Welcome to Tech Dive NZ's blog. Here we keep you updated with what we've been up to.
For details of our upcoming trips and courses, have a look at our Dive Trips page.
Tonight the NZ contingent of the Blue Creek Project team is getting together to discuss future trips and what to focus on next. Planning isn't quite as much fun as actually diving, but most divers seem to manage to talk about there sport ok....
Where has all the great weather gone? We've had grey skies and cloud in Niue for most of the week and were looking forward to geting back to the NZ sumer. Not happy!
Yippee - diving again, but only just. The sea is still pretty lumpy, but as it is Annie's birthday she took us out to dive - Sand River and Gothic City again. The visibility is still superb (40m+) and the temperature a chilly 28 degrees. It's a tough life.
We still haven't been able to dive again, so instead we headed off to explore all the terrestrial caves dotted around the islands. Fingers crossed the weather improves soon.
No diving today or yesterday as the waves are too big - courtesy of cyclone Cyril. Fingers crossed it passes us by safely and the wind drops soon.
Today was our first full day in Niue and we went diving this morning with Annie and Ian from Niue Dive. First dive was Gothic City - great coral and the second dive was Sea Snake Gulley - lots of sea snakes as you'd expect. And as a extra bonus we got to swim with dolphins during the surface interval - a superb start to our trip.
Jamie and Kev spent today working on and then successfully testing a nitrox system for Mazurka - which means we can now do live-aboards at the Poor Knights with nitrox for every dive. Yippee! And should we get really adventurous we can also start doing trimix fills onboard!
An even better day than yesterday. Demoiselle Rock and Pinnacle Number 4 today - which both had superb vibility and were fishtastic. Cruising along a wall at 60m and being able to look down at least another 30m is spine-tingling! This is probably the best series of 4 dives we've ever done at the Knights.
Two beautiful sites today: Phil's Nob and Boarfish Reef - both new sites for us and both with superb visibility at depth. With scooters and trimix we were happily exploring below 50m.
Awesome conditions for a day out diving the wreck today. Christian and Mike had 3 excellent dives and then a very unexpected experience to end the day........ Keep an eye out for the trip report which we'll post very soon.
Our first newsletter for 2012 is now available on the website - a little delayed but we've hugely expanded it and added lots more content. We hope you enjoy the changes.
Christian and Mike are heading up to Tutukaka to dive the HMZNS Waikato and to continue their survey work tomorrow. Does anyone fancy joining them for diving - the weather forecast looks awesome. Contact Dive! Tuts directly to book.
A group of us headed down to the lake today to do some skills practice. Somehow between 10 of us we managed over 40 tanks - overkill maybe?
This afternoon we headed out on Tim's boat to dive the Minato Maru. Great sea conditions, lots of sunshine, found and got a shotline on the wreck no problems, dropped to 20m with good vis. (4-5m) and then hit the sludge. Vis. at the bottom was 1m maybe 1.5m max. Ho hum - maybe next time we'll be luckier.
Day two aboard Mazurka and we did Northern Arch, Middle Arch and Riko Riko Cave. There was a very distinct thermocline at 27m with some fabulously clear water and loads of stingrays! And as an extra bonus we even got to see a Sunfish.
Two days crewing aboard Mazurka with OceanBlue started today. We enjoyed Mary's Wall, Landing bay Pinnacle, Big-Eye Cave, Shark-fin Cave and Meditation Wall today. Everything is wonderful when the sun shines.
Today we took Hemi for a blast about on the Halcyon T16 scooters - enjoying Seal Rock, Demoiselle Rock, Taravana Cave and Maomao Arch. It's amazing how far you can travel with these things. Apart from getting lost at Seal Rock Hemi reckons it's the most fun he's had diving for a long time. And we even saw a relatively big School Shark.
More deep trimix diving for Mel, James and Jamie today. This time Dive! Tuts dropped them by Tie-Dye Arch and they headed off with the scooters again - and found a big cave not marked on any of the maps at 65m. As you can imaging Jamie was smiling! We need to go back to measure it properly but we're certain it's bigger than Scary Cave, which makes it the second biggest totally underwater cave at the PKs (so far discovered....).
Today Mel, James and Jamie enjoyed the tranquility and super clear water at 75m at the Poor Knights. Dive! Tuts dropped them by Light Shaft Cave and using the scooters they explored along the east side of the island and ended by heading right through the Tunnel to meet up with the boat in South Harbour. Beautiful dive.
The Rena container ship which ran aground 3 months ago has finally split in two, with the stern section sinking below the surface. This is clearly a huge environmental disaster for New Zealand - lets hope the authorities can contain the worst of the oil and debris.
Five years ago today Mel and Jamie arrived in New Zealand as residents. Which means NZ passports at some point this year!
Mel and Trevor headed up to the PKs today for another chance to improve their scooter skills. They 'only lost each other temporarily' and came back with big smiles. Expect to see lots more scooter dives this sumer.
So what was originally planned as just a first chance for Trevor to try out his new Halcyon R14 scooter turned into something a bit bigger. Tim, Mike, Ed, Christian, Sian, Chris, Ben, Jamie, Mel and Trevor all made it to the lake - even with the unseasonal rain pouring down. Mel, Jamie and Trevor headed off to enjoy a rapid blast around on the scooters, but some very poor vis meant the speed adjustment wasn't quite set to full......
Having decided to avoid the dreadful weather over the new year period we headed off for our first 2012 dives today - a buoyancy clinic.
Happy New Year Everyone! May 2012 bring you all the diving you wish for!
Merry Xmas everyone. Hopefully you will all have an enjoyable and fun break, filled with friends, food and frivolity. And just in case you get bored and need something to read our final newsletter for 2011 is now available, including 3 Xmas quizzes to keep you busy.
Don't forget tonight is Tony F's leaving do in Newmarket - see Facebook for details. Tony is off to the UK just after Xmas - let's hope he can cope with the cold and the big tides.
