So this year we headed to the Poor Knights on our annual Labour weekend trip.
As a club we chartered a boat from Yukon Charters, which meant that we had control over the dive sites we went to and the time we spent at each site. Our first dive was to Long Cave (Matt’s Crack). This is a cave which is a large crack on the eastern side of the Poor Knights islands. At this time of year the cave is a meeting ground for crayfish to gather and to breed. Slipper lobsters can also be found inside.
After a casual surface interval, we headed over to the Riko Riko cave for our second dive. If you haven’t had the opportunity to go to the Poor Knights yet, the Riko Riko cave is certainly something you must see! It is the largest natural sea cave in the world. Inside the cave are boulders, nudibranch, sponges and on the entrance to the cave on the right side, the walls are covered in amenones and bluebell Tunicates. It certainly is an amazing explosion of colour.
We all stayed at the Tutukaka Holiday Park for the weekend and went out for an evening meal (not forgetting the Rugby of course) on Saturday night.
On Sunday, we headed out to the Waikato wreck. We had 3 x boats between the divers and we all got to dive the wreck. Conditions were great and everyone had a great time. Later in the afternoon the group split up to visit different sites and go crayfish hunting.
A Sunday evening BBQ to enjoy some crayfish and local steak was a great round off for the weekend. We even had time on Monday to go for another couple of dives and conditions were brilliant. Flat, calm water and plenty of hungry cray divers. Unfortunately the crayfish eluded most of our divers and only 2 were caught. They will be waiting for next time
Thank you to Yukon Charters for hosting our Saturday at the Poor Knights, and thank you to the member’s who brought their boats up north for the weekend. We had a great time and its now time to relax and prep for our next adventure!
Also a special mention to Norman, one of our newest divers who had a great time and has now clocked up 8 dives!
Botany Bottom Scratchers 