![\"\"](\"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/F69-Wreck-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\nI have been lucky enough to dive some of the top spots around the world \u2013 I\u2019ve seen the swirling
\nvortexes of barracuda in Sipadan, tons of turtles in Thailand, schooling sharks in the pacific, wrecks
\nof WWII in the UK and Europe, shoals of millions upon millions of sardines in the Philippines \u2013 and
\nstill I believe Wellington has World Class Diving! Having been back in Wellington for almost two
\nyears now, people are still surprised that I am just as happy diving here than I was abroad. For me
\nWellington Diving has it all, there are abundant hunting grounds, 2 stunning marine reserves and
\nmore wreck sites than you can shake a stick at. Wellington always has somewhere worth getting in
\nfor splash; and no matter where you are there is always a diverse and unique spattering of life.<\/p>\n
For the hunters among us there is no shortage of dive sites where you can comfortably pick up a
\nfeed. I remember the first Cray I caught was out the back of Moa Point. I was newly certified and had
\nno idea how hard those little bugs can fight! Too scared to burry my arm up to the shoulder in a
\ndeep dark crack I as aiming for the Cray\u2019s hanging around the entrance. All I had been told was \u201cgo in
\nhard and fast\u201d good advice wish I had listened. Instead I struggled with this Cray for what felt like
\nforever trying to twist, turn and pull him from his hole. In the end I got him out, but to say it was
\neasy would be a lie. I still remember the thrill and pride of having gone out and back then going back
\nto a flat of hungry uni students with a couple of crayfish. Hunting around Wellington is still abundant
\nif you know where to go. I try to get out towards Makara as often as I can, though now I leave the
\ntank and regulators behind and take my Speargun and Wettie Composite Fins. I love lurking in the
\nkelp trying to aim up a fish before start to run out of breath. Some days it feels like the fish are just
\nswimming straight into the catch bag for me. I love that I get to dive and hunt around Wellington but
\nwe need to protect what we have. Gone are the days where we should full our boots with food,
\ninstead hunting in Wellington should a way to get only what you can eat and leave the rest for the
\nothers.<\/p>\n
Hunting not your thing? No drama Wellington has two incredible marine reserves: The Taputeranga
\nMarine Reserve stretching from Princess Bay all the way to the old quarry at Red Rocks, and the
\nKapiti Island Marine reserve which covers most of the eastern and north western sides of the island.
\nGetting out for a dive around Kapiti Island is rare for me now but what I have done out there was
\nalways stunning. With deep walls and warmer water the life there is incredible for photographers
\nand nature lovers out to see something call. One dive I made out there as part of a PADI Advanced
\nOpen Water course, I found myself with one extra student for the dive. This extra student was a
\nparticularly inquisitive fur seal. For a good 30 minutes of the dive this same seal would come and go
\njust checking out my students (probably checking out their trim). It wasn\u2019t until the end of the dive
\nwhen I deployed my dSMB for to collect us that this seal decided it had better things to do. You
\ndon\u2019t need to go all that way for interactions like that though. I can\u2019t count how many times I have
\nhad a curious octopus cruise towards my GoPro at the Island Bay Snorkel Trail, the heart of the
\nreserve. The diversity and wealth of life in these two Wellington reserves is why no one comes out of
\nthe water here saying they had a crap dive.\u00a0But every now and again fish just won\u2019t float my boat, and I end up with a bit of lust for rust!<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The\u00a0Greater Wellington region has over 20 different wreck sites, all in differing degrees of degradation.
\nOf course we have our well known wrecks like the F69, Yung Pun and The Progress but those are
\nonly just scraping the surface of what Wellington Wrecks have to offer. Recently Claire headed out on an advanced diver trip in search of a wreck along the south coast. All they had to go on was a\u00a0hand me down story from our Divemaster Alan\u2019s grandfather of roughly where they could see the
\nbow poking out of the water when he was young. The first attempt yielded no result, but the second
\ndive was right on the money. After some research back at the shop we learnt that this was the
\nWreck of the Woollahra. I recently made my own adventure over to Cape Palliser to find the wreck
\nof The Ben Avon. While the location of the Ben Avon is reasonably well documented, I didn\u2019t know
\nthis at the time. So I thought I\u2019d put a few of my search and recovery skills to the test and search for
\nit. I knew the approximate location but that was about it. I can tell you there is nothing like the
\nfeeling of coming across exactly what you\u2019re looking for when you don\u2019t really know where to look.
\nWhile the promise of finding a rumoured 100 year old bottle of whiskey is what drew me to the site,
\nI was blown away with how intact and interesting this wreck was. These two wrecks are an amazing
\npart of our history in Wellington and are something of jewels in the rough in my opinion.<\/p>\n
You can\u2019t beat Wellington on a good day \u2013 it\u2019s true, but Wellington diving is rewarding even on a
\ncrap day. There is always somewhere you can get in the water. Northerly winds tend to keep the
\nsouth coast clean which opens up the Taputeranga Marine reserve or maybe head further east and
\ncheck out the stunning swim throughs and terrain of Breaker Bay. In a southerly we have the Inner
\nHarbour where you can pick up scallops for a feed, or track down some of the world\u2019s largest
\nseahorses. Seeing up to 10 or more 20cm seahorses is not all that uncommon when you\u2019re diving
\naround Kau Bay or Mahanga Bay. The reward trudging through the silty water with limited vis to
\ncome across these massive examples of what looks like evolution gone wrong is fantastic. No matter
\nhow many times I have come across seahorses I still always stop to have a good look and take some
\nvideo. Maybe you would rather head out west to Whitireia Park or Rocky Bay in a southerly where
\nencountering huge short tailed sting rays are common. These local goliaths of Wellington can
\nmeasure over 2m wide, while daunting at first these gentle beasts are truly awesome. No matter
\nwhere the weather takes you in Wellington you\u2019re sure to have a rewarding dive.<\/p>\n
When I say Wellington has world class diving, I mean it. Wellington is a treasure trove of diving to
\nsuit everyone\u2019s wants and needs. We have cram packed crayfish nests, some silty scallop beds and
\nkelp forests brimming with butterfish. Our two marine reserves offer an incredible array of life to
\nadmire and photograph if that\u2019s more your thing. There are wrecks galore to satisfy hardcore history
\nbuffs. And no matter the weather there is always somewhere worth getting your gear wet. I love
\nWellington diving and am glad to be back! How could anyone argue that Wellington doesn\u2019t have
\nworld class diving when it has all of this and more on offer?<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/IMG_1711-300x200.jpg\")
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have been lucky enough to dive some of the top spots around the world \u2013 I\u2019ve seen the swirling vortexes of barracuda in Sipadan, tons of turtles in Thailand, schooling sharks in the pacific, wrecks of WWII in the UK and Europe, shoals of millions upon millions of sardines in the Philippines \u2013 and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":548,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=545"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":551,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/545\/revisions\/551"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}