on the boat.  Finally, once the dad made it back with the baby food, we were off to Poor Knights Islands.

 

 

The trip out there wasn’t the smoothest (this is an understatement). Team AA (being boat people) held their own, but some others didn’t. The first to loose it was the Grandma… then the mom. After that, a few others joined in for the need of a barf bag (or two or three, sick!). The staff seemed unfazed by it, taking the full bags and replacing it with other as the other staff went to explain the dives and make the teams.

We were teamed up in groups of 5. Each group was paired up with one guide to lead us.  To Angela’s delight we got Dave, he was the first person that helped us at check-in and Angela felt comfortable with him. Adam was just happy that Angela was getting relaxed. As we pulled up to our first dive spot (Treavor’s rocks), Captain Stevie gave us a little history lesson of the site as well as a few things to look out for. This all happened above deck so that the crew could get our gear ready and anchor the boat.

 

We learned that the spot was called Trevor’s Rocks because some guy named Trevor ran his boat up against the rocks that we were going to dive because it was high tide and he didn’t see them (they use to just be called “The Rocks”). We also learned the history of the Island and some other cool things.  But now… now was the time to suit up and jump in the 58 degree fahrenheit water. Angela looked like a deer in headlights. Once we jumped in they did a weight check on us (Since we had a 5mil top and a 7mil suit we had a ton of weight on us). Initially the water was quite crisp, but after a few minutes of moving around it got pretty comfortable. And no, not because we peed in our suits. This, as we were told, was called Swamp Suits – and not allowed. Dang, back in Florida they encourage it!

Surprisingly out of the group of 5 of us, neither Adam or Angela was the last to get down. We did pretty well finding our buoyancy and we waited for the other girl in our group to make her way down (by the way, she was one that needed a bag on the boat…).  This first dive was great, the visibility was amazing and sea life was alive. Angela actually had a mask (prescription) that she could see out of! Imagine that!

We saw a ton of small fish… among them some Angel fish that were protecting their eggs, a few really cool scorpion fish, and a couple of rays. The plant life that was under the water was impressive. The kelp was thick but not too thick that you couldn’t swim through it, the Nuudie’s (I guess best disturbed as a sea slug) were attached to the rock.  We dove for about an hour with a max dept of 13.8 meters. Once we got to our pre-stated remaining oxygen level in our tanks we exited the water and hopped back on the boat. We both chose to take the bag lunch and eat it on top deck.

As we ate our lunch Capt. Stevie guided the boat through the island while giving us a history of them. Then he drove us in side a sea cave. This sea cave, named Rikiriki was just recently granted the world record of Largest Sea Cave (by Volume). It was huge. Stevie had us all yell and stomp our feet on the boat to hear the acoustics of the cave, which was actually a pretty neat experience.

After that we went to our 2nd dive spot “Middle Arch” which was a little different than Trevor’s Rocks. In this dive, we mostly dove against the rock wall with a stop in a cave that was 7 meters under the surface. It had an air pocket at it’s roof. The fish life and plant life was similar to our first dive but the rock wall went a lot deeper. Here we had to watch our depth a little more closely since the wall just kept going down.

 

As we entered the cave Dave pointed out this gigantic ray (roughly 7 ft wide) hanging out on the cave’s floor. After a few seconds of us being in there she started to fly. She went up on the wall and the flipped over showing us her white belly. You could see that she was pregnant (neat!). She stayed close to the wall which gave us the oputunity to hit the air pocket for a quick conversation (just because we could) and then head back down. As we came out of the pocket she was right below us which made for an amazing vantage point.

After we left the cave we continued along the wall till our air hit our previously discussed limit. From here we loaded back up on the boat. We decided to take seats on the top deck this time (wanted to get some sun). Before we made the trip back to shore, Stevie took us around the Islands a little bit for some sight seeing.

It is said that as you depart the Islands, they start to resemble a Poor Knight when laid to rest – with a shield placed over his chest. The Islands are very spiritual. Sometime around 1820, the last chief of the Islands declared them tapu (meaning sacred) after returning to find his tribe was invaded while away doing warrior things. Most did not survive. I took a picture of the history below if you want to read more! After declaring the Islands tapu, they have never since been inhabited. Only researchers have respectfully taken foot on the land of the marine reserve.

On the way back we got to see a Pilot whale surface once and the ride home was a lot smoother since we were going with the waves. (still some got sick, but not us). Soon, we could see the harbour and marina as we approached land again.

At the dock we loaded up our gear, got to the shop to write up our dive reports and headed next door to Schnappa Rock. It was time for a few celebratory brews, then it was getting close to dinner. We opted to just hang out the bar until we got hungry (because we knew if we went back to the Cabin we’d never leave for dinner). This time we opted for the Toasted Cibatta again (this was a no-brainer…and it was just as great the 1st time) and then choose the grilled halloumi with saffron risotto and roasted almonds. It, too, was delicious. This place still amazes me on the quality.

 

Now, finally time to head back to the Cabin and enjoy. We popped open a bottle of local wine, sat on the deck and just relaxed. Moving back into the cabin, Angela had to try the hanging tub… a well deserved treat after a day of dive. From the tub it was time for our final nights rest in the Cabin.