scuba dive the Poor Knights Islands New
Zealand with
POOR KNIGHTS
ISLANDS , TUTUKAKA , NORTHLAND , NEW ZEALAND
Nursery
cove
Nursery
cove is one of the shallower locations at the Poor Knights, and has one of the
few permanent moorings. The mooring block itself is always worth checking out,
as there are often both male and female rainbowfish darting around the sand at
18 metres.
Just south of the mooring block, you round a
point that juts out into the sand, and come to a vertical crack/swimthrough
called the labyrinth. In this crack you can see schooling bigeye, yellow and
speckled moray eels, and a stunning array of gorgonian soft coral fans, all
bathed in piercing shafts of light
Twenty
metres or so off the point there is an old fisherman's anchor, virtually
unrecognisable to the uninitiated, as it is totally covered in eklonia
kelp. Around this anchor you will see snapper mooching around the sand, possibly
terakihi, and often a john dory will be seen, stalking it's next meal.
Coming
back around the point into the cove itself, more often than not you will be
escorted by schools of koheru, until you get to the shallows at the back, where
myriad juvenile wrasse of all descriptions, red pig fish and fat bluefish will
compete for your attention. Fantastic!