Casey left at 6am this morning and now we have to start the big tidy up. We have a huge mound of damp gear, boxes of equipment and tanks coming out of our ears to sort through....
7pm, Auckland University. Engineering Building, room 1.439. 20 Symonds Street. Casey will be talking about his cave diving exploits in Florida, wreck diving in the Solomons and of course Blue Creek. You do not want to miss this!
We are back in Auckland at last. Well Mike and James are still driving the vans, but the rest of us are back.
Mel and James tidied up the cave today whilst Jamie and Trent took the scooters for a spin - reaching the end of the line just before their planned turn time. Big smiles all around.
Today was all about Steve and Casey and the RB80s. Everything was prepared yesterday and this afternoon they headed off for a 3 hour dive. You'll have to wait for the trip report for more details.
We are back at Blue Creek at last, with Trent, James and Mike setting up the habitat and Mel and Jamie organising all the lines in the side passages and clearing out the rest of the old broken line. Everything went well until Jamie's suit flooded - oring failure in the quick disconnect on the pee-valve.
Today Casey, Steve and Trent did photos in the Bolshoi Lounge and Wintergarden, whilst Mel and Jamie explored the Crew's Mess and Kitchens using 30/30 trimix. The difference from EANx32 was really appreciated. Before we headed off we treated Casey to some NZ Green Lipped Mussels. Getting up the hill to the main road was interesting - we needed Brent's truck to help tow the van.
Today we finally got in the water, although not quite where we expected. Jamie took Trent for a big tour and Mel took Steve and Casey to suss out good photo spots. This afternoon we tried to do photos in the Leningrad Restaurant - too much orange snow - but were then sucessful in the engine room and around the prop.
Still more rain although not as torrential overnight - but more is predicted. We grabbed a gap in the weather and raced up to the cave to collect gear - just managing to get back across the ford. (The video is interesting.) And tonight we're heading off to Port Gore to dive the Lermie for a couple of days, which is when the rain is supposed to stop.
Headed off early to look at the main ford - no chance of crossing. So instead Steve took Casey, Mel, Trent and Mike for a tiki-tour to look at Riwaka and Harwood's Hole. James and Tom headed off into the bush to look for more caves and Jamie prepared all the gas for the RB80s.
Well the weather report was acurate - rain, rain and more rain. Mike and Tom headed into Nelson to get wood for bench seats in the cave to aid kitting up whilst Jamie and James prepared for the rest to arrive.
Three more trips with gear today and another dive. Jamie and Tom extended the main line into the Cathedral and removed all the loose line from the restriction to the entrance.
Today we did 3 trips each with gear - that's 10.5km - fitness is important. We have set up the zip line and because the weather report is suggesting rain on Sunday we decided to do a dive as well. James, Tom and Jamie laid the main line down to 35m and had a look about. The gravel slope isn't too bad, the restriction is not to tight and there is no flow currently. The vis. is good, but there is a lot of loose broken line everywhere, obviously destroyed during the winter.
Mike, James, Tom and Jamie are now all on site. The compressor is set up, the food is unloaded and plans are being made for tomorrow.
It's all go. Casey has boarded his plane in the USA, Jamie and Tom fly down to Nelson this afternoon. Tomorrow all the gear will be transported to the cave site and on Saturday the first dives will begin. Everyone is getting excited.
Our two expedition vans left Auckland today, fully loaded with 2 tonnes of equipment. RB80 tanks, 6 sets of doubles, 19 stage bottles, plus a mountain of tools and other equipment. We have enough to set up a medium sized dive shop!
Mel and Jamie did a final test dive in the lake today to see how the various extra thermals are working and whether bottle rotations can still be done in big clumsy dry gloves. All systems go - next dive Blue Creek, yippee!
If everyone could just go out and vote ........... oops, can't say as it's against the law......
Our November newsletter is now available in the usual place. Make sure you have a good look through the 'What's coming up' section as we've released dates for lots of exciting trips in 2012.
This morning James, Tom and Jamie got together at the lake to try out their new gear for Blue Creek: 10mm hoods, dry gloves, new thermals. Tom loves his new 4th Element Halo undersuit, Jamie loves his new hood and gloves.
The NZ based members of the BLUE Creek Project team got together tonight: Mike, James, Mel, Tom and Jamie. Dive plans, equipment list, survey ideas, emergency equipment - we have a very big to do list.
Clearly the highlight of today is Jamie's talk at 2.30pm. It's all about overhead environment diving in NZ - Blue Creek Resurgence, Horahora Power Station and the Mikhail Lermontov. Don't miss it!
The weather here in Tauranga is superb and we even saw the Rena this morning as we drove in. Fingers crossed lots of people come to the show.
6pm and we're all set up at last. The main hall looks great, the ship wreck display is very interesting and the photo competition has some very high quality entries. The next two days should be great.
We're running around today finalising everything for the conference at the weekend. Tomorrow is set up day and then 9am Saturday NZ's first dive conference for many years kicks off - it's going to be good!
Another awesome day of diving: Northern Arch, Tie-Dye Arch and finishing with the Waikato. This has been an awesome 3 day trip.
How many great sites can you squeeze into one day? Cream Gardens, Cave Bay Wall, Scary Cave, Red Baron Caves and Blue Maomao Arch. Days this good only come around once in a while, so you have to really make the most of them.
Jamie is guiding at the Poor Knights today and for the next two days. He started with some great dives today: The Canyons, Taravana Cave, Big-eye Cave and finishing with Shark-fin Cave. Tonight they are sleeping in Rikoriko Cave.
Today is the last day of Andrew's 1-on-1 open water class and Jamie is putting him through his paces in the lake. Lots of finesse required, lots of ascents. Hopefully all the hard work up to now will pay off.
