'April, April, He doesn't know what he wants!' - it generally refers to the weather. I thought it was just for the Northern Hemisphere, but The Poor Knights didn't know that. The month started and ended with big storms, we had some more wind and rain, some calm days, some BIG swell and some small swell, lots of Blue water and the return of the Stingrays. The water was a constant 20 degrees and we even got to dive the Eastern side of The Poor Knights a few times.

The first weekend trip had some fantastic weather and we managed to dive Matt's Crack and Barren Arch for the first time in a long while. In the deeper bay behind Barren Arch there was plenty of action - Pink Maomao were cruising round a rock down at 30m and then a school of Kingfish came out of the blue and swarmed around for a couple of minutes. They were a mixture of large and small and then they shot off back into the blue. A few solitary ones hung around the walls and darted in and out of the baitfish that were forming large balls in the sunny shallow waters.

The next day gave us a chance to visit Tie-Dye Arch on the way home. After a couple of months with little Stingray action it was a pleasure to see plenty of them back in the Archway. Along with the rays were some Kingfish just hanging around the rocks and even 'chomping' on them!? Pink Maomao were also there in numbers and the whole Archway was teeming with life.

A mid-week 2 day trip had us in Nursery Cove, Magic Wall and Big-Eye Cave on day one - all with plenty of fishlife with Stingrays on the sand, Morays in the cracks and Sandaggers above the kelp. Next morning a Bronzie greeted us at the bottom of Northern Arch, a Hammerhead swam near the surface at Middle Arch and Blue Maomao Arch was teeming with Maomao and Demoiselle - Jamie said it was pretty much the best dive he'd had there!! A planned 3 day trip the next weekend was turned into a day trip, but we still managed to get in 3 dives that day (Hideaway Bay, Landing Bay Pinnacle and Blue Maomao Arch). This was followed by a moonlit trip back to Tutukaka.

Easter weekend started with a nice calm day and we even managed to get Janine out guiding for the trip! Mary's Wall, Manta Bay and overnight in Calypso Bay on Good Friday. Saturday morning started at Northern Arch where the Archway was stuffed full of fish -Big Snapper, Huge Trevally, Pink and Blue Maomao and even some Stingrays. Hideaway Bay had Eagle Rays and Stingrays down on the sand and Morays along the walls. Oculina Point was next and the Big Snapper were hanging out in the current - a quick peak into Crystal Cave gave the divers a taste of 'The Darkness!'. Overnighting at Middle Arch gave us a chance of a night dive - the Stingrays weren't sleeping and cruised over, under and around the divers throughout the dive. Some finger sponges were displaying their reproductive systems for all to see.

The morning dive at Middle Arch gave Craig a fright as he saw a big Bronzie out at the point - in his attempts to attract other's attention he managed to drop his camera (thankfully it sank slowly and he recovered it!!). A couple of dives down at Blue Maomao and Magic Wall rounded off the weekend. Janine even took the camera out and managed a few fish shots in the Archway before we headed home in front of another storm front. April gave us some strong winds, but also showed us Stingrays, Blue Maomao, Kingfish and Autumnal Sharks.