We had just sailed past this beach, so nice to look back out the other way
After arriving into the small seaside town of Tairua we were greeted at the dock by Cath (the marina manager) who was working in the Portacom office right opposite where we berthed. We quickly got through the paperwork side of things, had a tour of the basic facilities which were just left over workmen's ablution blocks from the marina construction but the showers were hot and the toilets flushed so who cares.
View across to the marina in the distance
View across to the marina and the hill at the heads of the bay
First order of business was to go see Tairua Dive and Marine (also extremely convenient right beside our boat), we sorted out business for tomorrows dive and asked the locals on recommendations for dinner. We were also happy to hear the restaurant across the road was fantastic so we headed over and booked ourselves in for dinner. If your in the area have a look at The Old Mill Cafe.
We went to stretch our legs and went for a walk to check out the surf beach we passed on the way in, talk about rough compared to around the corner on the marina side. After a quick look we walked into town in the beating heat of the afternoon, had a browse through the windows of the local shops before heading back to the boat for a shower and get ready for dinner.
Dulcinea at night with the lights of Tairua in the background
The Old Mill was brilliant, beautiful food and great service so would highly recommend it to anyone. After dinner we headed back to the boat and grabbed the camera to take some great shots of the sunset and a little later some night shots of Dulcinea sitting all alone in the marina. The night shots were nice but the ever so slight movement of the boat in the water blurred the boat slightly but its still a cool effect. After some playing with the camera we headed below and got some gear ready for tomorrow and headed off to bed ready for a big day tomorrow.
We were up bright and early to get some breakfast, grab our gear and head to the dive shop to get kitted up and ready to go. The whole experience was quite different to the big operation of Dive! Tutukaka as you got all kitted up before leaving and were crammed onto a much smaller boat than the ones we were used to, but all part of the experience and after a briefing from our skipper we were powering off over the sandbar and into flatter waters on the other side of the bar. We were smoking along at 25+kn and were there in no time. No messing around, everyone aboard was quite experienced and just left to their own devices for the first dive at Nudibranch wall. Emma and I headed off around the rocky outcrop to the south side of the inlet and dropped down around the 18-25m mark and managed to spot lots of nudibranchs, spotted rays, classic wrasses and leatherjackets darting around. The water was amazingly clear and similar temperatures to Poor Knights which was nice. We were down something like 50mins so a good first dive and managed to get plenty of photos.
Emma silhouetted above me (Nudibranch Wall)
A pair of nudibranchs
Schooling fish
For the second dive of the day we headed around to Middle Island to Mooring Bay for a shallower dive where there was lots of rocky reef areas to swim between. The surge was pretty strong and saw us getting pushed and pulled around a lot which was a bit annoying but never the less we still managed a 57min dive, saw plenty of fish life, one Wrasse in particular decided to have a nip at my finger and bloody hell did that hurt! Cheeky bugger. We all finished up our dive, the boys aboard had no luck at finding any crayfish and we soon started making the journey back to the marina to unload. When we got back we eagerly asked if they had any space available tomorrow and we were promptly booked in for another double dive the next day (I guess we had fun!). We helped unload the boat, washed up all our gear and left it to dry at the shop ready for tomorrow.
After cleaning ourselves up a bit we went for another hot walk into town and grabbed a cold cider at the Manaia Bar and Cafe and grabbed some dinner while we were there. I think we were too tired to even bother considering cooking for ourselves. The walk home was nice, the sun was lower and the heat had abated so we took the back roads home and had a look around the neighbourhoods before walking along the waterfront back to the boat. What a good day, this is certainly a little slice of paradise and I could happily do this for ever!
The next day was also an early start again, sign in with the dive shop, pay some money, gear up and have a chat to the new group of people onboard today. Today was a boat full of young doctors from Hamilton Hospital out here for a weekend to get away from it all for a bit. The water was even calmer today and we were blessed with some flying fish, pods of dolphins and even a humpback whale breached right in front of the boat...what a start to the day!
We were destined for Honeycomb Cave this morning and the weather looked perfect for this spot, we all dropped in and Mike lead the way into the cave entrance where the water surged in and out, one second you were finning as hard as you could without moving forward and the next you were being rocketed into the cave as the surge pushed in. When we got near the back of the cave you take a right turn and head to the exit, the cave is more like a big U shaped tunnel. We swam through massive kelp forrests with fish all around us, managed to find an old cray pot wedged in between rocks. Before we knew it we had been in the water 55min and it was time to come up and head to the next spot.
Old cray pot which has broken free and ended up wedged in the rocks
Male goat fish trying to hide
Clown nudibranchs
We drove around a few spots before deciding on Southern Gardens on Ruamahuaiti Island. We dropped into only 8m of water over a white sandy bottom. We swam out to a rocky outcrop, saw fish life everywhere and all the nudibranches you wanted, it was a pretty sweet little spot for the last dive of the day and the last dive in this place. We were down over an hour and came up with plenty of air left but called it due to the long time and knew the boat had to keep to some sort of schedule. We raced back into the marina on pretty flat seas, saw more flying fish flying beside the boat which was such a strange sight to see (fish shouldn't fly, its not natural!)
After the dive we unloaded again, washed our gear off and left it to dry at the dive shop for collection tomorrow. We just hung around with Mike and the crew chatting about adventures passed and what we had been up to on our trip. Turns out Mike and Alex had dreams of selling up one day, buying a yacht and sailing away...good on ya guys! hope you make it come true.
Emma profiteroles from The Old Mill
After our chat we obviously had not been fish for long enough today and walked along the beach before jumping in and having a swim in the boat channel, we showered off at the back showers and headed back to the boat and cooked ourselves some tea, mooched around and headed back to the Old Mill for some dessert before we headed off early in the morning. The desserts were pretty good! what a nice way to finish up in this awesome little town. Tairua we will be back and look forward to seeing the new development with the marina office/dive shop.
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