Porpoise Dive & John Wreck Virgin no longer!

John & Louise are over from the UK repaying a kindness to their Bestman of their wedding, who resides in Auckland, so whilst over here, John has done as much diving as he can, while Louise has been trying to soak up the sun and sport a glorious tan before their return to the UK on New Years Eve.

 

Although John had dived a wreck for his advanced course, the HMNZS Canterbury was his first ever “real” wreck dive, and he absolutely fell in love with her – congratulations John, we wish you both a merry christmas and a happy new year, it was lovely meeting you.

Porpoise Dive take Jerome to the Rainbow Warrior

Jerome is from France, is a Master Scuba Diver Instructor in PADI, NAUWI, CMAS & also (which I found VERY interesting) is the head of Safety for the  INPP ( http://www.inpp.org/fr/ )

Jerome has been on holiday having a very well earned rest travelling around the world, leaving New Zealand as his last stop before returning back home to France, and his loving wife and triplets of 7 years. Jerome has always wanted to dive the Rainbow Warrior, and at last has dived his dream!

Jerome - finally peace & quiet

Jerome was absolutely “blown away” by our living reef (the Rainbow Warrior) and was quite adamant he will be returning in the new year~ and hopes the water temperature will rise to a more friendlier 22 degrees?

Thank you Jerome, we had a lovely day and look forward to your return visit.

Porpoise Dive take Trevor to the Canterbury

Trevor approached us about doing a 3 dive day, wanting to dive the HMNZS Canterbury then two reef dives afterwards. Trevor is a General Practitioner back in Australia, having a well earned sebatical on the cruise ship The Seven Seas Mariner, which is going up to Rarotonga, then Samoa, through the Pacific Islands, across the Equator and steering further on north to the USA. 

Trevor, soaking up the sun!

I think Trevor you are going to really enjoy yourself AND the diving in crystal clear waters.  It was our pleasure to have you aboard. The water temp today was 15.1 on the surface & 13.8 at 30 metres brrrrrrr, average viz? around 10 metres

Porpoise Dive help Janet, Jennifer & Brian to Try a Dive

We all met at the pool and in walks Brian; he owns a rest home further down south and has had a long break from scuba diving, so took this opportunity to “get wet” again, & like a duck to water he was “back home” as he put it.

Brian~so happy to be "back"

It was Janets turn as well; a lovely lady who has done a lot of snorkelling in the past and had always wanted to see what it was like to scuba dive, so here again was the perfect opportunity; well done Janet!

Janet trys a dive & falls in love!

And then came Jennifer~ a young lady who works & lives locally, also wanted to try a dive, as her partner is into scuba diving, Jennifer wanted to see if it could be her “cup of tea”, well dare I say it? she’s another natural..

Jennifer~a natural

Congratulations to all three of you! It was a brilliant day for all of us, and look forward to meeting with you all again soon.

Thomas Dives the Rainbow Warrior

Thomas is over from the UK visiting his sister  and couldn’t resist the opportunity to dive the Rainbow Warrior while in the Bay of Islands.

 

Good luck with the studies back home Thomas & have a good christmas

Pep, Sinead & Paul Dive the Rainbow Warrior

Pep & Sinead on the bow of the Rainbow Warrior

 

Pep & Sinead are out on holiday from Ireland and had read and heard all about the Rainbow Warrior, so whilst over here they “just had to dive” the old girl.

 

 

Paul is over from Canada on a quick visit and managed to get a quick dive in before returning home.

Re-Cap October November 2009

Karl - Rescue Diver Extraordinaire

Well hello everyone!  We would like to thank you for all your emails that have been firing through lately.

It’s really nice to hear from you all and that you are all still diving! AWESOME to see, loved the photos too.

Congratulations to Karl Johnson for completing his Rescue Course – Karl is going on to become Divemaster & a good DM he’ll make too, with his quick and ready wit he keeps everyone entertained!  Only problem is – he insists on all his gear being yellow & black!

Our winter maintenance on Molly is now completed and we’re back up and running – a well deserved break for both Molly and ourselves, now fully re-charged for the up and coming season, with maybe a few surprises in store?

The water temperature at the moment is fluctuating between 14.5 and 15.2 degrees, the average viz in the Bay of Islands and the Cavallis is approximately between 5 and 8 metres, we’ve had an average S to SW wind of 18 knots for the past month.

Pauline & Jane dive the Rainbow Warrior

Last night, Jane texted and decided to do another dive with us before heading home, she VERY gladly joined Pauline for the Rainbow Warrior.  We duly collected them both at the Paihia Wharf at 7.20am and towed to Te Ngaere Bay, where we launch for a 10-15 minute trip to the Rainbow Warrior.

Both Pauline & Jane were absolutely thrilled after they had dived the wreck and really enjoyed their second reef dive – the friendly Sandagerwrasse following them around waiting to be fed was a huge highlight for them.

Water Temp today was 14.8 degrees & Viz – AWESOME!!

Porpoise Dive & Pauline – Scuba Review

Pauline is out from the UK & wanted to dive the Rainbow Warrior – a life long dream; but hadn’t dived for 7 years.  We suggested she do a Scuba Review, followed by a reef dive to which she agreed.  Pauline had a wonderful time and no sooner had she finished her dives when she exclaimed “that reminded me of why I took up diving – I’ll not leave it so long the next time” to which she promptly booked us for the Rainbow Warrior the next day! 

Water temperature today had dropped back a little to 14 degrees, but the viz still around 15 metres.  (sorry no photo available)

Girls “Dive Out”

Received a phone call from Jane, who came out with us for a Scuba Review, back on Easter Weekend – wanting to get wet again before she has to “reluctantly” return home to the UK. No worries, that same evening, we received a text from Clare (who we taught to dive on Boxing Day 2008), saying she is back in Paihia and wanted to get wet too! As we are one big happy family we called Nadia to see if she’d like to join us for the dive.

Girls Dive Out-bottom row from Left - Jane, Clare & Nadia

As we all knew each other, it was the most wonderful day out, we tried for the scallops, but they were so far and few between – after a 35 minute dive of searching everywhere, we abandoned the project coming up with only 5 between us!  The water temperture has come back up to 14.5 degrees, the viz is a bit of a surprising 15 metres.

It was such a good atmosphere aboard Molly today and having my dive buddy Nadia alongside again was fantastic!  Both Clare & Jane now have to return back to the UK & Wales – but are already making plans to return to the Bay of Islands, we look forward to it!  Take care from all of us.