Jamie and Andrew dived up at Goat Island today and experienced a very mixed day of weather. But having already used the dry-suit, full undergarments, hood and gloves in the pool the transition to open water was easy. Maybe this is how all open water courses should be taught?
5am the alarm went off. 6am we're downtown and Jamie is warming up. 6.45am the quarter marathon starts. 55mins 30secs later Jamie crosses the finishing line, amazingly with energy to spare. Back home by 9am with the rest of the day to do.....?
We've been working hard on the gallery for the last week and have now released dozens of new photos, many previously unseen. Enjoy!
Tonight is the second pool session on Jamie's 1-on-1 class with Andrew. More skills neutrally buoyancy just to prove to everyone it can be done!
Jamie dropped the compressor off for a service today. We want to make sure everything is perfect for our Blue Creek expedition in December.
Today we received the best ever excuse for not coming diving this evening: "I injured my oesophagus drinking too much after the final and prob shouldn't dive." Amazingly it's true - if you can't trust a lawyer who can you trust?
We finished the course today, with Chris and Ed having come a very long way from the beginning. (Honestly - a helicopter engineer who didn't know how to do helicopter turns..)
Another 8.30am start but an earlier finish today so everyone could head off to watch the ABs become world champions - with everyone under strict instructions to be on time tomorrow.
8.30am and we're at the pool ready to do the Fundies swim test. (275m timed swim followed by 15m u/w breath-hold.) By 9.00am we are off to the lake for the dive session. We start with fin kicks on the surface, followed by dry-runs of the basic 5. Then we have a 50min dive, then another 50min dive, and then another 30mins just for good measure. Then we head off to get tanks filled, watch the video and run through some theory - nitrox and dive planning. Finally at 7pm we call it a day - very tired, but a little ahead of ourselves compared to normal classes.
Chris and Ed start their Fundies class tonight, with James interning. It will be a nice gentle start as usual, but it won't stay that way.
Jamie was teaching the first pool session of a 1-on-1 open water class tonight, with his student Andrew using a dry-suit. Easy-peasy, by the end of the session Andrew was hovering. Any instructors who say you can't teach open water in drysuits should take a visit to the colder parts of Europe...
Woke this morning with a small hangover, courtesy of 'The Cloud' and an All Blacks win. Then headed off early to dive Horahora Power Station with Tom. Conditions not as great as last time, vis. dreadful and a little current. But Tom still managed to get some cool shots. See my talk at Oceanz to get the full run down.
Just realised the 10x10x10 final trip report we had part of in the newsletter hadn't been uploaded onto the website - but it's all fixed now - and even before anyone sent us a helpful email reminder.
The October newsletter has now been uploaded onto the website in the usual place. Enjoy.
Oil from the container ship has now reached Mount Maunganui beach. Let's hope the rest of it can be pumped out soon.
What else is there to say? Semi-finals here we come!
Will Mel and Jamie still be speaking after the match later today? Mel is supporting France (where she grew up) and Jamie is supporting England, country of his birth. Someone will be upset.
Jamie has been signed off as NZ's first ever full cave diving instructor - congratulations!
Liberian-registered container ship Rena has run aground on the Astrolabe Reef north of Tauranga. The 236m vessel struck the reef yesterday and has started to leak oil. The environmental impact could be severe as the ship contains over 1,700 tonnes of fuel. But the possibility of a new wreck to dive is very exciting...
Jamie, Merv, Matt, Peter and Arwen are at the Poor Knights today exploring the caves.
TDI Instructor Trainer Merv Maher (original instructor number 41) arrives today to put Jamie through the final stages of his Cave Instructor rating. Nipper has been exploring caves since the 80s and has a wealth of experience. We're looking forward to picking his brains.
Today is Jamie's 40th birthday! Looking forward to the party tonight.
Today was the last day of our 10x10x10 extravaganza and we celebrated with an early dive at Northern Arch. It was a case of Salp soup, with what would have been great visibility massively reduced by thousands and thousands of salp. Jamie also signed off Ali and Tim with their GUE Fundamentals 'tech' passes - well done guys.
What a start to our final trip! Blue skies, sunshine, calm seas - you could not ask for better conditions. On our way out this morning we were joined by a pod of Bottlenose Dolphins, with 4 riding our bow wave for over 15 minutes. Kent, Ali and Christian all got some great photos. Our first dive was the drift from Wild Beast Point to Northern Arch - Christian and Jamie made it all the way, Ali and Tim got side-tracked by more dolphins. A dolphin encounter underwater - pretty rare! For our second dive we returned to 12-Fathom Reef and were again surrounded by 100's of fish, including two enormous Bastard Cod (Pseudophycis Barbata) who took exception to our anchor. For our thrid dive we did Red Baron Caves, which was the only one of our 10 top sites we hadn't visited. Which means Christian is the winner of the free weekend trip with OceanBlue - successfully completing 9 of the 10 sites, 2 more than John Lee.
It looks like the weather forecast for this weekend is great - and we have a couple of last minute drop outs. Anyone fancy a weekend at the Poor Knights?
Wellington now has 3 more GUE qualified divers. Congratulations to Brendon, Geoff and Serena - very well done guys!
The first two evenings of theory are now completed for the GUEF class. Many thanks to Splash Gordon for hosting us.
Jamie is down in Wellington for the next few days running a GUE Fundamentals class - lets hope the hail stops...
Our September TDNZ newsletter is now available in the usual place. We hope you enjoy it!
The report from our Great Barrier Reef trip is finally uploaded. Better late than never.
Jamie is back in NZ after his foreign odyssey. Who fancies watching the rugby tonight - England vs Argentina?
After two days of no power and no phones Jamie is back in the modern world again. The hurricane didn't disrupt him too much, although he can't fly out of the USA until Saturday now.
Jamie was supposed to be flying out of Boston airport tonight, but that's not going to happen with all flights cancelled. His USA trip is going to last longer than expected...
