Diving at the Poor Knights Islands

The Poor Knights Islands are a Marine Reserve and Nature Reserve about 20km off the Tutukaka Coast in Northland, and they are internationally renowned as one of the premium dive destinations worldwide.

We had to be at the Tutukaka marine at 7:30, and it's around a 30 minutes drive from Whangarei. There we meet with our guide and captain of the Yukon Diving centre. We prepared our equipment at after 30 minutes we were out of the marina and on our way to the Islands.
We weather was amazing and the sail was nice and easy.

First Dive

After an hour of sailing, we arrived at our first diving site. Our guide gave as the briefing for the dive. We got ready and jumped into the ocean.
I'm an experienced diver, but my experience is limited to the Mediterranean. So I was stricken but the amount of sea life as soon as you put your head under the water. There were fishes everywhere, all colour and sizes!

We told that we might see copper sharks (also known as bronze whaler or narrowtooth shark) and that there are harmless. But when I saw this guy right below me my heart did jump into my throat and I almost bolted out. It stayed only a split second before disappearing into the deep sea, but it was still so impressive to see one so close.

The dive lasted about 45 minutes and we then slowly made our way back to the boat for lunch and a nice warm cup of tea.

The Cave

On our way to the second diving site, the weather and tide were such that we were able to enter a huge cave. There to our surprise the captain took out a wooden flute (sorry music people I'm not good with instruments) and started playing. The acoustic was amazing and the whole setting was out of this world. To me honestly, this was the highlight of the day!

Second Dive

For the second dive, we when to another bay where the waters were a little shallower than the previous dive. As before we got our briefing, we got ready and jumped into the sea. As with the first dive, the amount of fish was so astonishing!

And yes there is a fish in those photos bellow! Try to find it!

Finally, there was a small underwater cave which was a nice addition to our little tour.

The dive lasted again around 45 minutes. We then made our way to the boat, dried off, and then it was time to head back to the mainland.
It was an amazing day and the weather really was on our side.