Wellington has a 360 degree coastline which means we can always find good safe diving no matter what the weather. Water temperatures range from 10 to 17 degrees Celsius (50 – 63F) throughout the year. Most divers wear 7mm (1/4 inch) wetsuits with parka hoods. Visibility has an average range of 3 metres (10 feet) to 10 metres (30 feet). Offshore (boat dives) visibility can reach 20 metres (60 feet) reasonably often.
Frog dive Club – Every Saturday 9am
The Island Bay Divers Club is called Frog Dive. Click here for more info on our Dive Club.
local dive trips.
Dive trips obviously depend on visibility, safe weather conditions and economic numbers taking part. Because we offer trips on the South Coast & the Kapiti Coast we should have trips underway most weekends.
If you want to join the boat or four wheel drive trips you need to book ahead. Once you have booked on a trip, you need to ring the shop around 5pm the day before the departure to get a final heads up on status & conditions.
Trips offered each week (conditions apply as above)
Wednesday 4pm (NZDST only) – Wreck dive on the frigate HMNZS Wellington (F69).
Any day of the week – 4WD trip, four hours return, South Coast, one scuba dive or freedive/ spearfishing.
Kapiti Island – scuba dives (2 dives) mainly weekend on arrangement.
Kapiti Island spearfishing trips - 8 hours ( weekends). The first dive of the day is inside the reserve t6o taker photos and get a good visual of the various different fish species and then the second dive is to a hotspot for fishing. They cater for all levels of spearos (from beginner to the most expertienced). All divers are expected to dive with a float, preferably with a flag. Guns/ belts/ float & line/ fins etc/ catch bags are available for hire at very reasonable rates.
South Coast boat trip - Saturday afternoon or Sundays – 2x scuba dives
Shore dives / club trip – Saturday 9am. These are the only trips that are not weather dependent or subject to numbers. Club trips go out every Saturday.
Trip’s sites are tailored to what the group wants & their experience level. Most charters want a mixture of either wreck diving, scenic dives, deep drift or crayfish hunting.
For weekend boat dives bring two tanks and a safety sausage. A torch and a catch bag are recommended. Trips normally take five hours & a trip generally costs $80.00 for two dives. Equipment hire is not included in the above costs. See the gear hire section in our retail page if you require gear.
National Trips
Lake Taupo
We run trips to Lake Taupo (New Zealand’s Largest lake). The lake normally has very good visability & water temperatures are usually the same as Wellington. Dives include deep dives, night dives, spring dives & current dives in the Waikato river – above the Huka falls.
Poor Knights
One of New Zealand’s top dive destinations. Clear visibility, warm water, a marine reserve and beautiful scenery. TBA
Fiordland. We have two 1 week trips to Fiordland on the West Coast of the South Island, this year. This area is largely untouched and has many species that are not normally seen close inshore. Except when the snow melts in Spring, the warm ocean currents in this area keep temperatures at the same levels of Wellington, throughout the year.
White Island. 50 km off the Bay of Plenty on the edge of the continental shelf is another NZ dive Mecca. ’White’ is famous for abundent life with awesome viz.
International
We have at least one trip a year overseas. These are not trips incorporated into a Travel Agent’s Group trip.
The next winter trip was planned to be in PNG. Unfortunately the resort has gone for a dive. Instead we have a trip to Nuie at the hieght of the whale migration. Nuie has some of the clearest water of any dive location in the world
There will also be a trip to the Solomon Islands, diving on bombers, submarines, WW11 wrecks with manta rays, sharks and other big fish.
Next year’s trip will probably be to a site that The Times listed as one of the top 10 wreck sites in the world. This is the SS President Coolidge in Vanuatu – a Second World War wreck. While we will dive the wreck, the trip’s aim is to spend most of our time diving the lesser known wrecks off the tourist track. This trip will be designed by an ex-pat Kwi living in the area.
If any of the above trips are of interest to you please contact the shop for further details.