48 Hours of Diving at Poor Knights Island

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Hi all. Well we survived our long weekend diving trip at Poor Knights Island - classified as one of the world's top 10 dive sites by Jacque Cousteau - one of my childhood heros. Marcos and I stayed with a group of divers on a live aboard boat - we never touched dry land in nearly 48 hours. We were there to get certified for Padi deep water diving 30metres (100+ feet). We did seven dives including a deep dive of 30m and a night dive. We were to have done a wreck dive but the water was too stormy. I won't say much here other than to say wow - what an experience - see the photos for my comments and thoughts. Note: There are two pages of photos.... so don't miss out on the second page when viewing photos.

By the way.... please see the following link for a link to the 48 hour film festivale movie that a group of friends and I made. Let us know what you think..... Cheers

Visit this link for information on my movie on youtube....
http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/blog-287302.html

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Photos

Leaving Tutukaka Marina
We arrived in Tutukaka at 10pm Friday night - leaving right after work from Auckland. We unloaded our gear, had a celebratory drink in the small town bar and crashed for the night on the liveaboard boat (a 54' Cat). From this point until 6pm on Sunday night we didn't set foot on solid ground. Leaving early Saturday morning (8am) we had a two hour crossing in rough seas.

Compass in Rough Seas
I rode out the rough crossing in the wheelhouse with the captain. I can't show you how rough the seas were in photo (3m swells, lots of chop and changing wave/current patterns), but I can show you the compass which was twisting and turning and never rested in a level position.

Approaching Poor Knights Island
Arriving to a cloud covered island reminded me of the recent king kong film where the island appeared out of the rainy mist.

The Ocean Astronauts - in Dry Suits
Marcos and I oppted for the extra $100 rental fee for dry suits. These puppy's kept us dry through all dives. It was like we were astronauts, zip in and zip out without ever getting wet. We were comforatable while those in wet suits looked a bit miserable as they had to go through a complicated and cold process of getting in and out of soaked suits four or five times a day. burhhhhh

World'sLargest Natural Sea Cave
The captain manuvered the craft into, parked and then turned around inside this monster cave.

Middle Arch - Dive Spot Number two
Marcos and I did our night dive here. Again this arch was large enough for the boat to manuver thru at low tide.

Another photo of the arch later that evening. We stayed anchored here thru the night.
The islands are a protected wildlife nature reserve as are the waters around the island. People are not allowed to land on the islands or to collect anything from the water.

Our dry suits hanging out between dives
Pacific Hidaway Charter was a good operation with good staff.

Me Preping for the Night Dive
Of the dives we had scheduled for our Advanced Padi Certification the night dive and the deep water dive (30m = 100+ft) had me the most anxious. In this photo i've just gotten back into the suit with the aid of baby poweder at the neopreane seals which is supposed to make it easier to get into the suit. before each dive everyone looks a little ghostly with white powder in their hair and on their face.

The light of a diver breaking the darkness of the night and depth of the sea
You can't appreaciate how lonely darkeness is until you sink 50 feet below the surface of the water at nigth and turn off your light. While the analogy of a cave could be used the sense of fear that sweeps thru your body is nothing like that experienced in the darkness of a cave. In water you don't have gravity to tell you what way is up, you are covered by a layer of unbreathable substance that wants to find a way into your dive mask, the currents pull your body to and fro, no - give me a cave without light any day of the week. That said it was a fantastic dive and I'll do again with experienced people. the colours and life at night are just incredible. It was also very special to be diving on the night of winter solstice the longest night of the year.

Preparing for the Deep (100+ft dive)
Marcos assembles his gear and lifeline to the surface....

The southern arch diving location
We moved to our final dive location due to poor weather. this is the area that Jacque Cousteau made world famous when he declared that this was one of the top 10 dive locations in the world. I was so happy to know that I was swimming in an area that I saw grouwing up on film watching Jacque go diving.. he shapped a bit of my exploration/adventure side of my personality. The dive location did not disappoint with an abundance of life.

The Stress of the deep dive was showing on all the groups' faces
Marcos and Anna

Another view of the surface before the dive
The thought of going to a depth that at 100+feet (30m) where you have the density of 10 stories of water pushing on your body and equipment takes some getting used to. When I first started diving my greatest fear was sinking to the bottom. Through experience that fear has changed to a fear of reaching the surface to quickly after going deep. Due to all the problems rapid decompression cause - nitrogen bubbles stuck in your blood stream and nitrogen narcosis you never want to ascend to the surface quickly after going even a few metres below the surface. A safety stop at 5m for three minutes is a very good idea, however if you don't set your boyance correctly when you get to 5m for your stop you could actually overshoot it and go straight to the top. For a shallower dive of a short time this may not be an issue but after going down 30m the equivalet to a 10 story building a slow ascent is a must. The dive for me went well, I must admit I felt very anxious as we approached the final depth, but the beauty of the sea floor/wall was incredible as was the animal and plant life. We stayed at that depth for 5 minutes or so and began a slow swim up the island shear rock face (vertical). We got to our saftey stop at 5 metres with no issue. Two minutes into the pause an out of control diver that was caught by a current swung their air tank right into my face and mask, knocking the mask from my face allowing salt water to rush in at my eyes. For just a brief second I felt a bit paniced and started to breath rapidly, but due to training I calmed down and prioritized what I needed to do. First I slowed my breathing so that I didn't consume to much air and become positively boyant and shoot to the surface, I dumpted some extra air from my suit and stabalised myself on the rock wall. Once all of this was in control I was able to put the mask right and clear the water. My heart was racing but I felt good working my way through that minor crisis. We completed our pressure stop and moved on to the boat and surface. Success feels so good when failure can potentially be so bad....

Marcos and Anna prepare for their next dive
After my face plant into an airtank on the deep dive I skipped this dive to make sure my head was ok. We'd get into our suits on the upper level where I'm standing and then prep our equipment at the lower deck. From hear it was off the back (stern) of the boat and into the water.

Comments

[Uncle Cliff]

Great sea and diving photos
Best treatment for sea sickness is a greasy raw porkchop on a string, swallow and pull back up. Removes all offending particles left in stomach. Glad you didn't have a Great White lunch on the bottom

[Bill Bryant]

Great Pics!
Great pics! Glad to see you include yourself in some of them.

[lisette]

poor knights I keep missing. It is definately on my to do list though.Sorry to see you have gone to the dark side of dry suits - I have a nasty habit of undoing zippers just as people are getting out of the water Mooohhahhahahahaaaah!