Auckland and diving Poor Knights inTutukaka

---

Auckland was a great start to my New Zealand trip. The flight from Melbourne was OK, even though I got about an hour of sleep during the night and arrived at around 5:30am. Customs went by smoothly and then I took a shuttle bus to my hosts' house: The Hackings. The family is Robert and Penny and their daughters Frances and Alexandra. Robert is a barrister and Penny is an artist who works in the Auckland Art Gallery.

I met Robert while I was diving in the Great Barrier Reef and took him on a dive at a site called SNO, in Opal Reef. He introduced me to his family and offered to host me if I found myself in Auckland. And so I did.



I got to the house pretty early, had a shower and got a lift to the city with Penny. I got out at the Ferry Terminal and then walked along the waterfront and then had some breakfast while looking at maps and thinking about what to do after I left Auckland. I also got my mobile unblocked and bought a SIM Card. The other thing I did was a get a haircut after about 2 months, which was good.

I headed to the Art Gallery, mainly because I was interested in a special exhibition from NYC called "Who shot rock" and it's about photographers who've shot musicians since the 50's. I love rock music in general and I also like photography and the exhibition was excellent, I really enjoyed it. After that I had lunch and then went to Robert's office to get a lift back to the house. That evening they invited me to one of Robert's nieces house, Sarah. she had just moved in to a new place with her husband Damon. Mark, her brother, was also there. They're all apparently very close and get together often. Dinner was great and I had a really good time there.



The next day was a national holiday, Waitangi Day. That day commemorates a treaty signed by the British government and the Maoris in February 6th, 1840 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waitangi_Day). That day the Hackings invited me to Waiheke Island, which is about 45 minutes from Auckland by ferry, because they wanted to see a sculpture walk that is held every year. Waiheke is a really nice island with expensive houses and vineyards. We were joined by Mike, a cousin of Robert, a chemical engineer who just moved back to NZ from the US. We had a good walk, had a picnic lunch there and then we went for a short swim and we briefly met Robert's sister who lives in Waiheke. We took the ferry back at around 3 and got home at about 4:30. On the way home we stopped by the fishmarket to get some kingfish for the evening. That day was Penny's birthday (same day as my mom's) and Robert cooked the fish in the barbecue and Frances made the salads. We were again joined by Mike. Again, a very nice dinner and good conversation. In general, they're a very active family and have several hobbies and do a lot of sports and outdoor activities.



The next day I met a friend of mine who I hadn't seen in years, Ignacio Arellano, cousin of Nicolás Varas, who I met in Melbourne. I got a ride into town with Penny and met Ignacio at the Britomart train station. We walked to an area where I knew there were a few dive shops and ended up in one called Dive HQ.

I really wanted to go diving in a place called Tutukaka, about 2 1/2 hours north of Auckland, so I needed to get information from local dive shops. This place had been recommended to me by several of my Kiwi friends from Port Douglas.

In that dive shop, a guy running the store, Sam, told me they had a trip to Tutukaka the next day. There were people going to do courses and others just for fun diving. I got his number and told him I'd contact him later.



After that, Ignacio and I went to a place called Viaduct, by the waterfront and got something to eat and had some beers. I made up my mind and called the dive shop to go diving the next day. It was a pretty good deal; much better than having booked to do dives through the companies that go out of Tutukaka. I got a ride with people from the shop to Tutukaka and a ride back to Auckland, did a shore dive on Friday and 3 dives from the boat on Saturday + cheap accommodation.



After sorting that out, I stayed a few more hours hanging around the city and went back to the Hacking's house. There, I had one last dinner with them. They helped me plan my trip a little bit and I left with a rough itinerary. They were excellent hosts and I had a very pleasant time staying with them.



Next morning Penny drove me to the dive shop and after some time of sorting out dive gear and all that, I got a ride with Sam and in the car he was also taking Melten, a German girl who had the particular skill of opening beer bottles with her teeth. By coincidence, Sam and I both knew another instructor, Lisa Russel who now works in Australia for the company "Mike Ball Dive Expeditions" in which I volunteered for 2 weeks in 2012.