Jamie is in Venice (Italy) today visiting the Suex scooter factory, where Halcyon scooters are made. He is doing the maintenance course - it's a tough life.
The August newsletter is now available in the usual place AND the report from our recent trip to Truk Lagoon has now been added to our reports page. Read all about the 13 incredible wrecks we dived.
Christian's report on the 10x10x10 weekend is now available on the website. His granny even makes an appearance.
Today Tony and Jamie took on the swamp and the mud at the annual Tough Guy event down in Rotorua. They completed the course in just under an hour, crossing the finish line together, placed 425 out of 1465 entrants. They are definitely going to be sore tomorrow.
This weekend we head out for our 4th scheduled 10x10x10 winter diving challenge trip to the Poor Knights. And we're expecting at least a couple of people to chalk up the necessary 6 sites and claim a free days diving. We'll keep you informed.
You might have noticed how quiet it's been on here for the last couple of weeks - well we've been away for some winter sun - Chuuk Lagoon and the Great Barrier Reef. As soon as we've caught up with all our admin we'll get the trip reports on to the website.
The July issue of our newsletter has just been added to the site. Read about James and Jamie's big scooter dive all the way around Goat Island.
Don't forget it's club night TONIGHT everyone!
Cas and Ed joined Tim today, with the focus being on stage/deco bottle handling. We did gas switches, ascent practice and various failures. The last two days have been lovely for diving - blue skies, warm air and pretty good vis. Not bad for the middle of winter!
Tim got a workout today - 1-on-1 training sounds good, but it means there's no let up in skills and time to catch your breath whilst other students practice drills.
Tonight will be the second night of our AN&DP course - and it's dive planning and tables time. Last night we covered the maths, deco theory and some of the differences between technical and recreational diving.
Today Jamie and James took the new Halcyon T16 scooters out for a blast, doing a complete circumnavigation of Goat Island (about 5km). They spent a bit longer than planned around the far side of the island, exploring every crack and crevice they came across - including one which definitely requires another trip - this time with a reel. Yes it really is long enough for that!
Chris B's report on his unplanned Introductory Cave Diver course is now on the website. Can you work out who Kenny is?
Our latest newsletter is out. We have a report on our recent Introductory Cave Diver and Advanced Wreck Diver classes, details of our two recent 10x10x10 trips and all the usual good stuff.
It's all go for tomorrow - a day drift dive down the river followed by a night drift. And then a deep trimix dive to follow on Sunday morning. Yippee.
The wind died down a little, but it was still pretty choppy on the western side - but with a boat of experienced divers and an understanding skipper we managed to anchor up on Landing Bay Pinnacle for a couple of dives. Of course everyone wanted to do Taravana Cave - Pete and Mel went all the way into the mermaid on the first dive, but the trainee Intro Cave Divers took two dives to get their line properly laid. But a good effort in the end guys.
The wind was lighter but the swell was still giving us issues today. We started with Air Bubble Cave and Hope Point - lots of fish in the cave. And then we did Venus' Cave and the Tunnel - where Jamie caused a 'silt-fest' for all his Introductory Cave Diver Trainees. We ended the day with a night dive in South Harbour, where the cave divers practiced line skills - fun fun fun.
Today Jamie was supposed to be teaching Claire and Pete from Windy Welly how to cave dive - but it was a case of Windy Tutukaka - too windy to head out. So instead they went to Wellington Bay (near Ngunguru) to do some practice. Unfortunately the visibility was dreadful (about normal for the Welly guys then....).
Jamie has finished writing the trip report for our first 10x10x10 Poor Knights weekend. Enjoy.
It's club night tonight - at the Abbey. We'll be there from 6pm onwards. See you there.
Well from amazing vis. and loads of fish life yesterday we came crashing down to reality today - the vis. was terrible. But that didn't stop us having a good time - although John somehow managed to get lost in a cupboard.....
A perfect day at the Knights. We started with a trip into Taravana Cave which was as exciting as always. Zooming in and out with scooters was awesome. Then we did possibly the most 'fish-tastic' dive we've ever done at the PKs, 12 Fathom Reef. It was simply wall-to-wall fish - even Kev had to get in for a dive. It was a real WOW dive. And we finished with Scary Deep, which means we hit 5 out of the 10 sites on our list. For everyone on the trip it means only one more dive site and they've won a free days diving. How good is that?
A good start to our winter diving challenge - two dive sites down: Phil's Pins and Fraggle Rock Chimney. A fair bit of swell today which made life difficult, but the forecast for tomorrow looks better. Also took the scooters out for a spin - lots of fun.
It's nearly time for our very first 10 * 10 * 10 diving weekend up at the Poor Knights. 6 of us are going on this first trip and the second weekend is already booked out. The weather looks pretty good so fingers crossed we tick off lots of sites and get close to giving out a free days diving. And even more excitingly (for Jamie at least) the new Halcyon Scooters get their first run out this weekend as well. Jamie and Mel will be taking the T16s up to the PKs and Pete Mes and Andrew Simpson will be taking out the R14s for a blast as well. Yippee!
Jamie has finished the trip report from our Sunday dive to the Minato Maru and uploaded it to the usual area. Enjoy.
Just back from diving the Minato Maru - Mel, Jamie, Mike and Christian. Compared to our last trip on Boxing Day the vis. today was awesome, 4-5m. It was enough to be able to easily navigate around the wreck and identify where you were. And the sea was flat, the sun was out and the water was still a balmy 18 degrees even at 28m. Lovely dive. We'll put up a trip report as soon as possible.
Well it's taken a while (some excuse about computer problems...) but Hamish's cavern diving course report is finally in. You will need to look back to 11th February in the trip reports list to find it. It's good reading for anyone thinking about doing the cavern class with Jamie.
Congratulations to Hamish, Chris, Tony and Christian for successfully completing the cavern diver exam tonight. Don't forget everything you've learned guys........
