NZ Day 10: SCUBA Diving in the Bay of Plenty

Our hectic schedule was making all of us pretty tired but Samuel and I had one more day of adventure booked: diving. I’d booked a day with Dive Zone in Tauranga without knowing much more about what we’d do. Samuel’s priority was to see different things, and we certainly did that. I hadn’t thought about how the 8am start in Tauranga meant leaving Rotorua at 7am so getting up even earlier. Ho hum!

We arrived at the dive shop a few minutes before 8am to find signs stating they’d moved location, but it was only a couple of minutes drive away. We tried on our rental gear, which included a 7mm wetsuit, the thickest Samuel’s worn, as the water temp was going to be about 20 degC/68 degF. We had brought our own masks, dive computers, and flashlights. As well as the heavy tank, I carried 20 lbs of weight to get that wetsuit to sink. Soon everything was in the van and heading the short distance to the boat in the marina. Ella was our instructor/guide for the day, and there were two other divers: Tristan and Tom. Tom also worked as an instructor at the dive shop but was diving for fun on his day off. Dave was the boat captain.

The boat was comfortable for 5 divers, and the air temperature was fine in the 70s, with plenty of shade. It took us about an hour to motor out of the harbor past Mount Maunganui to Motiti Island where we stopped in Waitanaki Bay for our dives.

Ella briefed us and showed us the fish we were likely to see, which were all new to us.

We jumped in and after a bit of initial cold shock, the water temp was fine. I have a GoPro which works for capturing memories, but you can’t expect National Geographic shots!

We descended down the anchor chain and most of the dive was 40-60 ft.

Almost immediately, Ella spotted a stingray which was fun to see so early.

It was lying on the bottom in kelp, which was also new to Samuel and fun for both of us to swim amongst.

Throughout the dive, we saw lots of the Demoiselle fish with the distinctive two white dots. They would come quite close. So I have lots of photos!

We also saw lots of Blue Maomao, but they were more shy.

Peering under rock ledges, I found a couple of crayfish which are like lobster. Also under the rocks and in crevices were Big Eye fish but they stay in the dark so are difficult to photograph.

There were goatfish, always swimming in pairs.

And a pair of Red Moki.

Throughout the dive, we enjoyed checking out various sponges on the sea floor.

Toward the end of the first dive, I spotted a puffer fish. They are new to these parts, probably arriving due to increased sea temperatures.

Just before we had to start going up, we saw a fine John Dory fish who we followed for a while.

At our safety stop (spending three minutes at 20 ft in the water column to ensure dissolved nitrogen has come out of your blood), it was fun playing with some invertebrates that are fish’s food! I was happy the photo came out!

We surfaced after 40 mins with a max depth of 66 ft and a min temp of 65 degF. It was a short swim to the boat and then a bit hard to pull all the weight back up the ladder. There wasn’t much current or swell which was nice.

We then spent an hour at surface. I felt a bit seasick and must remember to take Bonine. Tristan had caught a big crayfish and decided not to dive a second time. We ate a bit and I tried some peppermint tea to try to settle my tummy. Samuel, of course, felt fine.

Our second dive was a little along the coast. It was much the same, but with a hill of 10 or more kingfish, and the others had only seen 2 together before. The visibility was particularly good. Samuel spotted a big crayfish, and we enjoyed the fish, kelp, sea sponges, and sea cucumbers.

There was a thermocline at about 50 ft with a temperature drop of about 5 degrees which was refreshing but chilly. It also made things look blurry.

We surfaced 35 mins with a max depth of 56 ft with the temperature getting down to 62 degF this time. My seasickness had disappeared in the water, which is normal, but this time, it was a longer swim back to the boat.

Back on the boat, we packed up and headed back to the harbor. Samuel and I hung out with Ella and Tom on the top deck. We talked about how Tom had only started diving in February that year, coming over to NZ from England when he was one year old, and was now was about Samuel’s age. His ambition was to become a cave diving instructor and he was going to Florida to train in May, then Mexico, and hoped to work for a friend in Malta. He’d been at school with Ella who was a bit older. They could learn to dive as a high school class. They told us a few horror stories of the customers they get, especially American tourists and British immigrants. Also about the local Māori gangs, who are very nice people and buy very expensive dive gear with cash. Tauranga is NZ’s largest port with shipping from South America. At least once a year, a container ship drops a bunch of cocaine in the water just offshore, hoping to avoid the authorities. The smuggler goes and buys a bunch of dive gear, but is usually caught and the police divers retrieve the cocaine. It was a fun chat and I could feel my forehead burning in the sun.

After the dive, we headed to the house of a great friend of mine from college/university, Vicky. Janet and Bailey took an Uber from Rotorua, with the ride along the roads a bit hair raising. It was such fun catching up with Vicky and seeing how they lived in New Zealand and hearing what their boys were up to. Janet particularly loved all the fruit they grow in their garden, and our kids particularly liked the chicken curry and fruit cheesecake. They’d moved here from Bermuda, where I also visited her – we love to visit people in interesting places. It was odd to think we had met when we were the age of our kids.

Dinner with Vicky and hanging out at their peaceful home was a well-needed time of chilling-out after 10 full days. We also got some great pointers about what to do. Hearing about Vicky’s horrible experience with the smelly, sulfurous mud confirmed we did t want to do that, but hearing about the Redwoods and the restaurant at the top of the Gondola for our attention. We drove back to Rotorua without concrete plans for the next few days but with a few ideas and recommendations to ruminate on.

This page is part of our New Zealand trip set of posts