I am posting this for Sherry because she is working and you guys
haven't heard much from us lately. Tim.

Last week end we finally got our Poor knights dive in. We meet up our good friend Bob ( with 1 'O' )
from the dive shop, to see if he really can dive. I was impressed...
We when to the Middle Arch first.
This is a good dive for so so (or out of practice) divers. The bottom in the arch is around 15 Meters.
There is a cave (Bernie's Cave)with about a 10 meter mouth with the top at 8 meters with a air pocket
in it that Sherry and I when into. I thought it was cool, but it was a little to tight for her. We checked
our depth gages while inside the air pocket and it was right at 8 Meters. There were so very large schools
of Blue Maomao's finning just outside the arch. There were also a few schools of Trevally finning.
It's neat to lookup and see a wall of fish. That I could count, there were at least 10 different types
of anemones on the arch walls, and at least 3 types of  Nudibranch. It was a good get warmed-up
and ready to dive type of dive. Sherry had problems with the assent, because we no sleep the night
before, we were very buoyant. She missed the safety stop and had and out of control assent warning
on her computer, and because of this the computer went into lock out.
Because of  this she did not want to do the 2nd dive. We then went sight-seeing around the island
in the boat. One of the sights was Rikoriko Cave. This cave is big enough to bring a 30 launch inside
and be able to turn around with no problems. The Knights has the largest Arch in the S. Hemisphere.
Our next dive site was at Jan's tunnel. This is not a beginners dive sight. In the tunnel it is only
8 - 5 meters deep with a lot of fish life. There were a pair of cleaner Wrasse doing there thing with
about 15 - 20 fish waiting for the turn. On the way into the tunnel there was a large Black Angle guarding
it eggs. We played with it for a few min. on the way in and out. It would charge you and get right up
into your face, and chase your hand all over the place. There were allot of fish verity in this site. I saw
at least 5 good size Scorpion fish. Bob and I when out into some of the canyons to see what we could find.
There was a cool little swim through that started at about 18 meters and put you out at 25 meters on the other side.
there is a very big slope here, almost a drop-off that goes way down. We had at least 20 meters visibility and
could not see the floor. I was told later that it drops to about 60 + meters at that spot. this is why I say it is
not for beginners. There is so much going on around you that you do not realize how steep or deep it is.
after looking over the edge for  while Bob and I were prowling the rock and I found a Large Brown Moray.
This guy was not happy to see us. I could tell because when we started to leave he came out of he hole
to keep an eye on us. He was a little different than what I expected. Normally when you think of Morays
the first thing that come to mind is the rows of sharp teeth. This guy didn't have them. It looked like
he had 2 groups ( one on each side of his mouth ). It's a little hard to explain without a picture.
After the dive, on the way back we came across a VERY large pod of common  Dolphin feeding.
This was the first time that Sherry had seen Dolphins that were not on TV. She was all excited. They
were coming with in 1 meter  of the boat and were jumping in pair and groups up to 8 in unison.
All in all it was a very good dive day. And I really need to thank Bob for taking REALLY GOOD  CARE
of Sherry and I. The guys on the boat (Dive Tutukaka) did a hell of a job. (Top notch!!!!!)