Poor Knights Islands · New Zealand · Wall · Channel & pass
Northern Arch
A 12-15 metre gap over a 40 metre bottom, stacked with stingrays
Photo: Anna Barnett · CC BY 2.0
Northern Arch is a narrow gap, 12 to 15 metres wide, cut through Tawhiti Rahi at the northern end of the islands, with encrusted walls and a bottom at 40 metres. Pink maomao school through the gap, kingfish circle above them, and stingrays stack up in the arch in season. PADI rates it an advanced site, and the current can run hard.
Where it is and how deep
35.4481° S, 174.7315° EPublished position for this site.
The dive
The arch is a gap through the rock, only 12 to 15 metres wide, and the site bottoms out at 40 metres. That combination is what makes it an advanced dive: the walls run well past the depth most of the diving here happens at, and the encrusting life covering them gives you every reason to keep following the rock down. Fix a depth before you get in.
Pink maomao school through the gap in numbers, kingfish circle over and around them, and stingrays stack up in the arch in season. The fish sit where the water moves, which is also the catch: archways, headlands and narrow gaps are exactly where the current at the Poor Knights runs hardest, and on spring tides it can be too strong to swim against.
Marine life and season
- Reef fish swarms
- Trevally & jacks
- Stingrays
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Prime | Prime | Prime | Prime | Good | Good | Fair | Fair | Fair | Good | Good | Good |
Season follows Poor Knights Islands: The East Auckland Current brings the warmest water and best visibility Jan–Apr; winter (Jul–Sep) is colder with more swell.
Know before you go
- Current through the arch can be too strong to swim against, particularly at spring tides. Dive it on the skipper's call and have a plan for getting back to shelter.
- The site bottoms out at 40 metres and the wall drops the whole way, so a narcosis-friendly depth limit and a gas plan matter more here than at the shallower arches.
Dive videos
Diving the Poor Knights Islands: Scootering Through Blue Maomao Schools in the Northern Arch · Divers For Freedom on YouTube
Stingray's at Northern Arch. Poor Knights Islands · Erin Spencer on YouTube
Questions divers ask
Do you need an advanced certification for Northern Arch?+
PADI lists it as an advanced site. The bottom is at 40 metres, the arch itself is a narrow 12 to 15 metre gap, and the current running through the archways can be too strong to swim against at spring tides.
Sources
- Northern Arch dive site — PADI
- Diving the Poor Knights Islands — Wikivoyage
- Poor Knights Islands — Wikipedia
Photo credits
- A diver hovers in open water inside the Northern Arch, rock walls rising on either side with fish above. by Anna Barnett, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
More dive sites in Poor Knights Islands
Schools of blue maomao packed into an eight-metre arch
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