In the bay of Islands, at the east coast of the Northern island of New Zealand you can find one of the most famous wreck dives in the world: the wreck of the Greenpeace ship The Rainbow Warrior. This ship was sunk on the 10th of July 1985 by the French in the harbour of Auckland.

The Rainbow Warrior was given a safe haven in New Zealand after a dispute over nuclear testing by the French at Mururoa. It was left to rust away in the harbour of Auckland for a while after the incident. On December 14th 1987 it was sunk in the Bay of Islands to form an artificial reef.

Bay of Islands

The Bay of Islands is a very popular holiday destination in New Zealand. One of the reasons is that the climate is very mild during summertime and there are a lot of water sports around. Since it is so popular, you can choose from a variety of accommodations ranging from campsites and hostels to luxury hotels. There are only a few dive schools here, and the most appealing one to us was Paihia Dive.

Paihia Dive

Paihia Dive has regular dive tours with a nice, decent little ship. Their shop looks professional, their gear is good and they know a lot about the area and the dive sites. You get a long briefing on the boat about The Rainbow Warrior and the dive site you are about to explore. This is just as well, because it is a fair trip of about 2 hours out to the dive site.

It was a comfortable trip though, with hot tea and soups to keep everyone warm (we were here shortly after we went to Tutukaka, so it was still midwinter in New Zealand) and a very easy-going atmosphere.

One of their dive masters has only one arm, but is extremely skilled at his job and does not need any help with his gear at all. He even managed to catch a couple of crayfish along the way.

Cavally Islands

The Rainbow Warrior is placed close to the Cavally Islands. The wreck is beautifully preserved and is nicely forming an artificial reef with lots of colourful anemones and other creatures. Since there is quite a lot of food around, many fish are attracted to the site.

Diving conditons on the wreck

The waters are very cold in the winter (between 10 and 15 degrees Celsius), but again the visibility is great (more than 15 metres).

You can spot dwarf and northern scorpio fish, lots of bigeyes, nudybranches and angelfish.

The wreck lies at about 28 metres deep, so you need a minimum certification of Advanced Open Water to be allowed to visit it. You can still see the name and the anchor of The Rainbow Warrior and it is possible to enter the steerage cabin. Be wary of confined spaces and some sharp edges though.

Nukutunga

For the second dive of the day we went to Nukutunga, a tiny rocky island. Here you can find some small kelp forests. Common species here are eagle rays, leatherjackets, drummers, Scorpio fish, hiwihiwi, crayfish and black spotted groupers.

This second dive site is not as impressive as The Rainbow Warrior, but is definitely worth a visit.