Middle Arch, Poor Knights Islands
Middle Arch at the Poor Knights is one of the most popular sites. This short archway is suitable for Open Water divers, but at either end of the archway the depth drops below 30m.
The light as you look out from the archway underwater is spectacular and the site is one of the fishy ones.
Most boats anchor on the southern side of the archway where the bottom is over 30m below just 40m from the wall.
The best option for divers is to swim to the archway and descend using the wall for a visual reference. To gain access to the arch you need to be no deeper than 12m or you will miss it.
Diver Level – Open Water and above.
Depth 12m to 40m+
Great for all divers with good buoyancy control to stay within their training depth limit. Plenty of depth on the reefs around the outside of the archway for divers looking for something deeper and longer.
Awesome for snorkelers and freedivers through the archway.
Blue Mao Mao and Two Spot Demoiselles usually dominate the site along with some good size snapper, stingrays and kingfish who cruise the site when the current is running. The terrain is very bouldery and hidden on the boulders will be scorpion fish and numerous nudibranchs.
At the southern entrance there are large rock formations to explore and the bottom of the arch is home to a Porae, Perch, Mado and a variety of Moray eels.
On the left of the southern entrance there is a large open sandy cave, “Bernie’s Cave” approx. 12m at the floor, 8m depth at the top. If you are looking at the archway from the surface, you will see a vertical white line. Descend here and you will find the cave below this once you have passed all of the fish.
As you travel along the left hand wall of the arch, you will ascend to approx 9m over a colourful boulder and rock field. On the wall bluebell tunicates and other encrusting life cover the entire walls Look out for nudibranchs as several species can be found here.
As you pass through the archway the bouldery terrain becomes more kelpy and stops at a shelf that drops away. Take a look into the blue, just in case something exciting swims by. If you have plenty of gas and the current allows you can follow the wall around to the left to complete a lap of the outer side of the archway and follow the wall back around to the start point, otherwise this is a good turn around point.
As you start heading back in you will find there is a shaft that descends straight down with a small swim-through at the bottom (one diver at a time), this will bring you out at approx 24m, so not for novice divers.
Then cross to the other side and explore the wall back to the southern entrance and then head around to the shallows of the kelp tp complete your safety stop.
If you want to do Middle Arch as a deeper technical dive, the outer side of the arch drops down to over 40m with some beautiful reef. Want deeper, then head west towards the pinnacles at 60m for some black coral action.
Tutukaka Coastguard VHF Channel 62
Distress & Emergency VHF channel 16 or phone 111
Diver Emergency Service (DES) 0800 4 337 111
The Diver Emergency Service (DES) is a 24 hour, 7 days a week hotline for advice and treatment of all diving related incidents, accidents or injuries, including the emergency management of decompression illness.
