A very nice weekend out at The Poor Knights with more 5-10kn breezes and all the springtime action to be seen.

Had some Openwater students, so we started in Nursery Cove for some cruisy diving while the others went round the corner and checked out The Labarynth and the big cracks. Magic Wall was next and plenty of Nudis to b e seen and some Stingrays starting to gather in the kelp areas. The day dives ended with Big Eye Cave (full of them) and Meditation Wall - still plenty of Blue Bell Tunicates there. We headed into Rikoriko Cave after dinner and a night dive. Again there was an encounter with a carpet shark and some of the nocturnal nudibranchs.

Sunday morning started at Northern Arch and it was stuffed full of fish as ever. Middle Arch was next and the Stingrays are starting to come back here too, as well as plenty of Morays and the usual colour along the walls. Last dive of the weekend was at Blue Maomao Arch - the new Openwater divers enjoyed the plentiful fishlife on their first non-training dive!! 'Best dive ever' - it was only dive 5, so should be lots more to rave about.

On our way back we almost ran over a small pod of Pilot Whales, just slowly working their way south, about 5nm offshore. We drifted with them for a little while before heading for Tutukaka and the end of another fantastic Spring weekend.

Monday and Tuesday were spent on The Waikato. Jamie and James from TechDiveNZ were testing out some sidemount set-ups for some future cave explorations. I've never seen Jamie grin so much after the dive - squeezing through holes the size of our ship's wheel!! Antone interested in Cave or Cavern diving should check out their website for training dates. The wreck itself was also full of life - a school of 20+ kingfish swept down to check us out as we exited the wreck, a couple of John Dory were in the gap and the biggest Jason's Mirabilis I've ever seen was laying eggs just on the edge of the bow section.

Four days in November with barely any wind, an ever increasing sea temp (16-17) and pretty good vis in between the salps and jellies!!