The reef diving in the Bay of Islands is completely different from anywhere were else in the world. We have a blended zone with tropical fish brought down to our temperate environment, so often we hear it called sub-tropical.

These wayward tropical fish are brought south by the East Auckland Current. This is a branch of the East Australian Current, or the EAC from Finding Nemo fame. We get Lord Howe Coral fish from Lord Howe Island, Kermadec Scalyfins from the Kermadec Islands, Gold ribbon Grouper, Toadstool Grouper, and Green Wrasse to name a few.

As well as all these tropical fish we see some amazing New Zealand residents. We have the largest Stingrays in the world, with our Short tail Rays getting up to 3m across and weighting over 300kg. We have 5 different types of Moray’s, with my favourite being the Mosaic. Our Scorpionfish get massive compared to the tropical ones. Northern Scorpionfish can get up 60cm in length but don’t have the deadly sting of there tropical relatives.

Water temperature in the bay of Islands ranges from 15c in late winter and early spring up to 22c in late summer and autumn. We dive in 1 or 2 piece 7mm wetsuits and use hoods, boots and gloves in winter. In summer you can get away with a 3mm steamer if a little thick skinned!

Visibility is consistently around 15 to 20 metres, but can get up to 40m in late summer when the blue water is in. This is when we have had east winds for a while and it pushes open ocean water onto the coast. When this happens we can see Sea Turtles, Manta Ray and the game boats of shore often see Whale Sharks.

The terrain that we dive is volcanic in origin. We have great wall dives, caves and caverns, swim throughs and crevasses. Attached to the rocks and boulders is a forest of Kelp. Our Kelp grows to about 1.5m high, so not to the scale of Californian forests, but still very different to tropical coral reefs.