Wellington has surprised me with its ability to provide Kai moana for Divers on a regular basis, I am still yet to come home empty handed. At the end of a few hours in the water I will have a few Butter fish, Paua and kina. Compared to diving in my home town (Dunedin), some days no food will be caught or seen. The best spot to get food is frequented by spear fisher man and fisherman alike. To have any hope of bringing home a catch would require you to be able to Freedive down to at least 12m.
As soon as I knew I was moving up here I was reading as many facebook posts and blogs as I could. The name “Red Rocks” was mentioned in nearly every post. With no knowledge on the area I thought it would be a good start. Little did I know that the road out there would be a challenging one. Especially for my Car, on my first day off work I entered it into Google Maps and set off. Once I reached the Carpark and saw the rest of the road, my excitement turned to dismay. I sat for a while and contemplated if my Fwd car would even make it past the first ford.
Not accepting defeat I parked in up and donned my wetsuit and started walking. The beach was plenty busy, people walking their dogs and big 4WD trucks taking the challenge to drive out. Once I reached the first point I looked out at the flat blue ocean and decided it was a good enough spot as any. Excited to get in I stashed my backpack in the bushes and got straight in. The water was clear, around 7 meters of visibility at least and water movement was minimal. Whilst kicking out I was seeing signs of fish life, plenty of valleys and kelp around. The further out I got the nicer it became.
After an hour of searching a came across a little reef and spotted my first Butter fish. I dove down about 6 meters with my gun eager to get a catch, the kelp on the rocks provided the perfect cover. After roughly 30 seconds of hiding he swam past. He came by pretty much in front of my gun, going nice and slow with his side to me. I was cautious to move, I slowly took aim and lined up my shot. Squeezing the trigger the bolt flew out of the gun hitting my target just behind the head. Kicking up to the surface, I pulled up the fish and measured it on my gun. Clearly big enough I said my thanks to the fish and ocean for providing.
The wellington coast line has provided for me without fail since I made the move up here. Even though some days the swell can be huge and the water being browner than mud. Pick a good day to go out and you will be amazed!