Another December weekend and the skies were blue and the water getting warmer. There was a bit of a breeze, so we sheltered behind Hope Point for the first dive. Plenty of fish in a current sweeping round the corner at depth and a variety of Nudibranchs up in the shallows around Air Bubble Cave. Headed down to South Harbour for dive 2 in Blue Maomao Arch. The Maomao, Demoiselle and rays of light were all present and rays cruised along the channel - a classic summer dive at The Poor Knights Islands. A calm evening was spent at Fraser's Landing with a pleasant dive around the shallows, with Janolus Mokohinau on the wall and rays in flight across the sand.

Sunday morning was another stunner - it was already HOT at 9:00am. We started at Cream Gardens with some great vis (still a few salp around that side of the islands, but one storm and they'll be gone).  No sharks on this occasion, but Eagle Rays and Blue Fish were darting about the wall with some monster crays crawling about the place. We'd heard reports that Tie-Dye Arch at The Pinnacles was 'going-off' again, so we headed over to check it out. Calm seas, blue skies and squaking gannets greeted us at the surface. The divers got in and headed for the arch - an hour passed before the bubbles came back out again! A dozen or more Stingrays circling in the archway, along with Kingfish, Snapper and Trevally  - Kent was so 'overwhelmed' by it all that he only managed to fire off this one shot!!

The other guys headed into the deep part of the channel and the boulder and swim-throughs that are down there. One of them had a Carpet Shark resting in it and one of the others had a large long tailed Ray blocking it! To sum up - action everywhere!! Water temp 18C and vis a good 15-20m - Hello Summer!!

On another note - a big well done to Crispin Middleton for finding a new fish species for the Poor Knights, some kind of Tripod (or spider) fish. Check it out on Wade Doak's site:
http://www.wadedoak.com/_disc1/0000115d.htm