Northland Cathedral Cave

DESCRIPTION

Dive Site Review Tom Crisp
Photos by Tom Crisp and Andrew Simpson
An amazing dive site. The cave itself has some stunning scenery inside with resident stingrays which rival my dining room table in size. The blue water and sunlight make this a very picturesque dive.

This stunning sea cavern shares the same rock as the world famous Hole in the Rock in the Bay of Islands. The entrance to the cave has a bottom depth of 30m which then slopes upwards to 12m towards the rear of the cave. Technically this is a cavern as it is open to the surface the whole way back.

Outside the cave, there is a fairly vertical wall where the current picks up. This current seems to bring in schools of pelagic life. There is an abundance of fish schooling and resting in the cave and the shallows outside. The wildlife is spectacular in all depths with all manner of surprises waiting to show themselves to the observant diver.

Tech divers are rewarded with a great landscape once they venture down the wall, with depths  reaching the 70-80m range. On the deeper dives we’ve sighted Bronze Whaler sharks and the Kingfish were massive, one even decided to take me on and had a go at my fin. Before anyone says it was narcosis all four divers and myself were on helium based gases for the dive.

All up a stunning site both above and below water.