Road signs are, to put it politely, a little bit ambiguous. Especially in Northland. I don't have too much trouble on the main road, there is only one main road from Auckland to Whangarei, but from there to Tutukaka is anyone's guess. Even with detailed directions from Brent I make a couple of wrong turns.
Maori names can be difficult to get your tongue around and my mind blends similar names into a single confusion. Tutukaka is pronounced pretty much as it is spelt, but Whangarei is pronounced Fungarei.
Nevertheless, as planned I make it to Tutukaka in time for lunch and an afternoon dive. The Poor Knights are a full day trip, so I have a choice of two inshore wrecks, the survey ship Tui and the Leander class frigate Waikato, both sunk as artificial reefs. Instructor and photographer Glenn recommends the Waikato as it is a little further offshore and likely to have better visibility.
We descend a buoy line at the stern and I dip to the seabed at 30 metres for a quick look at the propellers, then up and along the helicopter deck. An octopus is strolling leisurely in the opposite direction and over the side.
Glenn leads the way forward in and out of various holes. As usual with artificial reefs, everything is well opened up to allow easy access through the wreck. But the real treat for me comes as we approach the bow; the whole section forward of the superstructure has broken clear and twisted to port leaving the normally inaccessible magazine space exposed.
Next morning I get to appreciate the efficiency of Dive Tutukaka. Within an hour of opening 50 or so divers are checked in, rental equipment and wetsuits handed out and a flotilla of blue and yellow boats are on their way to the Poor Knights.
The journey is an hour and a half of bump and bounce through quite a rough sea, though once at the Poor Knights we have the shelter of the islands. A benefit of numbers is that myself and other experienced divers have a boat to ourselves, so we begin with a look at the famous Northern Arch. Alas it is too rough and we head south to dive Landing Bay Pinnacle and the nearby Taruana cave.
It's a good start with cool blue visibility and lots of fish. The Poor Knights have been a marine reserve since 1981 and completely no-take since 1998. In some ways the diving is reassuringly familiar, yet in other ways it is refreshingly different.
The basic scene of rocky walls, anemones, soft corals, sponges and kelp with reef fish is what I would expect from a good scenic dive at home, yet when I look closely much of it is subtlety different. Many of the fish have more similarity to tropical species than they do to UK species.
After lunch the wind has dropped a little, so we have another look at the Northern Arch and decide to try diving it. Conditions on the sheltered side of the arch are deceptive. Once on the wall and heading through it is just about all I can do to make slow progress against the surge and the current.
As I slosh back and forth I try to take photographs of vibrantly coloured sponges and anemones against the background of the arch. There are a fair number of large king fish and maomao holding station, but none of the shoals of stingray shown in Glenn's photograph on the cover of the guide book. Apparently some Orca had snacked on them a few months ago and a new shoal had yet to become established.
The benefit of being here year round is the chance to pick and choose just when to go diving for the best conditions, amply demonstrated by the quality of photographs on show at the NZ Underwater Photography Society meeting I join that evening. I hadn't planned on it, but with the meeting being held just along the waterfront and coinciding with my visit I couldn't resist.
For such a small population New Zealand seems to have more than its fair share of internationally known photographers. The diving here inspires interesting photography.
Next morning the sea is rougher still. Only the larger boats can make the crossing to the Poor Knights. A Belgian tourist locks himself in the head and stays there. I pass the journey chatting to three English ladies nearing the end of a 6 month world tour, their purpose being to celebrate their 40th years in style. So far in New Zealand they had been bungy jumping, canyoning, white water rafting, skydiving and cave diving. A simple open water dive seems tame by comparison.
Conditions limit the choice of dives and we return to Landing Bay Pinnacle. The crew gets the fire hose out to wash down the head. The victim looks like he could benefit from a hosing down as well, but disappears to the top deck before anyone can point the hose in his direction. Everyone else is fit to dive.
Captain Ian reminds those in rental wetsuits that if they are caught peeing in them they get "Swampy" written on their foreheads in waterproof marker.
I do the dive back to front compared to yesterday and explore the deeper parts of the pinnacle from 30 to 45 metres. It works well, feeling like a completely different dive.
Back onboard Ian spots a pod of orca heading south. Murphy's law prevails. The anchor is jammed and divemaster Jolanda has to clear it. 30 minutes later all we see are a few fins in the distance. In the mean time the orcas have put on a good display for Dive Tutukaka's other boat as they circled it and munched stingrays.
All over the world there are rocks named after the fisherman who had crashed their boats on them. At Trevor's rocks I get to meet some stingrays. Spotting the first one I get low on the sand and crawl in from down current. After a couple more stingrays I am becoming blasé, waving my buddy into the background so as to fit the stingray between us. With fish this co-operative I wonder why I ever bothered with the cautious approach.
Two and a half days is no-where near enough to get the most out of the Poor Knights. Nevertheless, in my packed schedule it is time to drive north to the Bay of Islands and the Rainbow Warrior.
Cousteau put the Poor Knights in his top 10. If you go to New Zealand, you have to dive the Poor Knights.