Just south of Taiaroa Head (where the albatross colony is)
and opposite the Mole is an underwater cliff that drops
down to the bottom of the shipping channel, which makes
for an excellent wall dive. The harbour defences used to be
situated here and there is a track down from the road that
leads you to the gun emplacements, where there is a
loading area, which is a great spot to enter the water if
shore diving. The entrance to the harbour here is a bottleneck shape which means the
tide rips through here making it an ideal drift dive. Cases of ammunition have been sited
here along with interesting old bottles. There are several different species of nudibranchs
and the rock wall is totally covered with colourful sponges. Crabs, seahorses and octopi
can be fol1owed amongst salmon, blue cod, moki, trumpeter and wrasse.
'Friendly small Carpet Sharks are
often seen during Harrington
point drift dive.'
Carpet Shark - up close and personal. This excellent
photo was tekn by Photography Students Todd Austin
and Dave algie, who were lucky to get up close to these
shy and placid creatures.
