Blue Maomao Arch

The arch does one thing and does it perfectly: blue maomao school inside in such numbers that the passage becomes a moving wall of silver-blue, parting around divers and sealing behind them. Light pours in from both ends, the boulder floor bounces it upward, and for a few minutes everyone in the group is inside a bait ball that has no predator. Around the edges, kelp and jeweled encrusting life carry the usual Poor Knights payload of nudibranchs, and demoiselles shoal where the arch opens to the sea. It is shallow, brief, and among the most photographed moments in New Zealand diving.

اللحظة التي جئت من أجلها: Wall-to-wall blue maomao, cathedral light through the arch, easy depth

التضاريس: Rock archway and boulder floor connecting two open faces of the reef

التيار: Surge through the archway on swell days is the only real variable.

المخاطر: Surge in the archway when swell runs; time the swim between sets.

الحفاظ على البيئة البحرية: Full no-take marine reserve; the schools are this dense because nothing here is fished.