E-mail from our very own Roving Correspondent, now in New Zealand  - aka Philippa Sim

 

Hiya to all at Mid Herts Divers,

 

I have some very important information for you regarding the club . . . we must organise a dive trip to New Zealand :-) I went diving up north in the Poor Knights Islands and it was amazing! A poor day by their standards apparently but we saw loads!

 

There is quite a weird variety of marine life as you get the "local" species mixed in with a lot of tropical species which come down on the east Australian current (most of which then just get eaten by the native species but hey!) We was shoals of cuttlefish, many species of moray eels, stingray, shoals of puffer fish rapidly trying to escape a load of big hungry snapper, gigantic sea gooseberries, cleaner wrasse being harassed by various other fish who wanted a bath, loads of nudibranchs and lots of other miscellaneous fish I would be able to name! Jacques Cousteau apparently rated the Poor Knights Islands in his top 10 dive sites EVER and I can see why!

 

I am now down in the South Island and hoping to get some more diving in either the Milford Sounds area or on the east coast around Kaikoura. the Milford Sounds could be pretty wierd as the first few meters are fresh water and as you go down into the salt water level all the tannins from the fresh water run-offs make it realy dark really quickly so you get loads of deep sea creatures living in relatively shallow water. Kaikoura on the other hand has gigantic crayfish . . . tough decisions :-)

 

hope all is well back home

 

Phil

Good luck Philippa, hope to get some more blogs of your diving trip and see you in the Autumn!