Paddock Rocks-D'urville Island
Saturday 13th September 2008
We departed Nelson on a crisp Saturday morning, the weather was forecast to
be clear and it was finally right for once. By the time we arrived at Okiwi Bay
the sun was up and already half a dozen boats were out. So we wasted no
time in suiting up and getting out amongst it. The trip over was bit bumpy
with a 1 - 1 ½ meter swell, however this didn't faze Stu and we just ploughed
on through. We arrived at Paddock Rocks in what must have been record
time and spent the next few minutes checking out the area and deciding on a
plan of attack. We decided to start at the northern end and gradually make
our way down.
Claire and I went in first, water temp was surprisingly mild for the end of
winter and visibility was about 5 - 10m. Being new to the South Island and
not having dived at D'Urville before, my expectations were high. Descending
down to 20 meters, revealed a maze of large boulders and rocky pinnacles,
perfect cray territory!!! I wasted no time, and was off in search for my next
feed. Hunting through the nooks and cranny's of the reef, uncovered a
variety of sponges, anemones and triple fins, however no crays. Things
weren't looking good; being the new boy i didn't want to get shown up on
my first time out. Finally I spotted a few antennae poking out from between
two boulders. I didn't waste any time and quickly grabbed it and wrestled it
into my catch bag, all the while under the watch full eyes of a dozen blue cod.
Next up was Stu and Bill, we moved down to a nice semi submerged reef
which looked promising. We dropped them off, but within 5min they were
back up about 100m away at the end of the reef, empty handed. So we picked
them up and moved down to another pinnacle, however no luck.
Our second dive was in less than 10m in a sheltered group of rocks; yet again
the crays all but eluded us, with only one being found between all four of us.
We decided to call it quits on the crays and go after some scallops.
The trip back to Okiwi bay was a smooth one, the swell dropping off from the
morning. We were pretty confident that we would get a feed no worries after
the success of the last club scallop tip. Stu knew the spot so we putted around
for 10min until we were right on the spot, we dropped down and there were
hundreds of them, unfortunately someone forgot to tell Stu we were after
scallops not Horse Mussels!! After a couple of dives and persistent searching
we managed to get a good feed and head home.
All up it was a good start to the summer dive season and a great day out,
hopefully with many more to come.
By Louis Olsen
