Dmitri's Tour

Dmitri Gorski, a Russian who grew up in Sweden and now lives in Norway. Technical, Pelagian Rebreather, Deep Wreck and Cave Diver, on a his work trip to NZ we tryed to organise some decent diving, despite it being winter...!

Tokoroa Shoals & Plate Island
Invited out by the Mount Maunganui Underwater Club for their monthly Sunday trip. With a reasonable forecast we headed past Motiti Island. First dive on the Tokora shoals, with the viz down a bit the undulating reef was a bit gloomy but gave a good shakedown for the rebreathers. The afternoon we headed for Plate Island with its resident seal colony. We had gentle dive along the southern side with walls and small caves to check out along with being joined by some playful seals near the end of the dive!

SS Taupo & SS Taranaki
We planned a long bottom time on the SS Taupp, the Bay of Plenty's historic wreck. Going down in 1881, she has lain on the seabed for 131 years. Sitting broken up in 32-34m we spend around 1hr on our Closed Circuit Rebreathers for a 15-20min decompression obligation. We managed to identify a few more sections of the wreck to make a better photographic record and a better sketch.
After Dmitri had seen his lunch again due to the lumpy conditions there was another dive on the SS Taranaki, wrecked off Karewa Island.

Lake Rotoma
We tagged along with Dive HQ, a local shop doing some training in order to get material for an up and coming article. We were blessed with the weather, with an unusually warm day and sunny skies. The viz was around 10m and we spent time checking out the small wreck (dingy) and the interesting freshwater crayfish koura. Good to get the gear in the freshwater and have a nice easy entry!
Lunch was had at the local cafe before we headed inland to do some exploration for local caves I had heard about.....TBC

Dmitri's Cave
After a night recce we established that there a hole in the ground that could be undived and go to.........??????
Next day, with sidemouts, reel and lights we trudged the 1km to the entry with a couple of helpers! The flow in the cave made your tonsils rattle and the reg's held up well not freeflowing. Down a passage we reached a vertical cylinder with a boulder choke at around 15m depth and 20m from the entrance. Here the flow was so strong - boulders we being tossed around, once popping up and clocking Dmitri on the head. Without a lot of time clearing the hole we could go no further and we peered down into the darkness. Coming out was a bit easier than going in, we recovered the line and exited into the spring. Dissapointed at our progress given our efforts, it left us wondering what was past that choke...to be continued!