The latest newsletter is out - hopefully many of you will have received it by email, but if not just look in the newsletter section of this website. It is a particularly full issue this month, with two trip reports and a new classified ads section. We hope you enjoy it.
Christian, Mike, Tony and Chris went diving today, without being properly supervised. Read all about it in the trip report - apparently there was an issue with chocolate brownies.
Anyone who can remember back to the 21st October 2009 will be familiar with Horahora - if not I suggest you read the trip report from 18 months ago. Anyway, a flooded power station in lake Karapiro, NZ's first hydro-electric station to be precise. We went searching for it, located it, but due to conditions couldn't dive - but now we have. Matt and Jamie went out with Mike from Karapiro cruises and did a fully reccy of this site - pretty knarly, but also pretty exciting. One look at the sonar images should get any keen explorer salivating. The trip report will be up in the usual place shortly.
The wind had dropped a bit and so had the chop, although the swell was bigger, but lazier. And the weather report predicted better conditions as the day went on - time to explore more of the deep reef at Ngaio Rock. This time there were 4 of us, Andrew from Global joining as his rebreather buddy had bailed with a cold. We dropped to 60m to the black coral tree Andrew had seen yesterday and then continued down a ridge of reef, stopping at 78m. We could have gone much further as it was still dropping steeply into the depths. The reef had lots of black coral growth, plus plenty of yellow finger sponges and gorgonian fans. There was also a lot of fish life, which was definitely not used to seeing bright divers lights very often. This was an awesome dive - we will definitely be going back.
The wind was blowing, the swell was rolling in, but Noel and Glenn on Yukon Charters still managed to find us a reasonably sheltered spot. We (Mel, Jamie & James) had been a bit worried our trimix was going to remain unused on the boat, but Ngaio Rock provides plenty of scope for deep diving so off we went. We had 25mins on the bottom, hittng a max. depth of 55m, although the reef definitely drops much further. Vis. was pretty good and it wasn't dark at all. We just didn't get quite deep enough for the black coral. Maybe tomorrow.
Today has been a busy day. Jamie has been helping out with some underwater filming for the 34th Americas Cup. The aim was to get shots of Americas Cup yachts racing overhead, followed by a shot where the camera breaks the surface and sees a yacht racing away in the distance. Jamie's job was to make sure the cameraman was safe and not hit by the boats - running at 20+ knots. Look out for his report in the next newsletter. And tonight we had a house-warming/Blue Creek presentation/club night. There was about 15 of us and we had a BBQ, several beers and then listened to all the details of the Blue Creek trip Mel, Jamie, James, Mike, Steve and Trent did in February. It was a good evening.
Don't forget it's club night tomorrow. 6.30pm onwards at Mel and Jamie's new house - text for directions. As well as beers and a BBQ Jamie will give a talk on the Blue Creek trip and we'll even have the habitat we used on display for those who maybe curious.
The weather is looking grim for the weekend, far too windy. Which means pulling the pin on the Cavern-Intro-to-Cave combo weekend, plus some fun diving tomorrow. WE ARE NOT HAPPY!
Today was the last day of the fundies class and as usual there has been a big improvement in skills throughout the course. Congratulations to Tim on getting his 'rec' pass. Matt has a provisional, but as soon as he nails the back-kick and his trim whilst task loaded he will be a solid 'tec' pass.
Yesterday Mel and Cas enjoyed the Canterbury, today it is the Sisters. Jamie enjoyed the lake - hee hee.
This morning we did the swim test and then a long water session, about 5 hours at the lake. James C has been interning as part of his GUE Instructor prep and Tom has been our cameraman. Let's see who falls asleep in the lectures first.
Matt and Tim have just finished the first day of the fundies course - all lectures, skill videos and equipment prep. As they left they looked a little bit nervous about the diving tomorrow. And for once it is Mel who is having fun going diving whilst Jamie works - she's up at the Cowshed with Cas for a few days. Will Mel be able to talk Cas into going inside the Canterbury?
Our new scooters have been shipped and are in the air, on a plane somewhere between Italy and NZ. Yippee.
Tonight Kev and Jan from OceanBlue are celebrating their wedding anniversary and they're having a party. Don't expect any blog entries tomorrow as we'll probably be feeling a little fuzzy around the edges.
Tonight a couple of us headed out into the darkness of Lake Pupuke to do some training. John has signed up for Tech 1 in July, which means perfecting his skills in a mid-water no reference environment. And what could provide a better no vis environment than lake Pupuke in the dark? Hovering at a depth of 5m with only the buoy line as a guide we did valve drills, S-drills and bag deployment and it was a great example of how difficult these skills can be when you have no references. Valve drills are not too bad because one of you can manage the depth, but S-drills are definitely harder when both divers are task loaded. Definitely another example of the benefit of having a third team member.
Cas, Tony, Christian, Mel, Jamie and Tony's mum all enjoyed some exercise today, with Sian adding encouragement from the sidelines - we think being 6 months pregnant is a reasonable excuse not to run. The rain held off, except for a short 5 minute period; in fact towards the end of the 5km run it was getting a bit too hot. Jamie doing the 5km run was first in and Mel (or was it Cas) was last in doing the 10.5km walk. Christian just missed out on a personal best for his 5km run as he was 'encouraged' to start a bit too fast and Tony ended his 10.5km run with a proper sprint to the line. All in all a good day, finished off with a lovely brunch in Orewa. Roll on the next race - the tough guy challenge in August.
It's Saturday morning and as I write this I'm staring out of the window at the rain bucketing down. I really hope the weather gets better before tomorrow morning otheriwse our 'fun-run' in Orewa is not going to be that much fun.....
