Poor Knights The Gardens

DESCRIPTION

Dive Site Review by Anna Clague
Photos by Andrew Simpson

This site gets a lot of flack. This is completely unjust as this site has a whole heap of stuff to offer that can only be appreciated by diving here multiple times and at different times throughout the year.

It’s one of the consistently shallow bays at the Poor Knights. The depth at the back of the bay is an easy 5-10m. The bay plateaus at around 10-15m for about 500m out from the wall. This area is full of a mixture of boulders and sandy patches with all sorts of different kelps and sea weeds providing shelter, homes and food to a vast array of marine life, including schools of snapper, moki, porae, triple fins, blennies, wrasses, pigfish, eels, rays, kingfish, trevally, goatfish, leatherjacket, maomao, scorpionfish, angelfish, nudibranches, flatworms, urchins, anemonies, corals, hydroids…. the list goes on.

Around the wall at the back of the bay there are a number of cracks and archways to go exploring in. Shark fin cave is beautiful when you are inside looking back out. Silhouetted in the entrance you will see many fish species hanging near here ready to duck inside for safety. The light rays shining in the entrance highlight the different shades of blue in the water.

As you head out of the bay the boulders lead you down the slope to a second sandy patch that levels off at approx 18m. To the left, the back of the ‘Great Wall’ hems in this patch. You will often find stingrays hunkered down in the sand here and this is one of only 4 sites at the Knights that I have encountered Octopus.

I have recently night dived here and was very excited to find a family of Seahares cruising through the kelp. The Wrasse in the bay are very diver friendly and will come in really close to check you out. The Demoiselles and schools of Koheru will follow divers hoping to feed on scraps kicked up by the fin wash or shelter under us. Due to the shallow depths here you may even see a gannet or shag diving to catch fish. Yup – birds underwater! I have also seen Sunfish, Dolphins and stories of Orca encounters in this bay. So if you are looking for a nice long fishy dive with plenty of macro discoveries to had this is the bay for you.