Tutukaka / The Poor Knights

Underwater Utopia

To the visitor, Tutukaka is a nautical town with great views, waterfront cafes, the freshest seafood, lots of yachties and charter boats everywhere.

But for the marine adventurer, this port is a gateway to Poor Knights Islands and some of the best diving, snorkelling and fishing in the world.

Unique in their own right for their abundance of flora, fauna, bird life and reptilia, the Poor Knights stand sentinel over a marine reserve of spectacular topography, extraordinary diversity, and unique life forms – not to mention the world's largest sea cave, Riko Riko.

This mammoth watery cavern is covered with lichen and no visit to the Poor Knights is complete without a thrilling speedboat ride to experience its amazing acoustics.

A dive at the Poor Knights is a once-in-a-lifetime experience; a microcosm of underwater diversity with precipitous walls of rock, dense kelp forests, sand gardens, giant sea caves, archways and massive underwater caverns.

Fish find shelter in the rocks and thick kelp forests, where cnidarians, bryozoans, sponges and construct their intricate scaffoldings and giant black stingrays gather in archways to meet before they mate.

It's no wonder that the waters surrounding Tutukaka are a game-fishing paradise. Although local charters will take you as far afield as the Three Kings, there's plenty of sport fishing to be had closer to home.