Just back from two great days at the Poor Knights. Yesterday we did dives at Crystal Cave (also known as Scary Cave), Oculina Point, Shark fin Cave and Big Eye Cave and today we did Northern Arch, Middle Arch and Blue Maomao Arch. The visibility has been lovely, 15-20m everywhere, which made the 3 arches today particularly impressive. We were lucky enough to have a large (ish) Bronzy come and check us out in Northern Arch first thing this morning and then we saw a hammerhead at Middle Arch. A very cool days diving!
Jamie is crewing on Mazurka (OceanBlue) today and hoping the warm blue water from the weekend is still around.
Well it's been a bit of a prolonged nightmare, but finally Mel and Jamie have all their stuff in the new house. It's the first time everything has been in one place since April 2007. Only one slight problem - it looks like Jamie's mum has thrown away some of Jamie's teaching aids for the advanced wreck class. Hmmm.
OK, so Jamie's plans for a last evening in the summer sun at Mission Bay aren't happening - he forgot about the clocks going back... See you all at De Post in Mount Eden from 6pm onwards.
Christian, Mike, Tony and Astrid have continued our mapping project today, or at least tried to. Conditions on dive 2 were atrocious, possibly the worst the team has ever seen up at Tuts. It was so bad none of them entered the wreck on the second dive - which is unheard of for this group. And worse still, Tony managed to catch some very nasty hydriod stings to his cheek and upper lip - leading to a trip to A&E - we hope you get well soon Tony.
It looks like the wind has ruined our planned weekend at Matai Bay. A northerly wind blows directly into the caverns we wanted to explore - fingers crossed for next time.
The March newsletter has been sent out today. It has details of OZTeK, Blue Creek, Riwaka Resurgence; dates for the 10x10x10 Challenge; an interview with Tony F; plus all the usual stuff. If you don't get a copy by email it's also uploaded onto this website.
Only a small hangover this morning. Glad to be back in NZ - pumped up and ready to plan some new expeditions.
Another awesome day - ending with the Gala Dinner. Going to have a hang-over in the morning.
An excellent day with some great talks. The highlights were listening to Rick Stanton talk about Pozo Azul, Casey McKinlay talk about the WKPP and Simon Mitchell talking about Carbon Dioxide. Leigh Bishop's talk on the death of Carl Spencer was also excellent - a somber lesson for us all.
This morning Jamie has been diving the Coolooli, out of Sydney, courtesy of PADI. Awesome visibility; except in the area of the plaque which Jamie and Alex visited at the end of the dive. Own up - who needs some finning practice? OZTeK starts tomorrow - yippee!
Jamie has just returned home after a weekend exploring dry caves in Waitomo. He visited Coincidence Cave, Zweinhohlen and Matthew's Cave - the latter even had a sump although it was too tight and brown to get through on this occassion. Now he just has to wash all the mud away and count his bruises.
Tonight about 15 of us met up in The Horse and Trap at Mt Eden for a few beers and lots of diving discussion. And we also welcomed Rita and Neil who have just moved to NZ after 20 years in Hong Kong. If they think the water is cold right now then the winter is going to be a major shock. Welcome to NZ guys!
Another group of us are heading out to see Sanctum tonight, 9pm at Sylvia Park. Anyone interested should email asap. UPDATE: Well we've seen the film and the caves definitely look beautiful. However, it was very eerie watching Agnes Milowka (stunt diver stand in for one of the actresses) acting out drowning underwater when you knew it actually happened for real only a couple of days ago.
It looks like Jamie has made the front cover of the CDAA (Cave Diving Association of Australia) magazine, Guidelines. The picture shows Jamie in 'A' tunnel in Blue Creek Cave and was taken by Steve Trewavas, National Director of the CDAA during our recent trip.
Tragic news: Australia has lost one of it's brightest lights in the cave diving world. Our thoughts go out to her family.
Jamie and Mike have returned after their epic journey back from Blue Creek. They were a little delayed getting from Picton to Wellington as the ferry had an influx of refugees from Christchurch, but other than being a little tired from 2 days on the road they are bursting to tell everyone about the trip. You have been warned.
Tonight a TDNZ group headed off to see the big hollywood cave diving movie Sanctum - and amazingly most of them are still not put off from exploring the underworld. A couple commented about wanting to see more diving and less dry caving, but everyone agreed the film was visually spectacular. Jamie hasn't seen it yet so no one give the ending away please - as if you couldn't guess....
A frantic day here at Tech Dive NZ geting all the equipment ready for our big expedition to explore Blue Creek in a couple of days time. Let's hope the van suspension holds out!
Mel is 21 - again - enough said, unless you want to comment on how young she looks.
Congratulations to Tony, Chris, Hamish and Christian for successfully completing the Cavern Diver course this weekend. For some reason they want to be known by their nicknames: James, Limpet, Ripper and Spoons - you can ask them why at the next club night. As for their team name: 'The inflatable friends' - probably best not to ask.
Today Jamie has been putting Christian and John through their paces on the Advanced Wreck course. As usual he didn't need to cause too many problems as Christian and John created enough of their own. Remember - no lines diagonally across hatches guys.......
Today Mel celebrated her birthday (a few days early) by climbing into the Extra 300 'Red Bull Air Race' plane at Ardmore Airport and going for a thrill ride. Running through 9 separate stunts she experienced 6Gs and speeds of up to 400km/hr - and smiled all the way. What will she do next year for her 40th? - oops, should we have said that?
Mel and Jamie have just got back from a four day dive-fest down south, diving NZ's biggest and best shipwreck the Mikhail Lermontov. It was an incredibly successful trip, with several long dives focussed on the Crew's Mess and surrounding areas. They also managed to find and scope out routes into the lower decks, which will be the focus for the next trip in October. Look out for the trip report and photos which we'll try to get uploaded as soon as possible.
Tonight a big group of GUE divers got together at the lake - one of our regular gatherings. 10 of us went in the water and a few stayed dry and offered encouragement from the shore. Congratulations to Christian who successfully passed his GUE Fundamentals revaluation dive.
