An epic encounter

Last weekend we went on an adventure. There were no bookings for Ecocruz and John the Captain had been wanting to take the boat to the Poor Knights marine reserve when we had the chance for a diving and snorkeling and diving trip. The weather looked prime so we locked it in.

We went out on Friday night and sailed over to Marsdens Cross, a bay just out of the Kerikeri inlet. On sunset we enjoyed a display of bottle nose dolphins doing all kinds of acrobatics and when it got dark we jumped in the water with diving masks on and experienced the sparkling phospheresence which is always a trip! One of natures epic wonders.

The next day we headed out deep, aiming for 200-300metre water to try and find some Whales or Dolphins or maybe catch a Tuna. At around 10am we heard on the VHF that a pod of Killer Whales were in the Bay so we immediatly turned the boat and headed for where they had been spotted. We had alot of ground to cover and travelling at around 6 knots we decided to jump in the dinghy and boost over to find them equipt with my underwater point-and-shoot and some snorkeling gear.

There were Orcas which were in wo groups, we followed these four which had parents and their young.

The first time I jumped in I was shocked to see a big shark in the Bull Orcas mouth, it was amazing to see such predators in action in the Ocean!

The young Orca was curious and came up to the dinghy a few times, most of the time they were on the move and hard to take photos of!

They are awesome creatures and it was epic to see them underwater and be in their territory, an experience I'll always remember.

I also took lots of photos at the Poor Knights and I'll continue this blog soon.