Three weekend trip went ahead in July, including a 3 day trip and the diving was spread over the sites of The Poor Knights Islands.

The 3 day trip saw us visit a variety of sites on both sides of the Islands. One of the highlights was a dive on Cream Gardens with some pretty good visibility, but sadly no sharks this time, but plenty of Maomao and a school of Kingies out at the point. The wall was lit up by the early morning sun showing the wonderful colours of the gorgonians that cover the wall. We went into the next bay for the next dive and had a lunchtime dive at Barren Arch. On crossing the shallow reef that marks the entrance I was buzzed by a medium sized School Shark, that seemed as shocked to see me as I was to see it - it flicked its tail a couple of times and was off into the arch in a flash (swimming directly over Ali and Cam who were busy taking shots of the wall life). Near the middle of the archway there was a lonely Yellow Banded Perch darting in and out of a small rock overhang. We also managed to dive on 12 Fathom Reef on a calm day - there was, again, plenty of action on the top of the reef and the deeper divers saw some more Kingfish at depth.

The next couple of weekends saw some mixed weather and some varied sites. The Waikato had some good visibility and enough fish for those outside the wreck and some calm clear water for those venturing inside. The entrance to Rikoriko was a great site for some deep dive training, with a Giant Boarfish hanging round the deep rocks. Magic Wall and Blue Maomao Arch lived up to their reputations and Cream Gardens was a great dive again, but alas still no sharks!! Matt's Crack and Air Bubble Cave gave us a bit of cavern action to complete the variety of Poor Knights sites.

The 10*10*10 Challenge continued in August after a no-go early in July. An opportunity to dive some Western sites came up on the Saturday, so we started at Crystal Cave and the guys managed to get to the constriction before they turned the dives on 'thirds' like the well trained divers that they are!! Over to Landing Bay Pinnacle and 'The Window' beckoned. Following simple instructions proved too hard and going round the pinnacle the wrong way meant that they were 10m-15m above the said window when they got to it!! Mel went over to Taravana Cave to give a quick guided tour to a new convert to the DARKNESS. A dusk dive around Blue Maomao was a great way to end the day and an overnight in South Harbour. Early morning had us diving Fraggle Rock and the white sand at 40m had everyone feeling the joys of the deep! Kent caught these Banded Shrimp out and about too!