On Saturday I went out with Dive HQ Whitianga on their boat Scuba Doo to the Mercury Islands. This was my first ever trip out to the Mercs, but my second trip out with these guys. The crew is pretty good, and I really like the boat - really easy to get in and out of and well set up. The seas were almost dead flat, and we missed the little bit of rain that some parts of the coromandel got. Natny wasn't able to dive, so I was paired up with a German guy called Wolfgang (I've always considered that to be a pretty cool name hence I had to mention).

The first dive site was at Middle Island. Max depth about 15m, and was pretty boring really, apart from this one really cool random archway with heaps of invertebrate life on the ceiling. That archway was pretty much the only thing worth mentioning.

The second dive was somewhere at Great Mercury Island (the big one). I found it even more boring than the first, and again I think the depth was quite shallow. The only interesting thing we saw was one eagle ray.

The next day I went out with Dive Tairua aboard Island Cat to the Alderman Islands. Dazzzler, UXB and friends were aboard their other boat, Scuba Diver.

This was my fourth trip out to the Aldies, and it never disappoints. The first dive was at Gorilla's Bum - so named because it is behind the rock formation that looks like a gorilla's head. Heaps of fish - we had heaps of sandagers following us for the whole dive, saw a few eagle rays, but no crays.

We spent the surface interval at the same spot, and during lunch someone from the other boat found a turtle, so I quickly put some gear on and swam over there. I got there just in time, and got to watch it for about a minute or so. It was my first ever turtle in NZ, so it was very cool. Natny was quite gutted as she was ashore again, unable to dive.(Dazzler and UXB might be able to elaborate on the turtle as they were watching it for a while and I think UXB was following it on scuba)

The second dive was at Honeycomb Caves, and it was awesome. This site is named after the honeycomb like appearance of the series of connecting caverns. They aren't really caves as the surface of the water is below the cave ceilings, so isn't an overhead environment. This meant that it was perfect exploring for the divers on board. The conditions were quite surgy, but this added to the fun as we got to rocket through the caverns in between holding on to rocks. Didn't see much in there fish wise, but on a calm day you may get to see the reputed colourful invertebrate life on the walls. Photographers would have got some cool pics of the cavern system (Dazzzler?). There were heaps of fish in the bay outside the caves though. This was my favourite dive yet at the Aldermans, and its pleasing to see the new owners Tony and Linda are doing a good job.

I wouldn't be rushing back to the Mercs, but am definitely keen to head back to the Aldies soon!

(Sorry about the complete absence of photos, but hopefully I will get a camera in the next few months. Dazzzler may have some photos worth posting.)

I've still not yet dived the Aldermans - I'm even more keen to take a look now.

Mercs sound pants - were you dropped at crappy dive sites, or was that just typical of the area??

There are some great dives around the Mercs, Richards Rock, Never Fail Reef being some of the highlights. I was out there yesterday and the water was beautiful and blue, and much cleaner than Castle Rock and South Sunk Rock which I'd dived the two earlier days.

I was fishing so didn't get into the water. But there were big school of tuna swimming around.

Here is as brief a report I can do, without boring you all with every detail.

I had organised a group of 6 of us from work to hire a house and dive the Aldermans with Dive Tairua over Easter. Weather was looking stunning. 19 degrees of water and a half to nil metre swell.

I had heard that The Aldermans are stunning and compared to The Knights with the highest regard. I was a little sceptical until I arrived at the island. The topography of the Island and clarity of the water was inspiring!!

Nothing beats good company, good weather and good diving..

SATURDAY:
We arrived at Tairua Dive at 9 am expecting a little bit of haste in getting us sorted and away for the day. To be surprised by an hr and a half of fluffing around and multiple forms and maximum confusion. I'll delve into this a little later. But there is some things they need to work on.

As Gingerninja said, we were on scuba diver Saturday and after being told of the 20 minute trip to the Aldermans, we arrived 45 mins later in dead flat seas....

We had seven divers on board. 6 from our group and one recently qualified open water diver who had done a total of four dives in Thailand. She seemed really good value and fitted in as best she could. (I'll delve into this a little later as well).

Dive one was at a spot no-body from the shop had ever dived called Anchorage Bay (or similiar). Dropped into 18 metres of water having no idea what to expect, no briefing, no suggestion, no idea.



The bay is in the southernmost island before you start heading up the seaward side of the Island group. Myself and my 3 month qualified girlfriend dropped down to 18 metres and checked her new gekko on the bottom to compare depths on my mosquito which matched at 18.3metres.







A good start. We headed across the sand taking in a small eagle ray and ended up on acres and acres of weed covered reef. While stunning for a short time, in became apparent we were only going to see this for most of the dive. I looked constantly for crays under the kelp beds. Spotted four or five that were well out of the hands reach.




We eventually found some large boulders and swimthroughs at about the 8 metre mark and took in some Sanddaggers wrasse and Demoiselles.. The last half of the dive was really nice, surfacing with about 100 bar after my girlfriend starting to feel the cold. 40 odd mins and 18.3 max depth.
We were a little underwhelmed but positive..





Dive Two was on the seaward side of the Islands, Orca Bay, it was a stunning little site with a great wall and huge boulders to delve and in around in. Stunning clean water, good viz of 20 odd metres. the 7 of us constantly ran into each other and had a great time taking videos and photo's of each other. Again a 40 off minutes dive, no crays in site but very similiar kinda dive to a good day at Goat Island but with more depth.
This time we took the open water student with us and looked after her. I checked her computer at 8 metres and it was reading 1.8 metres. It was definitly playing up!!! With no real depth issues she dived with us and we surfaced once she hit 50 bar after 40 odd mins. I still had 90 bar but was about done...









The 45 minutes ride home was a haze of tiredness and pisstaking.

Sunday to follow.........

The Turtle Vid.