The Poor Knights Islands are located 24km off the northeast coast of New Zealand’s North Island. The closest town is the sleepy little village of Tutukaka, about 200km north of Auckland.
Washed by the East Auckland current, originating in the Coral Sea, the Poor Knights Islands receive clear warm water year round. These currents contain tropical larvae and larger tropical species normally seen in much warmer waters. Over summer tropical species flourish and mingle with the more common temperate species. Divers are likely to see Lord Howe coralfish, banded coral shrimps, turtles, manta rays and even the odd sunfish. It is this rich diversity of tropical and temperate species that saw the Poor Knights Islands declared as a marine reserve in 1981.
Diving the Poor Knights Islands can be done as a day trip from Tutukaka, with a number of operators running daily dive trips. However, we wanted time to explore the islands more intimately, so booked onto the liveaboard vessel Mazurka.
We planned our trip to the Poor Knights for late February, as this is one of the best times to visit the area. Water temperature at the islands varies from 14C to 24C, while the visibility is usually 20 to 30m, but it can get down to 10m over summer due to algal blooms, and up to 40m over winter. The months of February and March are an ideal time to visit the Poor Knights as the water is still warm, 20C to 22C, and the visibility is consistantly over 20m. This is also the best time to see large numbers of stingrays, one of the main reasons we had travelled across the Tasman.
With Mazurka departing at 8am, we arrived in Tutukaka the night before and stayed on the boat at the marina. We had booked on a three-day trip, followed a few days later with a two-day trip. The weather and diving conditions were looking great for both trips.
The next morning found us motoring out to the Poor Knights Islands with flat seas and very little wind. On the way out we were hoping to see dolphins and whales, especially orca, which are common to the area, however all we saw were sea birds and little penguins. As we headed out the watercolour quickly changed from green to deep blue and was starting to look very inviting.
The Poor Knights Islands are an impressive sight, towering cliffs rising 200m high and the islands topped with lush vegetation. There are two main islands and dozens of smaller islands in the Poor Knights group covering an area of 200 hectares. Protected as a national park, landing on any of the islands is prohibited, as they provide a home to many endangered plants, birds, insects and reptiles.
Our first dive was at Landing Bay Pinnacle, a huge rock rising up from 40m to 6m. We dropped down to 30m and did several circuits of the kelp covered pinnacle as we slowly made our way back to the shallows. On every dive we did there was thick kelp beds standing around 1m high, found from the shallows to very deep water. Under the kelp were sponges, bryozoans and coralline algae – forming a kaleidoscope of colours.
At Landing Bay Pinnacle we found nudibranchs, triplefins, scorpionfish, leatherjackets, wrasse, moray eels and several firebrick sea stars. We also saw small schools of pink and blue maomao (a sweep like fish) and ran into a large short tailed stingray as it glided along the wall. Many of the species we encountered were similar to those found off southern New South Wales, only with different local names or slightly different colours.
After a filling lunch, Tiana and Glenn produce many wonderful meals in their galley, we next dived Middle Arch. One of the unique features of the Poor Knights is the amazing caves and archways, and there must be hundreds of them above and below the water. Middle Arch is a wide archway cutting through a rocky peninsula. The bottom of the arch is 18m deep and littered with colourful coralline algae and sponge covered boulders. Among the boulders abundant reef fish and quite a few moray eels could be seen. We found yellow, grey and mosaic moray eel species. Some of the eels just had their head exposed, while others were lying out in the open.
The walls of Middle Arch are coated in sponges, bryozoans, anemones, ascidians, algae and small gorgonians. We also found nudibranchs, blennies and triplefins amongst this colourful fixed life. A school of blue maomao shelter in the arch, as well as snapper, trevally, morwong, demoiselle, wrasse, leatherjackets and a few kingfish. Three short tailed stingrays swam through the arch, making for a spectacular sight in the clear blue water.
