Explore the Poor Knights Islands

Twenty-three kilometres from New Zealand’s Tutukaka Coast, Poor Knights Islands offers some of the world’s most spectacular subtropical diving. As well as being a protected marine reserve the islands are located in New Zealand’s most productive waters, ensuring there is no shortage of marine life! Prepare to witness dolphins, whales, stingrays, and teeming schools of fish while exploring. With volcanic origins, scuba diving in the Poor Knights Islands features tunnels, caves, archways, grottoes, chimneys, and spectacular drop-offs.

Situated a 30-minute drive from the city of Whangarei, a couple of dive centres can be found on the Tutukaka Coast. The dive centres in the area offer dive courses from open water through to instructor training, where training usually takes place in a pool close to the dive centre.

Top Dive Sites Map

★★★★★ 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.

438
Logs
314
Divers
19.0 m
⌀ Depth
17.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★★ 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+.

272
Logs
178
Divers
25.0 m
⌀ Depth
16.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★☆ 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.

195
Logs
149
Divers
17.0 m
⌀ Depth
15.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★★ 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!

55
Logs
44
Divers
24.0 m
⌀ Depth
19.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★☆ Nursery Cove & The Labyrinth

Easy shallow dive in a sheltered bay. Lots of rocks around the edges of this bay. The deepest area is the sand line at 18m at the entrance. Go around the southern point to “The Labyrinth“ and find the swim throughs there.

148
Logs
115
Divers
17.0 m
⌀ Depth
14.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★★ 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.

342
Logs
282
Divers
16.0 m
⌀ Depth
16.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★☆ Cave Bay

This is a great site with depth ranges to suit all ability of diver, from beginner to tech and all the levels in between. Big boulders, kelpy and depth if you look for it. Eastward side of the Poor Knights Islands which doesn’t great visited as often as we would like due to the easterly sea conditions.

176
Logs
134
Divers
18.0 m
⌀ Depth
12.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★☆ Calypso Bay

Steep rocky wall which is easy to navigate, covered in encrusting life, then turning into a bouldery kelpy slope from 15m down to the sand line at 30m. An understated dive site not often visited.

114
Logs
83
Divers
18.0 m
⌀ Depth
16.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★★ Labrid Channel Poor Knights

The Labrid Channel flows between Archway Island and Aorangi Island towards Eastern Arch. The current through the channel can be strong on the surface with the wind, but it brings a great food source and is always full of fish. On the rocks and walls a myriad of nudibranchs can be found. An exciting place to dive

3
Logs
2
Divers
24.0 m
⌀ Depth
40.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★☆ The Gardens

Mixture of boulder and sandy patches at this consistently shallow site. The depth at the back of the bay is an easy 5-10m. The bay plateaus at around 10-15m for about 500m out from the wall. Around the wall at the back of the bay are a number of cracks and archways to go exploring in. Shark fin cave is beauty!

322
Logs
252
Divers
17.0 m
⌀ Depth
15.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★☆ Brady’s Corner (Shark Fin Cave)

Typical New Zealand Reefs. Steep drops offs and lots of boulders to look at. Good for beginner as it has shallow parts and is sheltered. Steep drops off go to 40 meters.

294
Logs
231
Divers
17.0 m
⌀ Depth
14.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★★ Matts Crack

An iconic site for photographers due to the blue glow producing an awesome silhouette shots. The crack is about 60m long and at the open end, is about 15m deep. It is open to the surface the whole length of the crack and approx 10m wide at the opening, narrowing to 3m wide.

26
Logs
21
Divers
20.0 m
⌀ Depth
16.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★☆ 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.

320
Logs
214
Divers
19.0 m
⌀ Depth
16.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★★ Cleanerfish Bay

A great shallow bottomed bay with a wraparound wall leading to a small cave and a boulder strewn slope leading to deeper depths for those who are qualified. Massive boulders hide crays and scorpionfish while there is a small cave around the point popular with stingrays.

75
Logs
67
Divers
17.0 m
⌀ Depth
16.0 m
⌀ Visibility

★★★★☆ Ann‘s Reef, Poor Knights

Sheltered at the very north of the Poor Knights Islands, Anne’s reef is a pinnacle that sits about 15 metres off of the main island. The channel between is around 20 metres deep and the outside drops down to 60 metres. The top of the reef is perfect for safety stops as it is 6 metres deep.

49
Logs
30
Divers
19.0 m
⌀ Depth
15.0 m
⌀ Visibility

Diving in the Poor Knights Islands

Rated by Jacques Cousteau - the world’s most famous underwater explorer - as one of the top 10 dive sites in the world, Poor Knights Island is home to the world’s largest surveyed sea cave, Riko Riko Cave. With the entire area designated as a marine reserve and nature reserve, the 11 million-year-old islands host impressive drop-offs, walls, arches, and tunnels. Pinnacles such as Fred’s Pinnacle experience strong currents and large numbers of pelagic fish while the islands’ volcanic origins see underwater caverns formed at almost every dive site. Throw in the nearby wrecks of the Tui and the Waikato, and divers have everything they need for an incredible dive experience.

The best Months to Dive in the Poor Knights Islands

The islands are located in the North Island which is New Zealand’s warmest region.

Poor Knights Islands diving sees two distinct seasons: the summer between November and April and the winter months between May and September. During the summer, the water temperature can reach 20°C–23°C/68°F–73°F and is the best time of year to witness stingrays and orcas. However, the warmer weather can induce plankton blooms, which see visibility that averages 20 meters/65 feet. In the winter months, the water temperature drops to as low as 14°C–16°C/57°F–61°F, while the visibility improves, reaching over 30 meters/98 feet on a good diving day.

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Dive Activity & Environmental Conditions