Poor Knights Rikoriko Cave
DESCRIPTION
Dive Site Review by Tara Sutherland
Photographs by Tara Sutherland, Martin Wallis & Ryan Slattery
There are only two good times to dive the cave - day time or night time.
Rikoriko Cave is the largest sea cave in the world. Around 15 million years ago an eruption formed a gas bubble that became Rikoriko Cave. It is large enough to fit at least 4 boats in and we quite often spend a night in the cave on our monthly liveaboard trips. We’ve even hosted a couple of New Years Parties in the cave – DJ’ed by world famous Gareth-B.
From inside the cave, you can see out to Serpent Rock. Serpent Rock is a fabulous dive site itself but it is also a source of great amusement as it looks like a cowboy riding a bullfrog … and other things!
The cave is suitable for any diver. If you haven’t had a lot of time in the water, just watch your depth at the front of the cave (or come and grab me as I’d be happy to take you on a tour!) Cruise through Gentle Forest – keeping the wall on your left hand side. Swim past large kelp providing home, food and shelter to Blue Maomao and Crested Blennies. As you come around the corner to the cave entrance, look over to the right and you will see the pinnacle begin to appear. The sea floor here is at around 26m. In front of the pinnacle are the bones of a 15m Sperm Whale which washed into the cave in 2009. The rather large piece of bone is quite a sight and there are some more pieces further into the cave.
As you swim further into the cave, the wall is covered in Gorgonian fans, Cup Corals and Zoanthids – which look like yellow daisies. Take it nice and slow and you will see Moray Eels, Half Banded Perch and Red Banded Coral Shrimp (which I always imagine to have Mexican accents … Hola Jose!) advertising their cleaning stations. Quite often a Carpet Shark will be nestled on the sand and there will be Stingrays slowly making their way in and out of the cave.
I think a Wade Doak quote might be appropriate here;
“To dive these splendours without a torch is like exploring a shopping mall in darkness.”
As the light levels drop, you will notice that the cave becomes shallower – all the way up to around 7 or 8m in the back. As the back of the cave is starved of light, we can find marine life that is normally found hundreds of metres deeper.
Rikoriko Cave is the perfect place for a night dive. 8-12m and mostly sheltered. The landscape is normally stark, somewhat bland, almost a moonscape – until your torch light cuts across the encrusting sponge life and throws up the colour of nudibranchs - especially the elusive nocturnal Janolus ignus! Pink Maomao float lazily on the bottom, the crevices are filled with Big Eyes and I have been treated to a baby Crayfish crawling all over the rocks. Large sponges are everywhere and the Cup Corals grow in clusters. A night dive in Rikoriko Cave is a macro photographers dream!
Day or night, Rikoriko Cave allows us to experience life that we would have to normally do a much deeper dive for.
