The Unwilling seal

Mayor Island

Had an awesome forecast so headed out to Mayor Island yesterday, one place that almost always has the potential to be fantastic diving but almost always disappoints. Visibility was once again rubbish, which seems to be a common theme for me in the last 3 outings.

Northern Side of the Island within the Reserve

The large pins and obsidian layers on the island make for stunning scenery. Back in the early days the obsidian was prized by Maori for cutting instruments and was traded all over the north island.

Now where were those underwater pins?

We attempted to find some uncharted submerged pins that I had come across a few years ago but to no avail.

Attempted to get some split level shots here as diving was fairly uninteresting.

Once back on boat spotted a seal on the rocks so went back to see if I could tempt it into the water to play.

Kna

Only one of 3 boats out there on the day

 Had a dive at the never fail spot for crayfish but lots of little bugs and only takeable ones were in berry.

Trusty boat for the day

Went from rocky shallow dive spot to 30m at Tuhua Reef looking for better clarity but surprisingly Tuhua Reef was down to 3m visibility on the surface which was quite unexpected for a place re-known for it's diving. Had large amounts of Splendid Perches 30m down so was not altogether a loss.

Large numbers of Splendid Perch

And no fish for dinner.

Schooner Rks and Okaparu Reef

Getting cabin feverish so headed out on the club trip to Schooner Rocks and Okuparu Reef. Decided to take the Wide angle lens as reports from the spearo's and others on the boat water visibility wasn't that bad when off the coastline. Headed to a spot a few hundred meters off the rocks.

Yuck, terrible photography conditions with too much particle in the water.

Visibility means two different things to spearos and photographers!

Regretted taking the camera as headed straight down onto a cave which some nice sized crays, all easily accessible and could have had my limit filled!! Potentially a nice spot with some many steep walls and holding a reasonable amount of fish life. Be nice when clear.

Plenty of Crayfish

After a long break between dives when in again at Okaparu Reef armed with 60mm macro.

Pesky fishlife kept interrupting my posing Triplefins!

Lots of fish life sitting out in the open but few perched in the nicely located positions for some nice profile shots so reasonably happy with what I did considering.

Nice to get out but not sure amongst the bad weather we've been having but really think the water needs at least three days of nice weather to get settled to make it suitable for photo's.

Life amongst the anenomies

Memorable quote from the day was when someone had got their new spearfishing suit on and hen asked a question said "I cant hear anything thru this suit's hood", and in reply " Didn't you listen to your parents when you were nine and they said masturbating would make you deaf!" Gotta love old fellas sense of humor!

Greg the Takahe Passes Away

It was sad news that I heard that Greg the Takahe died on Sunday. One of only 260 surviving Takahe’s remaining. His contribution to increasing the birds population and awareness of the conservation programmes thru his self appointed ambassador role live on.
Thought to be extinct in 1948, breeding programmes like the one on Tiritiri Matangi Island have enabled the species to be reintroduced back to it's native alpine grasslands.

I had the privilege to spend a little while with the mighty bird a few years agoand thought I would share the video here.

If you get the chance to go to Tiri Tiri matangi Island on Aucklands WhangaparaoaPeninsula it’s definitely worth the trip to experience first hand the greater fforts that the conservation programme has made to what was only a few decades earlier barren farm land.

Such has been the emotional responsefrom those whose lives have been touched by this bird that the Supporters of Tiritiri Matangi are planning to set up a fund in Gregs memory, to be used for future conservation projects on the island.

Aldermen Islands video

The Aldermen Islands

The Aldermen Islands. Click on photo to be taken to Flickr Set

Had an invite from my friend Greg to go out diving at the Aldermen Islands on Friday, as the weather had been lousy for the last month with a constant hammering from storm fronts I was keen to take up the opportunity while we had a narrow weather gap.

The Aldermen Islands lie approximately 30kms north of the seaside township of Whangamata in the Coromandel.

The Aldermen Group is the remnants of volcanic cone, it consists of four main islands, Hongiara, Middle, Ruamahuanui and Ruamahuaiti.

Many regard the islands as some of the best temperate diving in the world, with the East Auckland Current sweeping past bringing with it various warmer water species that later become established.

We investigated a few spots for a spot of fishing beforehand but sadly lucked out, but marked a very steep and interesting pinnacle that comes up form 50m of water to 8m below the surface.









We will tackle this again on the future when the conditions are clearer and we have a boat person on board that isn't of the hairy variety.




















The first dive was on the northern side of the group at a small islet that we hadn't dived before. The usual suspects but poor visibility limited the options but armed with a 60mm macro setup had a few opportunities with Triplefins and a Yellow Moray eel.

TripleFin

All the photography action was in a small 2m square area, but the shallowness combined with slight surge made macro photography difficult.

Yellow Moray eel

On the surface swim back to the boat Greg pointed out a brown bird following me closely. Not sure who was more curious the bird or me but was extremely tame and a very willing subject.

Northern Giant Petrel

Later research revealed that this was a juvenile Great Northern Petrel, distinguishable from a Great Southern Petrel by the color on the front of the beak.
Their huge nostrils are capable of detecting their main diet of rotting carcasses from several miles away and I can detest when it breathed on me they Stink!

Part of their defense mechanism is that they have will spit an oily stomach substance. Luckily for me this was not needed, fortunately for me as it did have a very strong odor and could have done with a few breath mints.



The next dive up was the most northern main island Ruamahuanui Island. Greg was on the hunt for crayfish and thought they may have been up in the shallows as none were found previously.

Ruamahuanui Island

An amazing difference in the clarity of the water here and I had a great dive enjoying the scattered light rays filtering through the calm sea.

Two Spot Demoiselles

Next dive up was the caves at Hongiora (Flat) Island. This was no camera dive for me as the visibility was lacking. This is a great cave network that has multiple entry and exit points, The cave itself is exposed with a few meters of air covering so if needed can safely ascend to the surface and swim out. The one caveat is that the surge can be quite strong at the rear of the caves even with a mild swell so care can be needed. Afterwards we question the viability of helmets as the rush of being pushed in and out does make you wonder how much protection a neoprene hood really offers if you hit a rock at speed.

A quick stray-line for Greg afterwards while I was de-kitting rewarded him with a nice sized snapper for several dinners.

Another great trip and as always the Aldermen Islands didn't disappoint, the great thing about diving that I find is the unknown around the corner, even a mediocre dive can be turned on it's head by the arrival of an unexpected visitor.

An Underwater Journey

Highlights of 2011 / 12 underwater footage. Shot in Bay of Plenty/Coromandel, New Zealand.