That afternoon we dive at The Gardens, exploring a maze of rocky gutters in 4m to 12m. A roll of film didn’t last long at this site, as the fish were friendly and abundant. Snapper, silver trevally, morwong, demoiselle, pigfish, marblefish, leatherjackets and kingfish swam around us. But the best were the inquisitive sandagers wrasse that peer into your mask. We also saw more stingrays and other divers were lucky enough to spot a manta ray. There is also an impressive cave at this site known as Shark Fin Cave. Only 3m deep it cuts into the cliff face and is home to blue maomao.
That evening Nigel did a night dive with Glenn on Meditation Wall. This wall drops from 8m to 21m and is covered in sponges and bryozoans, and home to a wonderful variety of invertebrate life. Glenn was looking for a rare nocturnal nudibranch, and at the end of the dive found one of these lovely orange sea slugs.
The next morning we motored up to Northern Arch, the most famous dive site at the Poor Knights. Above the water it doesn’t look anything special, just a small opening in the rock wall. However, underwater the arch opens up to be 12m wide and extends all the way to the bottom at 42m. Glenn anchored on the southern side, allowing us to swim along a steep wall before reaching the arch. Entering the arch is a spectacular sight – sheer walls covered in colourful fixed life and massive schools of fish.
We dropped down to 33m and looked up at all the schooling blue maomao, pink maomao, golden snapper and trevally. A number of short tailed stingrays glided past us. We were hoping to see up to fifty of these rays as they gather at Northern Arch in a mating aggregation. However, Glenn had earlier informed us that the stingrays had disbursed early this year as the water temperature had dropped at the start of summer. What we did see was impressive enough, snapper, kingfish, moray eels, Lord Howe coralfish, scorpionfish, yellow-banded perch, butterfly perch and many more fish species.
Our next dive was in the largest sea cave in the world - Rikoriko Cave. This cave is so large that a dozen boats can fit at one time. Above the water it is immense, a huge air pocket left over when the islands were created by volcanic activity around 10 million years ago. At the entry to the cave the water is 18m deep and the sheer walls of the cave make an impressive sight. The floor of the cave is littered with boulders, which are home to moray eels and reef fish. Light penetrates to the back of the cave, but a torch was very handy to see all the fish and invertebrate species. At the back of the cave it is around 8m deep, and looking towards the entrance was a magic sight with hundreds of fish silhouetted in the beams of filtered sunlight.
One of the biggest highlights of this dive was on the safety stop when we were surrounded by thousands of koheru. They were swarming around us, being corralled by a pack of hunting kingfish.
That afternoon we dived Blue Maomao Arch, a wonderful cavern with two main entrances and a side skylight. With a maximum depth of just 12m we could have spent all day in this cave, especially since the visibility was 30m. This cave was again coloured by a dazzling collection of invertebrate life and provided shelter to the usual reef fish. There was also a large school of blue maomao circling above us during the dive. The play of light in this cave is just amazing, something that was impossible to capture on film.
After three wonderful dives everyone was too tired to worry about a night dive. Instead we enjoyed a barbeque and some red wine as we watched the sun set over the New Zealand mainland.
The next morning the brilliant weather continued. We voted to dive Northern Arch again for a repeat dose of this brilliant dive site. Then onto Jan’s Tunnel, which was another fascinating cave dive, with the usual rich marine life.
With such calm conditions Glenn decided to take us down to The Pinnacle, a rock sea stack several kilometres south of the main Poor Knights Islands, for our last dive at Tie Dye Arch.
This cave is simply stunning, a huge cavern with three large entries that are big enough to drive several buses through. Fish were everywhere, schools of blue maomao, pink maomao, leatherjackets, stingrays, wrasse, snapper, trevally, red pigfish, morwong and several large kingfish. Decorating the walls, ceiling and floor of the cave were sponges, bryozoans, gorgonians, ascidians and coralline algae - a wonderful patchwork of colour. We also spotted nudibranchs, sea stars, scorpionfish, moray eels and beautiful triplefins.
It was hard to leave this cave at the end of the dive knowing we were about to return to Tutukaka, but at least we still had two more days to explore these magnificent islands.