14 posts tagged “diving”

we just got back from a stunning weekend in dunedin, but before i launch into those pics, i should probably finish up with the poor knights. our little camera obviously isn't going to be used in any high-tech underwater filming any time soon, but it does convey some of the marine magic a little better than the still shots do.

and now, the more spineful contingent.

and now, back to your regularly scheduled undersea program. because there are heaps of photos, i thought i'd divide them up along biological lines, and start with the cool spineless stuff we saw.

over the weekend, we went back to the poor knights islands for some stellar diving.  i was last there about ten months ago (pics here and here) and was eager to return with the pebbles, hoping to take him through the amazing northern arch.  as it turned out, conditions were wrong for that site but pretty much perfect for the two sites we did dive.  the water was about 21 degrees C (i almost never finish a dive feeling anything but freezing; didn't even notice the temp on these two), the visibility about 20 meters. 

our first dive was in the channel between the two largest islands, and we started on a wall that was essentially vertical down to the sandy bottom (around 20 meters).  here i saw my first Tambja nudibranchs.

from the wall, we followed a horseshoe-shaped reef around to 'boom-boom cave,' which was an incredible experience.  we had been warned about it in advance, luckily - a blow-hole-type cave but with no outlet for the air/surf, so that when the waves came pounding in, the trapped air under the ceiling (and within our bodies) was rapidly and forcefully compressed, with an accompanying boom.  we felt the pressure change (about every ten seconds) through every bone in our bodies, reverberating inside our skulls and ribcages and making the small airspaces inside our ears vibrate (which eventually drove us out).  the cave floor was about 10m deep, the walls maybe 7m apart and the depth of the cave was about 20m in total.  it got dark fairly quickly but we made it about halfway in, and discovered some large blue moki, before our ears entreated us to return to a less violent spot.

our second dive was in a site we'd done on our very first trip to the poor knights, blue maomao arch.  we anchored across labrid channel from the arch and snorkelled over to drop down at the arch mouth.  entrance to the arch is gained (optionally) by swimming under a massive slanted boulder; you emerge into the deep sapphire twilight of a passage about 20m wide and 15m deep, with a few shafts of sunlight piercing the arch walls.

the walls of the arch are spattered with rainbow-colored epifauna.

and the feature for which the arch was named is a resident school of perhaps 50,000 blue maomao, who hang along the inland wall about halfway through.

over the next few days i'll post more pics!

on saturday we dived the mokohinau islands.  it was a gorgeous day in spite of the choppy ride out and chilly 16 degree water, and we saw many good things!

i went for the first dive of the summer yesterday - finishing a rescue diving course, we did some open-water rescue scenarios at tawharanui.  and afterward there was time for a little underwater sightseeing.  :)

i had some trouble uploading about half of the dive pics the first time, so here are the rest.

jellyfish are crazy, crazy animals, for all that they have no brains.  they are cnidarians, closely related to corals, and most of them are about 95% water.  they drift, they pulse, they bump into things and get stuck or head off in another direction, and yet they also hunt, feed, and reproduce quite successfully.  some of them have blue or green zooxanthellae (symbiotic algae) living in their tissues, like corals.  seeing them in the water with you can be magical, or panic-inducing, or both.  seeing them on display in a tank, however, is mesmerizing.

so, there was a lot of very cool stuff on the leigh dive.  but best of all - far and away - were the two Octopus gibbsi we found hiding the the rocks.  the first was quite shy and seemed ok with being observed closely, but definitely didn't want any contact.  the second, however, got involved in a lively tug'o'war with proffered fingers, and eyed up a small crab as well.  here are the best stills of both beasts: