Poor Knights: Underwater wonderland

The Poor Knights Islands and marine reserve are the first to see the sun. Photo / Michael Cunningham

Schools of snapper are circling in the clear water as I give the signal to my dive buddy to descend. Dumping the air from our buoyancy jackets we drop into the first of two dives at the Poor Knights Islands.

This area was declared a marine reserve in 1981, gained full no-take status in 1998 and since then previously over-fished species have flourished in the warm east Auckland current that sweeps through the area. It is now a diverse wonderland of fish, coral, crustaceans and underwater scenery; renowned scuba diver Jacques Cousteau went as far as describing The Poor Knights as being among his top 10 dive sites in the world.

Approaching the islands aboard Shadowfax, the 11-metre catamaran run by Poor Knights Divers, owner Martin Ward views the approaching islands as Cook may have nearly 350 years earlier - although with the added concern of working out which of the islands' many underwater rock walls, caves and archways is likely offer the best dive. He settles on Hope Point on the east side of Tawhiti Rahi.

As we reach a depth of about 20 metres, we level off and start swimming along the rock wall. A dizzying array of corals and anemones adorn it and I have soon found a clown nudibranch hiding under a piece of kelp. Nudibranchs (meaning naked gills in Latin) are small sea slugs that come in a fantastic range of bright colours to warn off predators.

An inquisitive grey moray eel moves toward me from its ledge and, as we continue along the wall, we are greeted by a sandagers wrasse, a fish of about 20cm in length with a slash of stripes near the gills that look as if they have been painted on. Reaching Hope Point, we grip the rocky pinnacle and view a huge variety of schooling fish hanging in the current, apparently motionless, but actually constantly swimming to maintain position in the deep blue water.

All too quickly we have to return to the boat, for lunch and the required surface interval before our second dive.

Kitting up again in the afternoon we head for our second dive spot, - the amusingly named Matt's Crack. The crack is a 100-metre cave that goes into the island itself. At the back there is no natural light so torches are a must.

Near the front of the cave we spot a cluster of enormous crayfish, scurrying into their nooks as soon as our torch light swings over them. Further back in the cave we come across large, rock-like grandfather hapuka and smaller, shy bigeyes hiding under rocks.

Back out of the cave, along the wall of the island we encounter porae, more wrasse and the occasional snapper among the rocks and kelp beds.

The variety of sea life at the Poor Knights is proof if ever was needed that marine reserve and no-take restrictions have paid off.