It was an awesome day out on the Hauraki Gulf today as we headed out to Sail Rock and Taranga Island, in the Hen and Chicks, for  a couple of great dives.

Sail Rock

It was a quick 45 minute journey up from Omaha in calm seas, and we took shelter from the ocean swells on the southern side of Sail Rock for the first dive. A large pinnacle out from Mangawhai Heads plunging to 50m+.

Kitting up at Sail Rock

The divers were meet by large stingrays and huge schools of blue mao mao once they entered the water and drifted gently along the deep walls enjoying the excellent visability. From Sail Rock we took a short trip across to Taranga Islands in the Hen and Chicks group for hot drinks and a snack before the second dive.

Having a break between dives.

Our second dive was on a pinnacle rising steeply from a flat white sandy bottom at 25m. Full of small caves and overhangs and adorned with colourful jewel anenomes. The highlights were encounters with large octopus, moray eels and more stingrays.

Octopus at Hen and Chicks

The wind got up a little on the return trip, but we still managed to get back to Omaha by 2pm…plenty of time for a stop at Matakana on the way home for an ice cream !

Unloading the boat at Omaha after a great days diving !

Our new dive boat, Whakaari Express, made 3 trips to the Poor Knights Islands this month. As Whakaari Express cruises at 50km we made it out to the Islands in 20 minutes from Tutukaka Marine. That left us plenty of time to dive, tikky tour around the islands and get back to the marine by 2pm. Because of our speed, we are looking at being the only operator to offer 3 dive days to the poor Knights…so stayed tuned!

We made it to some of the top sites including Sugarloaf, The Pinnacles, Northern Arch and Middle Arch.

CLICK TO ENLARGE PHOTO

We are heading up to Tutukaka soon after New Years for an extended stay to dive the Poor Knights. Check out out TRIP SCHEDULE for dates and CONTACT US to book your space.

The Pinnacles – CLICK TO ENLARGE

Check out a short video of our diving adventures at the Poor Knights:

To make life easy launching the boat off a decent ramp, we headed up to Whangaroa for 3 days to dive the Rainbow Warrior and Cavalli Islands. The Whangaroa inlet is a stunning location and only a short 20 minute run out to the Cavalli Islands.

The team onboard, moored over the Rainbow Warrior.

The visability was excellent at 12m+ and we knocked out 2 dives on the Rainbow Warrior on the first day. The following day we made the first dive on “True Love” reef and headed off to a nearby island for the second.

A big thanks to Evan and the team at Sunseeker Lodge who pulled out all the stops to look after us and make our stay comfortable…we’ll be back !!

3 days and 6 wreck dives completed ! Congratulations to all the students on our Diploma in Professional Scuba Instruction who completed  6 dives which will credit towards their Specialty Wreck Instructor qualification.

DIPSI 1 at Tutukaka Boat Ramp

We headed up to Pahia for 2 days to make 4 dives on the Canterbury Wreck, and finished up with 2 dives on the Waikato Wreck out of Tutukaka on the way home.

Senior instructor, Nick Wyatt, took them through wreck deployment and limited wreck penetration skills.

It was a great shake down trip for our new dive boat, Whakaari Express, which is an 8.5m alloy RIB powered by 2 x 200 hp Yamaha engines.

We are pleased to announce that our new 8.5m dive boat, Whakaari Express, recently passed it’s survey for 12 divers and 2 crew. “Whakaari” is the Moari name for “White Island”, as this boat was originally set up to take sightseers out to White Island from Whakatane…so it is very strongly built and travels comfortably even in quite rough waters.

Loading up for stability test at Gulf Harbour

Thanks to the 12 volunteers that joined us on Sunday morning with full dive gear, including 2 tanks, to help us through the additional stability tests required when transporting scuba divers.

Dive Crew

The vessel passed with flying colours (note: even fully loaded the pontoons do not even touch the water).

Heading out fully loaded

Our new dive boat boasts the following features:

• 8.5 m Alloy RIB
• 2 x 200hp Yamaha outboards
• GPS chart plotter
• 2 x Depth Sounders
• VHF
• Automatic and manual bilge pumps
• Safety Equipment – EPIRB, flares, Scale 1 first Aid Kit, Medical Oxygen, 2 x fire extinguishers, 2 x bailing buckets, throw rope, 2 x life rings, binoculars and life jackets
• 2 x purpose built dive ladders
• Dive Bench – each diver has a 1/2m seating and kitting up area with their own equipment storage box and 2 x cylinder clamps.
• Chemical toilet
• Electric anchor winch

Our new survey limits allow us to venture further afield to dive destinations we couldn’t previously reach in our smaller boat. We already have trips planed to all the Outer Islands of the Hauraki Gulf and Poor Knights. Check out our trip schedule ONLINE for more information – http://divehqalbany.co.nz/dive-trips

Stay tuned for NEW destinations such as the Coromandel, Bay of Plenty and White Island…coming soon.

We look forward to welcoming you on board !

Boarding the dive boat