One of the World's magical places is located north of the Coromandel Peninsula. Great Barrier Island and the Mokohinau Islands are an amazing dive destination - rugged, beautiful, and full of life.

I headed out with three other spearos from our local club, the Hawke's Bay Freedom Divers. We made arrangements with one of the Barrier locals, named Alfie. We called him the Pirate. His beat-up caravan would be our home for the next three days.

Day one started out near camp at Wellington Head. We found a pinnacle that stretched up out of 100 feet to only 20 feet. Massive overhangs and caves were all around. I spotted two yellowtail kingfish of about 25 pounds and closed the gap, but held off. One of the other divers couldn't resist and landed one from the school. Kane, the organizer of the trip and the best diver amongst us, dove down to about 90 feet and took video of some golden snapper in the big cave at the bottom of the pinnacle.

After chasing snapper around the overhangs at the pinnacle, we moved on in search of kingfish. Our next stop was The Needles - a brutally rugged, yet amazing place where current and tide collide and fish life abounds. My first pass through the chute was fantastic, but aside from the hundreds of blue maomao and damselfish, I didn't see anything of interest - and no kingys. The other two in the water saw a large school of big kingfish, but couldn't get one. Our next pass put me in the right place at the right time. I had decided to move away from the rock wall to my left and head to the middle of the chute in the deep section. A few dives into the deep blue and nothing. Then just as I was in the tightest section of the chute, I look down and see the nose of a big kingfish appearing from the depths. I dove down as calmly as I could and was able to close the gap just as the kingfish turned. I put a solid shot into the shoulder and the slip-tip toggled as the fish took off towards the rocky bottom. The fish had amazing power, stretching my floatline as I fought to keep it out of the rocks. After a hard-fought battle, I was able to get a bear hug on my first kingfish. Goofy grin, I know...

For day two, we decided that the near-perfect weekend forecast called for a trip to the Mokohinau Islands. This group of small islands isn’t as visited and can produce incredible fish. We found a spot where the craggy island rose almost strait out of over 120 feet. I found an incredible stair-step ledge, where the rocks sticking out of the water went strait down to about 60 feet. A slight overhang held a large school of elusive and beautiful pink maomao. These fish are equally amazing to look at and eat. I was able to sneak under the overhang and hit the mark with long shots as the fish slowly faded out into the open. After stringing up my pink maomao, three penguins came out of nowhere and started picking up morsels as the waves crashed on the rocks. I was able to snap a few pictures as they sped past. Meanwhile, the other guys did a snapper snoop along the island coast and were able to get some great fish.

After lunch we headed back to The Needles to get John a kingfish. Unfortunately the kingys were not home. However, the vis was great and life was everywhere. I was able to get some pictures of the locals, including an ornery little moray.

Our last day was spent near home base hunting snapper in the shallows. As we were nearing the first spot, a pod of dolphins came up to the boat and started swimming alongside. I suited up as quickly as I could and hopped in and met the pod along the shoreline. They were very inquisitive and hung around me for a long time as I took pictures. Unfortunately, the dolphins were doing the same thing as we were – hunting snapper. They went up and down the entire side of the island I was snooping and needless to say, I didn’t see any snapper. However, it was well worth the incredible encounter.

After a quick lunch, we put away our dive gear and sped home across glassy seas. I can’t wait to see what NZ has in store for our next trip...

Nice trip report Kolt.

Wow killer report and amazing pics!

There are many places on our earth I want to visit and it's trip reports like this that add another to my long list...great report...

awesome report kolt. your def. making me miss n.z.

jeep

Nice work Kolt. I cant wait for more to come....

Great rpt, pix, and adventure thx for sharing the experience, and glad to hear you puttin' the shaft on "on"...keep'em coming kj:toast:

awesome!

Here's Kane's snapper and my kingy, again :D

Thats bad ass!

Kolt,
Man that is totally awesome. Nice fish, great stories and even better pics. Dolphins and Penguins, that is amazing. You lucky son of a gun, I shouldn't say lucky, nice work.

So Amberjack are called Kingfish over there...Thats cool

Beautiful hunting grounds there....

great pics and report. What camera are you using, and will it shoot video?

So Amberjack are called Kingfish over there...Thats cool

Beautiful hunting grounds there....

same genius Seriola but diff. species

So Amberjack are called Kingfish over there...Thats cool

Beautiful hunting grounds there....

Nah, their kingfish is the same as our yellowtail in CA.

Awesome report, Kolt! :toast: That looks like an adventure right there!

Wow, was that entertaining to read. Great pictures, sounds like a magical place.

Kolt your hair is less than perfect in those pics, you are really loosing "it". Nice shot placement on the kingy though. :D

I just got butchered by some chick at the hair place, so I couldn't really GQ it, and I actually hit the kingy in the upper shoulder and it exited at the pelvic fin - it was a good shot, but not a stoner.

:corkysm60: WOW. That would be a trip of a lifetime. Great post!:p