Mandolin

You go in over the reef in the south west of the island and drop onto the face, a steep wall that descends in steps with overhangs and ledges and spans a 20 to 45 metre band. The current is usually mild to moderate, so the dive is normally set up as a drift: pick a depth inside the recreational range, put the wall on one shoulder and let the flow carry you along it rather than finning against it.

The face is covered in whip corals, and they are the reason to slow down. Each one is worth a look for the commensal shrimps living on it, and the same ledges hold porcelain crabs and candy crabs. Mappa pufferfish sit in the cracks. This is close work, so the profile that pays is a steady one along a single band rather than a saw-tooth up and down the wall.

The bigger animals arrive from the open side. Napoleon wrasse — the Maori wrasse of the local briefings — bumphead parrotfish, whitetip reef sharks, eagle rays and turtles all pass along the drop-off, with snapper, barracuda, mackerel and giant trevally holding out in the blue. Ascend up the face as the drift runs out and finish in the shallows, where the macro is thickest and most of the photographs get taken.