Jamie has spent most of this morning perfecting our continuous flow trimix blending set up. After a few mathematics errors and the addition of some extra pipework the system is now working perfectly. And it's portable - so we can go anywhere in NZ and take our full trimix blending set up with us. Let the exploration begin!
*!&^%"(* and other suitably unpublishable expletives. The third tropical storm in three weeks has arrived right on cue to ruin another great diving weekend. We were supposed to be diving out at Volkner Rocks, but we've had to cancel. Everyone is pretty upset as the trip we did last year was spectacular, with some of the best and most memorable diving of the year.
Today we discovered a whole pile of trip reports from October to December 2010 which had somehow never made it onto the website, so Jamie has spent several hours adding them. The reports include our October Mikhail Lermontov trip where we completed our traverse of the lounge deck, two reports on the GUE Tech 2 class and Jamie's review of 2010. We hope you enjoy them.
Jamie and James have been perfecting their nitrox blending today and doing more prep work for the upcoming Blue Creek trip. We’re not sure what the neighbours make of it all – some type of mad science experiment maybe.
Tonight Jamie did a talk at DiveShack on Dominion Road, all about cave diving. He explained a little about the difference between caverns and caves, explained some of the motivations that drive cave divers, how he got into cave diving and also a bit about some of his trips to caves around the world. It’s looks like we have a few more converts – and Blue Creek will definitely be seeing more visitors over the next few years.
Ahhhhhh, the weather has kyboshed us again! We were supposed to be at Goat Island for a club dive tonight (postponed from earlier in Jan), but the tropical storm means surfing rather than diving is a better option. Look out for the next date.
Today has been a planning day for our big Blue Creek trip in February - working out how to move enough gear (compressors, tanks, O2 and helium bottles and more) all the way to the middle of the South Island bush. Any keen divers out there who own a helicopter? Anyone…….
This weekend we are Matai Bay – supposed to be running a cavern course but the wind is too strong. We did head out in the boat this morning, but aside from having a bouncy ride and seeing the water was lovely and blue, we didn’t achieve much. However, it wasn’t a total waste - lunch at the winery is always good. Christian complained to Jamie that his prior trip reports should have included a picture of the amazing view as if he’d known about it earlier he could already have visited this fabulous part of the country. The afternoon was spent doing lectures and line laying drills, whilst Mel and Cas cheered on (after a couple of extra wines) from the side-lines.
Sunday still had too much wind for diving although it was good for the bush fire across the valley. For the townies it was amazing to see quite how old the rural fire trucks were, although the sirens sounded new. Mel and Jamie headed off to enjoy Cape Reinga, 90 mile beach and the sand dunes as there was no diving – Mel’s first ever trip further north than Matai.
Today 8 of us are surveying the HMNZS Waikato, adding to the work in progress currently being managed by Mike and Christian. Mel and James have added a lot of amendments for deck 1 and Jamie and Tony have added a lot of detail to the Engine room and Boiler room. Still got a lot more dives to do before this project is completed, but days like today are great for really pushing it along.
Jamie, Bruce, Dean and Charles are out diving with OceanBlue again today. The first dive was Landing Bay pinnacle and looking at the photos Kev posted on Facebook it is clear the visibility is awesome. The second dive was Taravana cave where Jamie lead Bruce and Dean in through the main entrance and out through the side entrance – looks like Dean could become another cave convert…
The wind got up overnight but it was an amazingly peaceful night in South Harbour. First dive was Northern Arch where Jamie was lucky enough to have a small Bronzy come up to check him out and then hang around for almost 5 mins, which is pretty unusual. (He should really get a camera sorted out!) Matt’s crack was the second dive where Jamie and Dean went in and out twice as it was so good. Bruce is sitting the rest of the day out as he has a very early flight tomorrow and his first dive was deep and long. Finished the day with Big-Eye Cave and Shark-Fin Cave. Dean has definitely been converted to the dark side.
Amazingly a day off from diving, although Mel, Mike, Tony and Christian all got together to discuss plans for the Waikato survey project on Friday. We think we should get some good results!
Jamie has been out crewing on Mazurka for the last 3 days, enjoying the relative calm of the western side of the islands whilst the rest of the day boats laboured in and out everyday. The water clarity has been very mixed, with a warm green murky layer of water giving challenging conditions on a couple of dives on day one, but colder blue water making for spectacular diving later on. The orcas seem to have temporarily scared away many of the stringrays, but the eagle rays are still cruising about and the group had one shark sighting at Northern Arch.
Red Baron Caves, Scary Cave and Shark Fin Cave were all explored during the 3 days, as well as The Canyons, Great Wall, Mary’s Wall and Middle Arch. Fingers crossed the colder blue water stays around for our trip on next trip on Wednesday/Thursday!
Jamie has headed up north to start the best part of 10 days of diving. He's crewing for a three day liveaboard on Oceanblue this weekend, then got another two days again with Oceanblue on Wed/Thurs, followed by diving on the wreck of the Waikato Friday and a Cavern course up at Matai Bay on Sat/Sun 15-16th. Lucky Mel has been left with the phone and the emails...
Unfortunately our plans to go shore diving at Goat Island for club night tonight had to altered due to the gusty northeast wind. We’ll try again on Wednesday 19th January. Instead a few of us got together at our old favourite, The Abbey on Great South Road. As usual Mel managed to talk a few people into more diving and it looks like the cavern course next weekend is now full.
Jamie has spent the last couple of days down in Tauranga with Janine Delonge from Oceanblue and JK Training and between them they have successfully introduced 22 new people to the joys of First Aid at Work. Jamie is now certified to issue the relevant standards so if you have any requirements for training at your company within Auckland, you know who to ask!
Tom and James spent today exploring the west coast, specifically looking for some dolines (sink holes) near Kawhia. This was a repeat of an unsuccessful trip James and Jamie did back in November, however this time Tom and James found the site they were searching for. Unfortunately coastal erosion appears to have caused these sinkholes to become choked and inaccessible. James has promised to keep researching more sites.
