Night Dive
Boulder Bank - Nelson
After a last minute shuffle around with the dive date Dan, Grant, Clare, Ang and myself were confirmed to meet at dusk on the boulder bank with intentions to do a shore accessed night dive. The night turned out calm and clear with a small swell gently rolling up on the shore, perfect! Five of us went about setting up the usual apparatus but this time with glow sticks attached to our tanks and back-up torches. Dan decided we best take a catch bag just in case. The plan was to enter the water with the aid of a concrete ramp conveniently located in front of us and then dive north east along the boulder bank then return back the way we’d came but a little closer in. The water was warm and the visibility was pretty good too, having not done a night dive before it was definitely a different feeling zooming around with a torch and having other divers glowing around me. Red crabs stood atop of the boulders like soldiers poised for a fight, even the starfish were “standing” on their tiptoes. We saw some small red fish with long whiskers but no trophy snapper much to my disappointment. We did however find a tiny octopus which decided we looked like trouble and departed after shooting out an equally tiny cloud of ink. There were also some small paua which Dan later tells us, never reach the legal size limit due to the lack of drift seaweed and the fact that the boulders are always moving. We surfaced mid dive to a surreal moon lit night, a quick discussion and the decision was made to turn around and head back. We found our concrete ramp and climbed out after a little fight with the swell. If you haven’t done a night dive before I’d recommend joining in on the next one - it’s quite the experience. Bevan