Fish, Boat, Dive

Fish, Boat, Dive

By Craig Johnston, Paihia Dive

Yes, summer is over and autumn has arrived so it's a good time of year to look back on the season we

have enjoyed.

Diving through the summer months this year has been one of the best years I can remember and I have been diving in Northland for 25 years. The drought conditions gave us stunning clarity of water at Cape Brett, as an example, and we had a lot of happy divers from all over the world experiencing these amazing conditions.

The fish numbers out at Deep Water Cove in the reserve have been amazing and it will be great to see this area made into a full marine reserve. The Bay of Islands is really lacking in reserve areas and for more information on the proposed reserve contact Fish Forever or have a look at their website www.fishforever.org.nz

The tourists we take out are amazed by the scenery of the Bay of Islands above and below the water and the general consensus is we don't know how lucky we are. In fact this season has seen an increase in New Zealand tourists over the last few years because I guess it is cheaper to plan a dive holiday in New Zealand than to head off overseas at the moment.

As for international tourists, we have seen an increase in the number of Australian and German visitors and we are still getting plenty of Scandinavians and Dutch visiting our shores. That's counter-balanced by a drop-off in the number of English people coming here.

Our international travel publicity concentrates on bungy jumping, Lord of the Rings scenery and snow-covered mountains so a lot of the travellers we host from overseas don't view New Zealand as a dive destination. It's only when they actually reach New Zealand that they decide to dive.

This is a real shame since we have some world class destinations in the Rainbow Warrior and the Poor Knights Islands. However, having said that, things might change in the near future. The Lonely Planet Guide recently rated The Rainbow Warrior as the 10th best dive site in the world which is great publicity for diving and for New Zealand.