On Sunday the 23rd of October Rachel, Tomo, Shane and I (Jacob) packed the Navara with dive gear and headed to Taupo to dive the Rena the following day.
I must say I was very excited and I bet everyone else was too! It was a long drive towards Taupo and I just couldn’t wait for the next day to come.
The following day we got up nice and early at 5.30am and got ready to leave to Tauranga. We shortly arrived at the meet up point were we meet Auckland Scuba Dive and their huge boat! We got all our gear on the boat and made our way to the Rena. The trip was very bouncy for Shane and I (being at the front of the bow) for a estimated time of 50 minutes.
We tied up to the stern of the ship which sat in 36metres of water, Sadly I wasn’t certified to that depth. We all rolled off to boat into the blue ocean, Tomo and I were buddy’s for both dives. We slowly descended down to 30metres where we could see the ship in front of us but since I cant dive to 40m we had to turn around and have a look at the Reef. The Reef was amazing and
full of color, there was schools of fish and sections of steel from the Rena lying around. We spend most of the dive around the 30m-20m mark for quite some time having a look.
The second dive we moved over to “Dive site 1” were the Coast Guard was happily enjoying the day in the sun fishing. We dived down to 29meters where we had seen a big section of the
wreck. We explored around the wreak and had a look inside. I nearly put my hand on a scorpion fish, thankfully it seen my hand coming and swam away. Sadly I may have been slightly
narked and when I saw a huge puffer fish swimming around I must say it was hilarious. We hovered around a sting ray while Tomo took pictures, luckily he didn’t mind our presence. We were coming close to our no Deco limits and our air was getting low so we made our way to the safety stop and warmer waters.
It was a great experience and possibly the best dives I’ve ever done. I would like to thank Auckland Scuba Dive and Dive HQ Wellington for this great opportunity and I would definitely recommended diving the Rena for anyone interested in wrecks or just a deeper diving.
Jacob – Tertiary Dive Student