In the evening we rendezvous with Kevin from the Lermontov Lodge. From the main road it is a couple of hours bumping in the dark along a gravel track to the lodge in his 4x4. There are possums all over the road. Introduced from Australia by settlers, they are now out of control.
I am woken in the morning by a crop duster flying along the hillside. The sunshine sparkles on a beautiful view across the bay at Port Gore, a misleading name for a sheltered inlet with no actual harbour and land access by farm track. The wreck site of the Mikhael Lermontov is just out of sight round the corner, but not for long as it is only a five minute boat ride away.
I have been itching to dive this 22,000 tonne Soviet cruise ship since it went down in 1986.
The wreck lies on its starboard side in 40 metres, the port side rising as shallow as 14 metres. Our first dive is forward to the bridge where labels on many of the instrument panels are still visible, then below the bridge to the Bolshoi ballroom which spans two decks. Bar stools and tables are still fixed to the deck and a rigid chandelier projects horizontally from the ceiling. Kevin is a self confessed Lermontov nut having dived the wreck hundreds of times. It would be hard to find a better guide.
Between dives I browse through his extensive collection of press cuttings, books and videos. He has even made a model of the wreck. When the Mikhael Lermontov struck the rocks at Cape Jackson there was quite a scandal over the errors the pilot made, then subsequent investigations were all a bit half-baked causing further allegations of a cover up.
It's a fair swim back to the swimming pool on our second dive. With the Lermontov cruising southern waters the pool is enclosed in a glass arboretum that opens to the stern deck. From the swimming pool we follow a windowed corridor forward to the cinema, rows of decaying seats all lined up. Outside is a video games arcade, complete with the remains of antique space invader machines.
Swimming back to the buoy line I notice just how much white paint is still there beneath the growth of kelp, hydroids, bryozoans and sponges. If you need to paint a boat, see if you can acquire some old Soviet paint.
For a final dive we explore the engine room, in through the ventilators, down between the engines, then out through a corridor to the side of the wreck. I am sure they have always been there, but it is only towards the end of this dive that I realise just how many fish there are swimming amongst all the sessile life clinging to the wreck.
As the sun sets across the bay the crop duster is still taking advantage of the good weather. From the lodge on the hillside he is actually flying below us. We wave as he goes past and he puts on a few stunts. Someone who has a job almost as good as mine.
Cousteau didn't dive here. If you go to New Zealand, you have to dive the Mikhael Lermontov.