Seals > Dolphins

The Poor Knights Islands in the north of New Zealand have been described as one of the top ten dive sights in the world - by Jacques Cousteau no less. Armed with this fact and no other knowledge of diving I ventured out with the 'Dive Tutakati' group on a two dive TryDive trip.

On the boat there were a mix of experienced divers and rank amatures like me. There was about a 40 minute trip across rocky seas - the trip prooved too much for two unfortunate girls who were forced by sickness to sit out from the dives - before we reached the first dive site just outside of the world's largest sea cave; little known fact - the world's smallest sea cave is right next door to it.

My first dive could at best be described as incompetent bordering on inept. I first of all struggled to remain upright in the water; later had difficulty maintaining a level height; and then at one point almost lost a flipper which got me into a panic which further caused my leg to cramp up.

After about 50 minutes I was feeling alot more relaxed in the water but was still kicking too much - a sign of a lack of confidence in my ability to stay level.

We stopped for luch inside the giant sea cave and the skipper explained a bit about the history and geology of the cave. Afterwards we crusied round the coast a small distance past a seal colony to the second dive site.

At this point out of seven new divers only two of us were willing to go on the second dive. I must admit I was feeling a bit sea sick at this point but was eager to get into the water and try again. This time was much better. I was almost imediatly relaxed in the water and didn't panic as much in the alien waters.

The instructor took us on a short trip - shorter than the last dive but with more stopping to look at aquatic life than the more instructional first dive. The sea floor there is a mass of plant life with one particular leafy plant dominating the area. With the sea tides the whole topograhy of the sea bed seems to shift constantly rusulting in a confusing sense of speed as you move slowly over the forrests.

We saw many many pretty fishes; the remains of a giant lobster; urchins; crabs; other unnamable things; and best of all some seals. As we were returning to the boat we noticed a seal had entered the waters above us so we slowed down to try and get a look. Now seals look pretty pathetic on land as we normally see them - slow moving and clumsy - but in the water they are the most gracefull things I've ever seen. One regarded us curiosly and we tried to interact with it by spinning and piroetting about (I mostly treaded water). The seal just hovered, unmoving even as we struggled to stay still, and watched us with its big blue eyes (they seem to bulge out when under water). It then swam right passed me a few times close enough that I could have reached out and touched it - though such a manouver would surely have made it swim away.

Unfortunately we had to return to the boat after that due to our stupid inabilty to breath underwater so we left the seal and headed back.

The next day I took a boat cruise arround the Bay Of Islands to sea the area and if we were lucky maybe some dolphins. The weather was pretty wet and cold but we did see a pod of dolphins who swam along with the boat for a bit. I was hoping that we'd get a chance to swim with them but they had a child dolphin with them so the rules say: stay out the water.

It was good to see the dolphins but in my estimation so far: seals > dolphins.