Conditions Update

We are on a high from a great day yesterday and looking forward to the high being forecast for the next few days.  We did one of our iconic War & Peace trips which we run three times a week, (Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays numbers dependent) where we go across to the Cavalli Islands and dive the Rainbow Warrior, then shoot over to Deep Water Cove for a picnic lunch and to dive the Canterbury before heading home again.

With Visibility on the Warrior up to 15m and the wreck teaming with colour and life we were already buzzing after the first dive.  We had a quick coffee and a muffin before heading across to Cape Brett (around a 50 minute trip) for lunch and to get ready for our second dive.  The trip across the bay was awesome in itself with abundant sea birds to keep us entertained.

Then to top the lot, great visibility on the Canterbury along with plenty of fish life – we spent the whole trip home comparing photo’s and identifying fish and nudibranchs galore!

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Dive Conditions

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone is managing to get out and enjoy some of this fabulous weather we are having, the conditions are absolutely ideal to be above the water as well as below!  We’ve seen an increase in marine life in the last 10 days, great fish life out there ranging from our reef divers the other day being absolutely surrounded by blue maomao and demoiselle’s to wonderful photographic opportunities with the eagle rays, especially further out along Cape Brett peninsula where we have been finding clear water with 10 – 15m visibility.

Seems once again the Bay’s food chain is proving to be a healthy one with the abundance of birdlife and marine mammal’s coming in to feed, with a Humpback whale sighted last week, two Brydes whales – mother and calf in middle ground, Orca’s putting on a great show for us off the end of the Paihia wharf, before we know it we’ll have manta rays out there again.

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Dive Conditions

Just taking the opportunity to update you on dive conditions out in the Bay, the good news is the water is warming up with surface temperatures now at 16.5 degrees.  The bad news is the visibility has been extremely low with the algae bloom that’s in and around the Bay, ranging from North of the Cavalli Islands to South of the Poor Knights, it’s been around for the past 10 days.

The inner Bay is providing the best conditions with much better visibility and it is about 8 meters in Deep water Cove, a vast improvement on a couple of days ago .

Algae grow almost everywhere in the world and they are a vital part of the aquatic ecosystem providing food and shelter to other organisms.  There is no easy definition of an alga. Algae are generally microscopic organisms that are generally thought of as simple aquatic plants which do not have roots, stems or leaves and have primitive methods of reproduction.  Most blooms can be recognized by the discoloration of the water which results from the density of pigmented cells.

We are keeping a keen eye open on conditions whenever we go out there with our water taxis so if you have divers that wish to go out and you are not sure about conditions just give us a call.

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