Well our car load managed to escape the big smoke mid day thursday so we missed most of the traffic. This was my first trip to Matauri bay and coming down the hill I instantly knew we were in for some great diving. The view of the Cavallies was amazing. We decided to skip the late afternoon dive and relax with a few drinks and settle in to the camp site instead.
The wind was blowing at about 20 knots from the east which made for some exciting boat launching the next morning and a bit of chop on top of the 1-2meter swell but once behind the main island of the Cavallies it smoothed out some what for the dives.

1st dive for me was on the 'Warrior solo. I managed a 45 minute dive just keeping out of deco. I did a complete lap of the boat at sand level getting buzzed by a solo Kingi on the starboard side. Once I got back to the stern I made my way up to deck level and was amazed by the life there. Hundreds of demisels guarding their eggs and also heaps Leather Jackets.
Lots and lots of tiny Clown Nudis and a hand full of Jason Mirribalis on the top of the decks.

Dive # 2 was 500meters away just off the rocks. Managed to grab a cray for dinner and spot a few eels. A beaut Mossaic Moray, plenty of Green Morays and an absolute giant Conga at about 4 meters inside a cave with a puffer fish. I really am bummed that I didnt have my camera with me on that dive.

Next day wind was up even more but that did not discourage us. Once again it was the Warrior 1st with Kaz and an attempt at the same spot for the 2nd although I couldn't find it.
We also managed a cool drift dive looking for the local scallop bed. A couple of SODs thied the day before but only came back with a hand full. ( A friendly camp site neighbour gave us some more for dinner). This dive was different. At first the scallops were few and far between but we did see a cute little eagle ray. After about 30 minutes we finally driffted on to a big bed and got the rest of our quota real fast. We got back to the boat with our limit of 80 and didnt find a single undersized scallop. The meat inside was probably the biggest I have seen. Even bigger than the ones we got on the Lermi trip!
Even after repaying our neighbour and giving some more to another we still have way more than we could eat so managed to bring plenty home too.


Last day and we just had to get a final dive in. The wind had died down and the conditions were great. I managed to get a 55 minute dive in with minimal deco on the warrior with some penetration from stern to bow. The vis was a little less than the 10-12 from the previous 2 days but I think that was more to do with the out going tide more than anything.

All in all it was a great trip and I think it needs another go a little later in the year.

But for now Im off to cook my scallops.

Great photos and dive report PH thanks for sharing. I'll be putting my report up shortly

I'd also like to say a big thanks to yourself and Kaz for making the trip possible, it was a most excellent and memorable experience!

Nice shots Packhorse, makes me wanna go back there.

Yeah, it was a shame we couldn't make it on Friday. Good to see you got a few nice dives in.

Well there is always next time.
Which maybe Easter.
May need another boat though.....

A little late... but here goes

Friday we set of leaving Auckland up SH1 through the Motorway tunnel.. saved us about 20min I would say with the amount of traffic that was on there... well worth 2 bucks!.
We finally arrived around 2.30 a little burnt from the drive,
but the views on the way down the hill.. wicked! (shame the Corbin was in the back, otherwise would have been a good place for a pash with the wife... )




The Crib..


Saturday Morning, was a tad windy, but after the reviews from the guys the night before, I was pissing myself with excitement to get out there!!
So off we went heading to the Warrior..

My Buddy for these dives was Jason. I dived to 25 meters to the end of the chain and swam towards my first wreck in NZ..
We swam around her and made our way to the decks, there was so much colour on her, and fish life it was rather pretty (in a non gay way), bottom time was 43min..

Second dive we had the option of diving a reef, but the surge to me looked a tad to rough for my liking, and thankfully Jason was also keen, we got to dive the Warrior again!! woot woot

Second Dive was better than the first, having an idea of the layout I had a chance to play with the camera, unfortunatly not a great deal of good shots came out.. but was pretty stoked to see a Jason Nudi for the first time! was a good dive @ 22m for 39min,






It was a wicked days diving,

Then as it always happens it was time for the dive home! was buggered after a great weekend..
Really keen to head back up there for Easter too

Least someone got to sleep going home!

hey guys had a great long weekend. Great company,great food and great diving.

big thanks to greg for the amazing meals particularly the crayfish and scollies...

on the diving front i had some amazing dives some of my highlights were:
I enjoyed diving inside the wreck with greg.
I saw a really cool grandaddy hapuka and loved the kingfish that came swimming towards us as well as the tons of nudi's all around.
Also cheers to Jason for being a great dive buddy.
I liked doing the drift scallop dive and coming face to face with my first proper NZ shark(it seemed more timid then i thought it would be).

All in all a great weekend with great company at an amazing location

Are you saying you don't do it in front of him? Ever?

I used the word pash because it was polite, what I really wanted to say was shag...

So now would you do that in front of a kid, or even yours?

I don't have any kids, but maybe I would. But definitely not anyone else's kids.

Bouncy cuddles in front of your kids?
Man thats just wrong!

Kinda depends on the age of the kids -
What's acceptable when they are 6 months old is not necessarily so when they are 14...

Definately wanna do the Rainbow Warrior and I still haven't forgotten about what happened back then. All that I can say to those fried Frogs is "Beware the harmless !" This goes upon the fact the Russians turned up on New Zealand's door showing who was boss with a big warship long ago and then low and behold the 's turned another one of their ships into the 2nd best Wreck Dive in the world later on. Wonder what you guys have in store for the French?

Great shots of the macro pics Packhorse.