Search and rescue teams spent yesterday hunting for a 29-year-old woman who failed to resurface on a diving trip near Mt Maunganui in the Bay of Plenty.
The woman was diving with three friends, two men and a woman, near Motiti Island when she got into trouble about7.30am.
Sergeant Lester Polglase said the police dive squad joined in the search for the missing Waikato woman yesterday afternoon.
"We've had aircraft up looking on the surface. We've had a couple of boats having a good look around too, and obviously we have to search under the water too."
He said conditions yesterday were calm. "I've spoken to the other three divers and am just trying to sort out exactly what happened."
Tauranga coastguard incident manager Graeme Murray said a thorough sea and air search had been carried out.
"Four divers went down and three came back. It wasn't their first dive. They've all dived before."
The waters off Motiti Island are extremely popular with divers.
In 2000 the former tug Taioma was sunk in 27m of water at the southern end of the island to form an artificial reef for divers.
In December 2005 two marine studies students suffered the bends 38m down after one man ran out of air, forcing the pair to rely on the other's air supply.
