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Old 04-23-2014, 11:07 PM   #1
IDreamOfVis
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Where to live in New Zealand?

I'm coming over to New Zealand in December for 4-6 months to work and just generally bum around. Ive never been over there and was wondering where I should look to find some employment and more importantly, where are the better spearfishing locations? Not looking for any honey holes, just what area is a good place to start? Finding work should be relatively easy, but i'd like for it to be somewhere i can jump in as much as possible.
Thanks in advance for any imput
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Old 04-23-2014, 11:11 PM   #2
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

dude. no need to dream of viz anymore! lucky man, bump on this thread. I'd like to visit NZ sometime soon. Good luck in the southern hemisphere!
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Old 04-24-2014, 02:33 AM   #3
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

East coast of the North island. Tauranga, Auckland, Whangarei and most places in between. Heaps of islands close to each of those centres, pretty good vis, good variety (for a temperate climate anyway). Lots of habitat: easy shallow weedlines for the sand dwellers, offshore pins for pelagics etc. There are some good places as you go south but the biodiversity is generally lower and they're cold and murky in winter. Wellington (bottom of the North Island) is a tougher place to dive, very windy and always big currents, often deep but it can be epic in summer.
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Old 04-25-2014, 05:47 PM   #4
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

Thanks you very much for the advise, im pretty stoked on the trip. Im leaning towards Auckland as the bay of plenty area looks pretty damn enticing. How is the depth around the northern part of the island? Will I be able to find deeper holes or pinnacle drop offs for pelagics from shore, or is a boat required to get to the better areas?
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Old 04-25-2014, 06:45 PM   #5
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

Sounds exciting. I live in Utah too, and no chance of leaving yet. What do you do for a living that allows such broad travels? Cheers have fun should be amazing.
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Old 04-26-2014, 03:08 AM   #6
Mullins
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

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Originally Posted by IDreamOfVis View Post
Thanks you very much for the advise, im pretty stoked on the trip. Im leaning towards Auckland as the bay of plenty area looks pretty damn enticing. How is the depth around the northern part of the island? Will I be able to find deeper holes or pinnacle drop offs for pelagics from shore, or is a boat required to get to the better areas?
Depending on where you can find work, Tauranga is right in the bay of plenty. Much smaller city than Auckland though.

On shore dives the reef generally stops at the sand in 10-20m. There are some spots you can swim out to deeper water, but the pelagics (yellowtail kingfish, kahawai, trevally) come right in shallow so you don't need to be out on a pinnacle to run into them. My brother has shot 35kg yellowtail from the shore. Of course the offshore pinnacles are better in other ways - cleaner water, more fish, usually bigger fish.

Auckland region is probably better for shore diving, most of the good spots in the bay of plenty being offshore. White Island, Mayor Island etc.
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Old 04-26-2014, 01:54 PM   #7
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

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Sounds exciting. I live in Utah too, and no chance of leaving yet. What do you do for a living that allows such broad travels?.
I'm a land surveyor by trade, certified in welding, have a good geology/mining background, grew up working on farms and am single with very little overhead holding me down I don't have any jobs guaranteed and if i need to ill work odd jobs. I've always wanted to head down there and i figure if i don't do it now i probably wont ever get the chance to. So im saving up, packing my bags, and ill probably just wing it to some extent.

mmmm kingies from shore? so. stoked.

Mullins, how is the shore diving from the wellington area? I've considered the wellington area as i know some people down there (not spearos)to kind of show me around/couch crash till i can get something set up
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Old 04-26-2014, 07:18 PM   #8
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

Many people in Wellington only shore dive and don't use boats at all. Almost the entire coast is rocky so you can dive pretty much anywhere and find fish. On the variety front it's a mix of cold and warm water species at different times of the year because their ranges overlap here. Trevally, kingies, john dory and albacore tuna through the summer months. Warehou come through in spring and autumn; kahawai crayfish abalone terakihi butterfish and moki all year round. Probably the main drawback is no snapper. They are around but strictly sand-dwellers down here and seldom show up on the reefs.

I love the diving here but I'm aware it's not for everybody. Cook Strait has some of the nastiest currents in the world and while there are plenty of easy spots to dive, the best ones are very exposed. To get the most out of it you need to be doing fairly deep dives drift dives in sometimes average vis; or diving pinnacles with short windows of slack tide. Vis varies but is generally 5-7m in winter and 10-25m in summer at places like Kapiti Island. 10 degrees in winter, 18 in summer.

I've got quite a bit of footage from this season I can load onto youtube if you want to see what it's like around here.

This kingfish was shot by a friend last year
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Old 04-26-2014, 11:10 PM   #9
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

Shore dive on the South Coast: http://vimeo.com/64792413

Some footage stuck together. Just fast forward if some of it is a bit slow: https://vimeo.com/93041996

Plenty of footage on youtube from the upper north island.
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Old 04-28-2014, 12:14 AM   #10
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

All I did was travel the north island for 2 months shooting fish pretty much every day all day then went to school in Auckland for 4 months.
The northern part of the island and the east cape were the best. If I could go back and do it again I would spend 40% of my time in the bay of islands and further north, 50% of my time on the east cape and 10% down in wellington just because of the 7's and all the big ass paua.
The snapper diving was the best by far up north but the kingie diving was insane on the east cape and we had sightings of some super giant fish. Lots of sharks though and I almost got eaten by a white out there.
Invest in a kayak or a small roll up inflatable when you get there. We had an 8ft inflatable with a small 2 stroke 2hp motor and we destroyed ungodly amounts of fish in it, almost sank it a few times lol.
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Old 04-28-2014, 12:15 AM   #11
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

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This kingfish was shot by a friend last year
That fish came out of kapiti yeah?
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Old 04-28-2014, 12:35 AM   #12
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

Yeah tarapunga shoal, a short way to the south
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Old 04-28-2014, 03:35 AM   #13
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

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Yeah tarapunga shoal, a short way to the south
Nice, never got out there. Next time I go back I'd like to do white island, great barrier, the east cape again, cape kerikeri again, and the three kings
Did I miss anything I shouldnt be missing?
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Old 04-29-2014, 07:59 PM   #14
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Re: Where to live in New Zealand?

You probably can't go wrong with Auckland. It has some superb diving within an hour of the city, I often dive after work in summer, and you're also pretty central with Northland and the Bay Of Plenty about equal distance from Auckland - 2 hours drive will have you in either. Often the weather only suits one or the other so you've 'always' got an option for the weekend.
There's a lot of shore diving to be done and you'll get pretty much everything on a shore dive that you'll get at offshore spots, shore diving doesn't really hinder your access to big fish. You're coming at the perfect time of year, you'll have long days and short nights.
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