Rena Video Proposal

Here is the video for the intended future of the Rena, even if you're only slightly interested it's worth having a view.

MV Rena Video

Rena Mt Underwater Dive Club Recreational Assessment Dive 28 May 2015

I was fortunate enough to be invited to participate on a recreational dive on the Rena shipwreck today.

The ships insurers and the Mount Underwater Dive Club have been in the process of proposing to keep the remains of the shipwreck left on Astrolabe Reef and as part of that process wanted our opinions on what we thought of it as a recreational dive site. In one word awesome.
I have been a strong critic of the remains being left there in the past however after today's dives I wouldn't hesitate in going back for more, purely for selfish diving reasons.
I can fully understand people's alternative opinions however from a scuba diving perspective the wreck was one of my highlights from 30 years diving. It didn't hurt that the weather Gods were smiling down on us with smooth seas, no swell resulting in 30m visibility.
From earlier footage I has seen of the debris field and potential entanglement points I was astonished at how clean of debris the wreck now is, a few aluminum ingots, a little bit of coiled wire and a few bags of debris to be collected was all of the previous mess that i could see. What remains of the superstructure offers a treasure trove of photographic opportunities that I cant wait to get back to.
The diving was made possible by the generosity of  Western Boats the Karen D with their well oiled crew. Thanks to all involved from Pacific Diving and our guide underwater guide Rex.

Here's some of the photos from today's dive.

 

Poor Knights to Tauranga Trip

Poor Knights to Tauranga Mantra Dive Trip from Dale Hobson on Vimeo.


Working over Xmas and New Years sucks but at least I had an excuse to get some holiday time in on the club dive trip, it's been running a few years now and is advertised as Lost at Sea. A perfect title to sum just what I needed.


This was also a good opportunity to test out my new replacement underwater rig a Nauiticam NA 7D Mk II housing and the new Canon 7D Mk II. Photo Nauticam Camera After a leisurely drive up via Auckland airport to pick up Ben who had come up from the South Island for his first underwater expedition to the North Island we finally got to Tutukaka and after loading up were off. The rest of the boat comprised of Tony, Ian, Gail and Glenn.
First dive location was a good one - Taravana Cave, on descending I realized that testing out the camera's USB 3 speed of uploading images had sucked all the life out of the battery. Scrap any photos from that dive. After a quick trip into the cave I followed the coastline south until I got to a crack into the wall and ventured thru the the east side. A lot of surge and current made me decide the better of it and on the surface swim back to the boat I was amused by the gangs of snapper being bullies to poor lots of little Clown Toado puffer fish, they would nudge them from below to the surface where they would take turns to nip them, eventually deflating them before making taking turns to finish them off. Oh for a charged battery!

After this it was off to Blue Mao Mao Arch for a late dive where Mantra was going to be anchored for the night. Our neighbor for the night was Mazurka.


I've has some great dives here in the past with large schools of Kingfish, Rays and Bluefish. Lots of the resident snapper about and the added bonus was the nice dappled light from the setting sun. After everyone had gone to sleep for the night I stayed up capturing some of the action of Trevallies coming in for krill attracted by the boats underwater lights.












The next morning it was off exploring the eastern side but due to the residual swell still sweeping the coastline the only spot suitable for diving was the Cream Gardens, none of the bronze whaler sharks everyone seems to have seen here were present and the dive was a bit of a let down. When I start taking photos of other divers you know I'm getting bored.



As were were cruising around looking for spots to dive I was surprised to hear from Ian that most of the dive names are quite literal - Matts Crack, Phils Knob, you can see where this is going!

We ended up at Serpent Rock, a disappointing dive as it held so much promise but the expectant large number of fishes were just not present. Middle Arch had us all venturing into Air Bubble Cave for the compulsory look, a few stingrays cruising along the walls oblivious to me buzzing about snapping photos.












A quick airfill and I jumped back into the water keen to get some more shots in while the sun was setting. This has to be my favorite time of the day to dive I just cant resist the way the light hits the water creating nice rays. For decent photos it's necessary to use a large aperture setting to capture nice contrasting rays. The added bonus of this time of the day was that the krill had come up from the depths and the Trevally and Kingfish were busy feeding.



The next day The Pin was another disappointing dive, especially considering Ian's statement that OceanBlue's Mazurka had been parked up here all day the previous week all the more surprising. A sum total of 4 photos taken - a new low for me on any dive when there is no equipment malfunction or dead batteries!


The next dive site Phils Knob, This ws fantastic and easily made up for the prior location. A nice pinnacle covered in Crinoidea and friendly snapper happy to hang out with these odd looking fish called Divers.








We were all buzzing and Gail was keen to jump straight back into the water to dive it again. It was one of those spots that had that promise of anything turning up but the allure of some spot new has us once again moving on.

Next up was Red Baron Cave. I like the Poor Knights for it's cave networks and for me this is what makes it a special spot, This dive had good memories for me as it was my first open water dive outside of training back in 1984, I clearly remember the sensation of free-falling into the tube-like cave speeding past the walls. A somewhat slower trip encumbered with a housing that doesn't take too kindly to being bashed about on rocks had me take the dive a bit more sedately than in my youth.

