Underwater Utopia

Northland

Tutukaka is the gateway to the Poor Knights Islands and offers some of the best diving, snorkelling and fishing in the world. Famous in their own right for an abundance of flora, fauna, bird life and reptilia that have evolved in glorious isolation for over two million years, the Poor Knights stand sentinel over a marine reserve of spectacular topography, extraordinary diversity and unique life forms. The islands are remnants of ancient volcanoes which erupted in the Pacific Ring of Fire, the remaining cliffs leap 100m sheer from the waves and plunge an equal depth below. Iconic amongst the unique flora and fauna that thrive here is the tuatara, the world’s only surviving dinosaur. Experience the amazing acoustics of the world’s largest sea cave, Riko Riko, a mammoth watery cavern flamboyantly painted from top to toe with lichen and moss. Over 125 species of fish share this environment with soft corals, encrusting sponges, vibrant anemones, ecklonia kelp forests, gorgonian fans and myriad other life forms. 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 and massive underwater caverns where fish find shelter in the rocks while giant black stingrays gather in archways to meet before they mate.