Part of the joy of dive travel is meeting new marine life as you explore new dive sites.
So armed with Marine ID books and cameras we were keen to get underwater and start exploring on our recent Poor Knights trip.
We ticked off a number of new species on the very first dive including Sandager’s Wrasse, snapper, trevally, blue maomao, black angelfish, 2 spot demoiselles, yellow & grey morays, scorpionfish and more.
We loved seeing the larger species, especially the Long & Short Tailed Stingrays and the schools of Kingis however as we did more dives we started seeing more of the small stuff such as nudibranchs and blennies. The corals, sponges and bryozoans on the walls add colour and texture that just has to be seen to be believed.
We did see some species that though common here in Wellington were much rarer up north including butterfish, banded & scarlet wrasse. However no spotties or blue cod were noted.
We were also lucky enough to encounter a large pod of dolphins chasing flying fish (and man those fish can fly – easily flying 50-60m to escape)
However the best sighting off the trip had to be the boy’s experience at Matt’s Crack where they encountered a Turtle! & yes it’s true – they have a photo to prove it!
Claire – Dive HQ Wellington