Freedive Aotearoa
0200 Paihia
NZL
Frequently Serviced Dive Sites
★★★★★ HMNZS Canterbury (Wreck)
The HMNZS Canterbury was decommissioned at the end of March 2005 and was scuttled on 3 November 2007 at Deep Water Cove in the Bay of Islands, making for a great artificial reef wreck dive.
★★★★★ Rainbow Warrior
10 minutes by boat from Matuari Bay at GPS co-ordinates are: 34º58.50’ S, 173º56.10’ E in the Cavalli Islands at 26m on the sand sits the ex Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior. Now a stunning artificial reef.
★★★★★ Northern Arch
Northern Arch is a renowned site that often has large pelagic species and current. The Arch is deep and bottoms out at over 36m, there is interesting structure on either side of the Arch and the Northern side of the Arch keeps sloping away down to 50m+.
★★★★★ Middle Arch
Middle Arch is one of the best sites for diving at the Poor Knights. The Arch bottoms out at 18m and slopes down to 30m+ on both the North and South ends of the Arch. There is also an interesting cave with an air pocket near the Southwestern entrance to the Arch.
★★★★☆ Magic Wall
A very colourful wall dive. A short distance from Blue Mao Mao Arch on the opposite side of the Labrid Channel and in good conditions with no current, both sites could be seen on the same dive for divers good on their gas consumption and navigation. The walls maximum depth is around 20m.
★★★★★ Ngaio Rock
Ngaio Rock is a small rock that rises from sand at over 20m. The walls of the rock are steep and are covered in life. It is worthwhile circumnavigating the rock to properly explore the site!
★★★★★ Blue MaoMao Arch
Blue Maomao Arch is known as one of the best dive sites in New Zealand, and possibly the world. The arch is best dived later in the day with the afternoon sun illuminating the site. The Arch itself is at most 15m deep, however, the depth drops to 20m+ at the eastern end.
★★★★☆ Maomao Arch
This arch takes a diver from the western side of the island to the eastern side. Walls outside the arch reach depth of 30m, while the inside of the arch shallows up to just 5m. On the eastern side to the right there is a group of large boulders and a small cave at around 20m.