We arrived a few hours later to Tutukaka and after leaving some stuff in the hostel, we went to do a shore dive, with about 6 other people. It was a challenging one; I hadn't dived in a 7mm wetsuit in over a year and was using rental gear. Plus, I underweighted myself, so I struggled to keep in the bottom and not float to the surface. The dive was really shallow as well; I couldn't get past 6.5 meters. I took Meltem with me. On the bright side, it was good to have this dive before going diving the next day on the boat. After the dive, we went back to the dorms and then out to get a few beers and something to eat, with a group of about 20 people.



In the morning we went to the dive shop at about 7am and got ready to leave on the boat at around 9am. The boat took about 45 minutes to get to the first dive site: Trevor's Rock, apparently named after a Trevor who hit a rock with his boat and sunk it. I did the dive with Andrew and Guilliette, two people who I met that day. The first dive was pretty good; rocky bottom and a lot of kelp and a lot of marine life, including a few eels. We hit about 28 meters on that dive, which was a good depth for the first dive. The second dive we did it in the same site and we went in another direction; going around a few pinnacles and some good swim throughs on the way. This one, I liked better then the first dive.



We then moved to another site, but not before we went to a cave nearby on the boat and stopped there for a while. We had about an 1 1/2 hour surface interval and did the third dive in a site called Middle Arch. In this one I joined a group of four people. This one was a pretty easy dive and the one I enjoyed the most. Lots of marine life and a really cool cave between 15 and 4 meters, pretty wide as well, that had air bubbles in which we could take our regs out and talk. What I liked the most was the reflections of the light on the air bubbles. It was really amazing. In this post, I'd like to thank Dive HQ and Sam for their help and excellent customer service.



After the dives, we went back to Tutukaka and from there I had a ride back to Auckland with two guys that went diving with their father. Really nice people and they dropped me right in the doorstep. I stayed for two more days in Ignacio's house. He lives with Francesca, a Chilean girl with whom I have a lot of friends in common, but had barely met her before.



A few hours after settling down, they invited me to the birthday party of two of their friends. It was pretty fun, in a place that was rented for the night and with about 20 people, the highlight being having met a really nice Argentinian girl there.



I got a pretty bad cold the next two days and wasn't feeling that well, so I stayed there recuperating instead of heading to Waitomo caves, which was my next destination. The first day there, I slept until late and then Ignacio and I went to get some lunch and then to the Auckland museum, which was great.

The second day, I wasn't feeling much better. I had been taking medication which I hadn't realized was some herbal crap. Fortunately, Francesca took notice and gave me proper medication. While they went to a public swimming pool in the afternoon, I slept and woke up recovered. After they came back home we had a small barbecue and then chilled out the rest of the day. Of course they told me I had missed all the girls in bikinis in the pool. Oh, well, I still have Bali to look forwards to after NZ.



Tuesday morning wake up early and catch a bus to get to Waitomo caves...

---

Photos

Dinner
Daniel, Mike, Frances, Penny, Alex and Rob

With the Hackings in Waiheke
Daniel, Robert, Frances, Penny and Alex

Comments

[Mar]

Excellent
Dear Daniel: Congratulations on your trip, the description of the places and of the things that you did there, brought me back fond memories. I love New Zealand, it is so beautiful and just they way it should be. I expect to return some day, being my only problem that at this point in my life, what interest me the most are the Arab countries. But since I have traveled so much around the globe, perhaps one day I will arrive in beautiful New Zealand again. All my love.

[Ignacio]

Ohhhhhhh good report! However, no comments whatsoever about the really good friend that walked up the hill for 30 mins just for recovering your 30 kgs backpack!!! hahahahahaah Disappointed! hahahahaha

[Patiperro]

Backpack
Nacho, the backpack is all part of your training, young Padawan, hahaha. Vale por todo compadre, nos estamos viendo; en Chile nos tomamos unas piscolas pa volverte al training.