Afterwards I had a 6 minute video of the ascent into the air bubble cave and trip back down, I hung about for a while waiting for the others to come about so I could capture some nice silhouettes looking out from the cave but no one turned up. Discussing the dive afterwards it seemed everyone had come in from the middle of the cave network and had totally missed the lower portion. Thankfully I had the video but no one seemed to pleased to see what they had missed.

A trip up and down the western side for a anchoring spot for the night showcased the ever increasing swell. On returning to Blue Mao Mao Arch and the channel this location was no longer suitable so back to Middle Arch for the night. I couldn't convince anyone else to join me on the night dive so I jumped in with the the macro lens for the first time on the trip, 60mm should do the trick, I was armed with a red video light and I was keen to see if this would create less disturbance on the fish life. It did to a degree but was a little too effective as I was constantly getting whacked by fish unaware I was amongst there presence. Fish life bumping into me in the dark and the inability for the camera to correctly focus I decided it wasn't really a success.

On the way back to the boat the water surface was jumping with Trevallies who were once again attracted by Mantras underwater lights. A quick blast of my 6000 lumens of combined light power and the fish soon made me the center of attention, Then something magical appeared, Flying fish, they would come swimming in with a funny mechanical beat of their tail, then blinded by my video lights they would quickly turn around with me in hot pursuit. In their eagerness to flee they would extend their pectoral wings leaping from the water. Quickly I realized the futility of attempting to capture the action on a macro lens and a quick lens change had me jumping back in the water minus the dive gear. Now I was armed with my trusty Tokina 10-17mm wide angle. This had me firing the camera at the cameras much lauded extended high Iso levels it was now capable of. A little work in Lightroom I was surprised that the resultant images weren't too noisy.

Excuse the little bit of nerd talk here but for future night and fast fish action I have now limited the cameras Iso level to 3200 and will be purchasing a Nauticam optical flash trigger which will enable the flashes to not be reliant on the cameras battery to recharge before firing the next burst, 10 frames per seconds will be within my reach. ETTL (Electronic thru The Lens) where the camera sets the flash output wont be available so it will be manual flash settings but the increase in photo speed will outweigh the negatives.

 Nauticam Optical Flash Trigger


Last day at the Poor Knights and we decided on El Torito Caves and Trevs Rock, which was a great dive with lots of fish life and big snapper about. Tony decided we should have another go at Taravana Cave so Gail, Glenn, Tony and I ventured inwards armed with cameras and suitable lighting, this time we managed to get to the far end, cross sides and back. Caution has to be used here as it is easy to disorientated and as there is smaller shoots that you can exit so there is the risk of getting lost as others in the past have.

Well last dive at the Poor Knights was the wall area in front of RikoRiko Cave, a disappointing end to the trip and one which pretty much summed up the time at the Knights, a great spot but the weather meant the elements that make the Poor Knight such a great location weren't present.

The real lack of fish life, limited dive locations, poor visibility and cloudy days meant limited options and a disappointing collection of photos. The third live-aboard trip for me here with the same results, from now on I think I'll limit myself to the day charters where I can assess the weather conditions closer to the time instead of committing months in advance to the unknown weather that may be presented. Well that was the end unfortunately for the Poor Knights and it was off to Tuutukaka for a refuel and overnight anchorage before heading south on the journey home to Tauranga.

I'd like to say the remaining journey filled with fantastic diving but the swell had gained in size to 5m and the previous bad weather had conspired against us, large swell and green conditions meant that a couple of meters was the most visibility in the limited dive-able spots there was. We stopped off at the Mokohinau Islands and Ben and Glenn went for a spearfish only to cut it short when a Bronzie decided to make friends with Glenn, a heated exchange got Ben off the boarding ladder so Glenn could escape the water with all his body parts intact - unlike Bens first fish speared in the North Island. A nice sized head remained though. Great Barrier was nice for the scenery but the run off from the island made sites like the Wairarapa not dive-able.


We woke up in the morning to the sight of Hemisphere, the worlds largest catamaran, it was only when you saw the scale of the crew on deck that you realized how large this beast was.

















Great Barrier Teals joining us for breakfast had us all scrambling for our cameras.

The highlight of the trip back was getting amongst a large pod of common dolphins, diving gannets and Brydes whale and Manta Ray.

The others had great view of the action but I missed out on a lot of the action sitting at the stern geared up and ready to jump in when close but my only opportunity was short lived when finning quickly to catch the Manta Ray I spooked him off.

An overnight anchorage at Great Mercury Island has us doing a scallop dive the night before and morning afterwards. Thanks to Ian's cooking I have a new found appreciation for scallops and Great Mercury Islands didn't disappoint with richly laden beds available for the picking.

Two quick dives at the Aldermen Islands had us all buzzing with the large numbers of fish. This must have been where all the fish from the Poor Knights had gone, and to boot the visibility here was 25m plus.

I managed to snap a photo of a distant shark at the Sugar Loaf Rocks then we were once again off trolling for the elusive marlin. Well we got all the way to Mayor Island and no action then just as were about to come upon Tonys secret FAD spot it was all hands to deck with orders firing about, Gails turn at the reel had her hauling in a lovely Striped Blue Marlin.
























A quick spearfish at the Fad had Ben score himself two Bluenose. After that it was a slow trip back into Tauranga and an end to a somewhat mixed bag of a trip.