Articles > Five Best New Zealand Marine Experiences

1. Poor Knights Marine Reserve

Indisputably top of the list is diving or snorkeling at the Poor Knights Marine Reserve, 23km off the coast of Northland. Take it from someone who knows. French diving legend Jacques Cousteau called it one of the top 10 diving experiences in the world. Here where the subtropical current from the Coral Sea sweeps in live varieties of tropical and subtropical fish not seen elsewhere. In the gin-clear waters you will swim past thick vibrant swaying seaweed, huge schools of blue and pink maomao and watch mesmerized as languid balletic sting-rays float beneath you. Award-winning Dive Tutukaka runs regular trips to the reserve.

2. Whale-watching in Kaikoura

It’s come a long way since the early days of bobbing around in a small barque, hoping to spy a surfacing leviathan but this is an example of bigger being better. Ngai Tahu has the whole operation down to a fine art. On board on screen information, jovial staff and the latest technology which tells them exactly when to have your camera out for that shot of the fluke. But book ahead and allow a few days. The experience is weather permitting and the weather often says no. Also in Kaikoura is swimming with the seals. Recommended. So playful and not a hint of shyness.

3. Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World, Auckland

This too gets better all the time. As well as the conveyor belt which glides you through a 110m tunnel of underwater life, they have now added swimming with the sting-rays and diving with sharks to their fishy repertoire. Feeling a stringray graunch food taken from your palm is the strangest sensation though not one offered in the shark experience I’ll be bound.

4. Snorkelling in Goat Island

If possible go on a week day. The hugely popular activity at Leigh, north of Auckland, is no longer a well-kept secret. It is a parking nightmare. And byo snorkeling gear and a picnic. This is do-it-yourself territory but isn’t great to know that you can see colourful sponges, crayfish, boarfish and snapper in a marine reserve for little more than the cost of the petrol to get there. If necessary you can hire gear at Seafriends, a km before the reserve. A glass-bottomed boat, the Habitat Explorer, means you can see the underwater life all year round.

5. Akaroa, Banks Peninsula

It is possible to swim with the world’s smallest and rarest dolphin, the Hector dolphin, in Akaroa, Banks Peninsula but that’s assuming they’re in the mood. It’s cheaper if you just like to watch. To go in search of these rare dolphins and blue penguins, take a two-hour harbour cruise with Akaroa Harbour Cruises.

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