After three weeks of zero vis diving in Hobart it was time to head to NZ and  take up an offer from Jerome Joergenson. Jerome is the  owner of Dive Tutukaka and a supporter of the scholarship. The Poor Knight Islands are located off the coast of Tutukaka in the North of the North Island of New Zealand and are internationally renowned for their amazing dive spots. The Knights are a truly unique diving experience as the islands have been protected as a “scenic reserve” since 1922 and were established as New Zealand’s second marine reserve in 1985.  This reserve status combined with the islands unique geographical location (at the point where the warm current swept south from the Coral Sea meets the cool temperate New Zealand waters) offers an amazing variety and abundance of marine life which needs to be seen to be believed.

I arrived at the beautiful harbour at Tutukaka and was met by Kate Malcolm the manager of Dive Tutukaka who showed me around the bustling shop and before I knew it I was packed and ready to go aboard one of their amazing boats heading for the Knights. The trip out the island was fantastic as not only did we have a pod of dolphins playing in our bow wave but it also gave me a chance to talk to the staff and other divers who were getting increasingly excited as we got closer and closer to the dive spot. My first dive was mind blowing as the sheer amount of marine life meant that no matter which way you looked up, down, left, right there was always some new species to catch the eye and investigate. Over the next week I dived on a range of walls, guts, tunnels and caves all around the Islands with each dive being more unique and amazing than the last. My diving at the Knights was unlike anywhere I had ever dived before and the only thing I wish was that I had gone their sooner.

Fortunately for me this was not where my story with the Knights ended. As I mentioned earlier the Knights are protected as a Department of Conservation (DOC) marine reserve and as well as protecting the waters surrounding the Island it is actually prohibited for members of the public to go onto the islands unless specifically for scientific research and as permitted by DOC and the local Maori tribe.  As it turned out I was in the right place at the right time as an archaeologist James Robinson who had all the necessary clearances was heading out to the islands to continue his PhD research and invited me to come along to help out. The Poor Knights have an amazing history as in the early 1800’s Europeans introduced pigs onto the islands and the Maori tribe Ngati Wai that lived on the islands developed a monopoly on the trade of these pigs with the mainland. Other tribes jealous of this privileged position attacked the islands in 1823 and massacred the local tribe leaving the islands uninhabited and as such the archaeological remains have been left untouched for over 180 years.  Our trip to the Knights was to record and gather pig bone from the archaeological sites so that they could be tested in the new ancient DNA lab at the University of Otago to trace exactly where the pigs came from and as a result to understand more about this critical part of the Knight’s history. When we got out of the boat and clambered up the rocks and onto the islands themselves it was an eerie feeling to know that so few people had been where we were going and to know the tragedy that had fallen upon the islands inhabitants. As we struggled up the steep hill and through the thick bush it was amazing to hear the hundreds of birds that make the Knights their home free from any predators. Eventually we reached a valley where the Ngati Wai had built their gardens and we began looking amongst the trees for pig bone suitable for DNA testing. Due to the amazing preservation on the islands it was not too long before we had samples including teeth and an entire skull. As I made my way back to the boat I realised that I would probably never be able to come back to this magical place but I was absolutely stoked that I had the opportunity to visit even just once.