Day 110 - Dive! Tutukaka

We woke up in the car today at 07:00 and got driving straight away to Tutukaka, just half an hour drive away. Chino got us there for 07:30ish, we brushed our teeth, used some public toilets for a quick poo and checked in at 08:00. 


We spent the day with Dive! Tutukaka around the Poor Knights Island just an hour from Tutukaka's coast. The Island is all reserve, marine and land. A fantastic place for snorkelling and scuba diving. The staff were brilliant today, our guide would give us the history on certain places where we stopped around the Island, our first stop was a good place for a dive, Jamie and Chino had only paid for one dive today and it was set for this afternoon so this morning, first thing they joined Staggie and all went snorkelling. 


These islands are special for several reasons. They're along the EAC (The East Australia current. The one that Nemo takes a ride on in the movie. More specifically they’re located on an offshoot of the EAC called the East Auckland Current) which picks up tropical fish, eggs, and larva from the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and deposits them in the Poor Knights. This causes a unique situation where tropical and subtropical fish mix together in the same environment. Throughout the day the subtropical makeup of the Poor Knights meant a whole lot of kelp. In fact quite a bit of kelp. Kelp forests. We made our way around the bay in which our boat anchored in, we stuck as a three and saw a lot of Black Angelfish, huge Snapper, Wrasse and lots of Perch we think (whatever the fish are in Finding Nemo, the ones that would create sings and arrows showing both Dory and Marlon where to go). 


In between dives and snorkeling, our skippers would show us around the Islands, one interesting part of the trip was getting a close look at the World's Largest Sea Cave by volume, the skipper managed to fit the boat into it giving us an opportunity to shout out and stomp our feet, listening to the huge bass of the echo that follows. 


This afternoon after lunch, Jamie and Chino got their diving equipment on and met with their scuba instructor. It was just going to be the three of us that went down which was good. We got in, breezed through the instructions and briefing due to both of us doing at least one previous dive. 



We got to a maximum depth of 12 meters, Fish swam through the kelp, slugs hid behind leaves and many interesting fish were seen including the Scorpion fish. The best part of the subtropical setting is that you can touch anything. Unlike a coral reef where a misplaced fin might kill 100 years of coral growth the kelp forest is durable. Not only is it near impossible to actually rip off kelp, even if you did it would grow back in a few weeks. At one point we got down to the sand and did a hand stand, this really did make it quite surreal looking at the marine life upside down. It was a great dive, different to that done at the Great Barrier Reef too in Chino's opinion, in some ways better. 


This afternoon we returned about 17:00ish. We checked out and returned all our gear, Chino hopes to take part in a course once he's home to achieve his PADI certification. Now that he's done 3 dives altogether he might as well become a qualified diver rather than doing an introductory lesson each time and going through the steps and instructions. 


This evening we went shopping, bought food and drink for the next couple of days including a few bottles of wine to help out with tonights sleep. Set off to Matapouri, hadn't heard much about the place, just that it had a nice beach...Only turned out to be one of the most stunning beaches we have seen! A beautiful bay looking out onto Poor Knights Island with forest covering around it. We parked in an empty car park next to the beach, no signs telling us not to park there over night so a perfect spot it was. It even had a public BBQ so we cooked sausage and bacon butties! 

We chilled out after and drank on the beach, turned out we didn't end up being the only people to notice this quiet and amazing camping spot, we met three other English lads on their travels. Also staying the night in their hired campervan. Staggie and Jamie slept in the car this evening, Chino had already planned to sleep in the Hammock. With help from the three English lads, we could tie up the hammock in between both vehicles! 
A wicked idea which worked perfectly, a good sleep for all after a great day all round.


Chaggie x