»
Underwater, fish
Friendly fish, all from marine reserves. Well, not all of them are that
friendly - the scorpionfish have a particularly malevolant glare, bigeyes
just always look nervous to me and the big snapper at Goat Island will
bite at anything you're carrying because they think it must be food. Tiny
triplefins to cruising kingfish, dull grey sweep to vivid pink maomao and
lots in between.
»
Underwater, morays
Yes, eels are a kind of fish, but I thought these ones deserved a space
of their own. They're iconically creepy-looking, but really quite mellow
(unless you're a small fish).
»
Underwater, nudibranchs
They may be small, but they're startling and strange! Some are lividly
vivid and others cryptically colourless, but they're all fairly cute.
»
Underwater, filter feeders
Imagine that you could stick your hand out the window of your house and
catch food as it drifted past - not a bad lifestyle, though perhaps a
little sedentary. We don't have the coral reefs of more tropical
latitudes, but there are some corals here, and lots of ascidians,
anenomes, hydroids and gorgonians
»
Underwater, stingrays
Magnificent and alien and big! Stingrays are cool.
»
Underwater, critters
A collection of crawling, creeping, slithering and sliding things like
crayfish, kina, starfish, sea hares, sea cucumbers and the like.
»
Tawharanui
A peninsula on the east coast about 80 km or so north of Auckland,
Tawharanui is developing into a sanctuary for native birdlife (especially
once they finish the predator-proof fencing) and it has a marine reserve.
»
Matheson Bay
Matheson Bay is just a few kms before Leigh on the road from Warkworth.
It's a pricy area to buy in because of the coastal beauty, but the diving
is free and there are parking areas at the beach - you just have to
stroll across the sand and you're in. The inner bay area is quite
silty and you need to get out to the reef or the island to see anything,
but it's not far offshore. It's sheltered from northerlies and
westerlies.
»
Poor Knights Islands
Jacques Cousteau rated the Poor Knights among the top 10 dive sites in
the world. The area was made a marine reserve in 1981. It's bathed by
the warm(-ish) East Auckland Current and marine life is incredibly
prolific and varied. The cliffs are full of caves and archways with rich
coatings of encrusting life. Be warned - it's addictive!
»
Pinnacles
The Pinnacles and the Sugarloaf are actually part of the Poor Knights
Marine Reserve, but they're a few km away from the main group of islands
and less commonly dived due to their exposure to weather and current.
Jacques Cousteau rated them as up with the best sites in the main group.
»
Marlborough Sounds
I've finally put in 3 new galleries (Gallery 4 - Gallery 6) of pictures
taken on a five-day kayaking trip around New Year 2003. We paddled across
clear, limpid water into forested bays and inlets, stayed in a lovely hut
and met wekas, penguins, jellyfish, whitebait and sandflies (but there
aren't any photos of sandflies!).
»
Nelson Lakes
We've added 11 new galleries (Gallery 6 - Gallery 16) of shots taken on a
nine-day tramping trip in December 2003. Scenic grandeur on an epic
scale, cute robins, interesting plants and wild sunrises - they're all
there.
»
Goat Island Marine Reserve
An easily accessible marine reserve on 5 km of coastline 90 minutes'
drive north of Auckland. It's been a reserve since 1975 - the fish are
friendly, the crayfish carefree and the scenery is stunning.
»
White Island
What an awesome place! It's a moderately active volcano about an hour
off the coast of the North Island and is part of the chain of volcanic
activity that runs from Mt Ruapehu through Taupo and Rotorua and all the
way up to Tonga in the Pacific.