Jamie has ordered two new helmets today (one for James), which hopefully completes their side-mount set-ups. Mel just hopes they don’t get stuck anywhere. As soon as we have details of their first trial runs we’ll let you know.
Today we’ve spent the day working on dive courses and trip plans for 2011. Mexico, Truk Lagoon, Europe, Australia, White Island, the Lermontov, Blue Creek, Pearse Resurgence – they’re all on the list for this year. Jamie has also sorted out the formatting for the new style TDNZ newsletter and done a new flyer for GUE classes. Mel has been working on the TDNZ website getting all the dates updated and cleaning up the mess that Jamie usually leaves.
Happy New Year to all the divers out there. Everyone here at TDNZ hopes 2011 takes you to new and interesting dive spots and gives you safe and exciting diving. Cheers!
Day two of the Primer course I started on Xmas Eve. In total during the course we’ve done four dives, plus plenty of lectures and skills videos. Max and Sophie were looking pretty tired by the end of it, but keen to continue on to do the GUE Fundamentals course early next year. Sophie – work on that back-kick. Max – work on your buoyancy whilst task-loaded. See you next year guys – well-done.
Today we finally got to dive a wreck we’ve been meaning to dive for ages – the Minato Maru. It is a completely intact Japanese long-line fishing vessel which sank close to the Noises (Hauraki Gulf) in 1983. Jamie and Mel went out with Mike S on his boat ‘Elle P’ hoping that the marks they got from the SDNZ forum were accurate – and they were spot on.
The wreck shows up perfectly on the echo sounder and with no tide running and flat conditions we were able to land our shot just behind the wheel house. The only downside of today’s dive was the visibility, 1-2m maximum on the wreck. However we were able to explore enough to get into the wheel house and into the stern section of the wreck and also to see that there are other areas which would be accessible to side-mount kit. Jamie will definitely be going back.
Today Jamie is teaching a GUE Primer course for Max and Sophie. We’ll do the second day on the 27th Dec. We recommended the Primer course for these two as neither of them has been exposed to GUE training and ideas before, nor have they done any other technical training. This should be the perfect introduction.
Today I will cover an introduction to GUE, the GUE equipment configuration and also show some skills videos. We’ll also do a couple of dives at the lake to start working on the basic skills – finning techniques, buoyancy and trim, basic 5 and S-drills. It’s going to be a long day – but hopefully a good learning experience and a lot of fun.
Jamie is working for OceanBlue today and tomorrow, leading some dives at the Poor Knights and enjoying Kev’s cooking. An excellent weekend’s diving and I even got to dive a new dive site for me yesterday – Mary’s Wall. The visibility is spectacular at present and the water is very blue. Most of the selps have gone and there are stingrays everywhere. Middle Arch was the highlight of this trip, 30m+ vis. Unusually we also saw a Blue Bottle/Portuguese Man-of-War jellyfish floating past.
Tonight we had the TDNZ dive club Xmas drinks at our old favourite The Abbey on Great South Road. There were about 15 of us in total, with some drinking a little bit more than others – you know who you are….. The next club evening will be a dive at Goat Island on Thursday 6th Jan, followed by drinks at the Sawmill (next to Goat Island Dive).
Congratulations to Rob and Akiko on your wedding day today. Best wishes, we’ll be thinking of you.
A really busy day. Five of us plus Kev went out early this morning on Mazurka; Mel and Tom to do some cave surveying, Jamie, Peter C and Matt S to complete the Introductory Cave Diver course.
Our first stop was Taravana cave where Mel and Tom took down some more anchor blocks for the main survey line and then started to lay the knotted line Jamie had prepared. Of course doing all of this at around 30m was guaranteed to get Mel narked, but amazingly it was Tom who was most impacted – the stress of diving with Mel perhaps.
Also in Taravana Jamie was putting Peter and Matt through their paces – getting them to lay the penetration line and then deal with multiple light failures and an out-of-gas situation. Thankfully they laid the line 10m above the cave floor so narcosis wasn’t a problem for them.
The second dive was in Scary Cave. Here Mel and Tom went off to explore the fresh water section in the main chamber whilst Jamie caused yet more problems for Peter and Matt. BUT Jamie does want to point out that the entanglement suffered by Matt at the start of the dive was entirely his own making – nothing to do with the troublesome instructor – really. However, the lost lights, slack line and valve failures were down to Jamie. As Matt said at the end – “It’s a long time since I’ve been that stressed in a cave.”
James has been doing a lot of research into karst areas in NZ and came across the Tarawera underground river, which has both submergence and resurgence in close proximity. It sounded irresistible so today James, Tom and Jamie headed down to check it out.
Finding the resurgence was easy – it is a waterfall coming out of the middle of a cliff face, 65m above a boulder pile. Not really a good dive spot.
And they found 3 submergences; one was very tight and involved an abseil into a small crack. It was also only 50 from the resurgence so probably not a good idea. The second was comfortably far enough from the waterfall, but had so much water flowing in that all you could see was foam and froth. Definitely a one-way trip!
The third submergence was in a relatively calm river pool, although a sign on the bank warned against swimming. Tom and James ventured into the water, using Tom’s dry-suit and fins (shame the mask was left in the car and all they had was swimming goggles). This entrance might be possible, but the flow is still high and rope/some type of climbing gear is probably required to guarantee being able to exit. Anyone up for the challenge?
This evening we had our second GUE diving get-together at Lake Pupuke. Jamie, James and Steve B. got in run through the basic drills and brush away the cobwebs, whilst Chas and Tom decided to be a bit more adventurous and try 3 bottle rotations. Oddly enough they hid from the others.
Several others came along to say hi and ask questions. The next GUE get-together is Feb 1st.
