Middle Arch

Middle Arch is one of the best sites for diving at the Poor Knights. The Arch bottoms out at 18m and slopes down to 30m+ on both the North and South ends of the Arch. There is also an interesting cave with an air pocket near the Southwestern entrance to the Arch below the vertical white line seen from the surface.

You can expect to see: Large schools of patrolling Kingfish, Snapper, and Blue Maomao. It is also common to see large numbers of Long and Short Tailed Stingrays.

Level

Level

Beginner
Advanced

Visibility

Visibility

19 m

Current

Current

Light Current
No Current
Strong Current

DIVE TYPES

DIVE TYPES

Snorkeling
Wall/Drop Off
Macro Spot
Cavern/Cave
Kelp fish
Pinnacle, Needle, Seamount

Temperature & Visibility

Dives

Wildlife Diversity

Affiliated Training Center

Recommended Training

Open Water Diver

Begin your lifelong adventure as a certified diver with the globally recognized SSI Open Water Diver certification.

Boat Diving

Discover pristine dive sites that cannot be reached from shore and experience the excitement of liveaboard diving. Learn all you need to dive from boats with the SSI Boat Diving Specialty. Start today!

Stress & Rescue

Learn to identify stress, prevent accidents, and learn rescue diver skills with this essential Diver Stress and Rescue Specialty program. Help yourself and other divers to stay safe. Get started now!

Dry Suit Diving

Become a dry suit diver and dive all year, anywhere in the world. Join the Dry Suit Diving specialty today and learn all the knowledge and skills you need to safely and comfortably dive in a dry suit.

Enriched Air Nitrox Level 2 (40%)

Extend your dive time, shorten your surface intervals and spend more time exploring the dive sites you love, with the SSI Enriched Air Nitrox Specialty certification program.

Night Diving and Limited Visibility

Diving does not end when the sun goes down! Become a night diver and meet the incredible marine life that only comes out at night. Join the SSI Night Diving and Limited Visibility specialty program.

Navigation

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Waves, Tides & Currents

Take control of your dives no matter the conditions with the SSI Waves, Tides and Currents specialty. Learn all you need to go diving in currents, waves and rivers, enjoy shore diving and learn about the environmental conditions that affect dive sites.

Deep Diving

Many exciting and iconic dive sites lie in deeper waters. The SSI Deep Diving Specialty will get you there - safely and with confidence. Learn how to plan and conduct dives to between 18 and 40 meters deep with SSI.

Scooter / DPV

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Perfect Buoyancy

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Photo & Video

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Shark Ecology

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Marine Ecology

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Fish Identification

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Extended Range Nitrox Diving

Do you enjoy diving with nitrox? Are you ready to take your enriched air diving deeper? The SSI Extended Range Nitrox program will certify you to dive to a depth of 40 meters / 130 feet with limited decompression while using nitrox. Start online today!

Extended Range (Twin Set)

Utilizing either an XR Sidemount or Twinset Total Diving System this program prepares you to plan and conduct decompression dives to a depth of 45 meters / 145 feet.

Extended Range Cavern Diving

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Dive Guide

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Dive sites nearby

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

Cleanerfish Bay

A great shallow bottomed bay with a wraparound wall leading to a small cave and a boulder strewn slope leading to deeper depths for those who are qualified. Massive boulders hide crays and scorpionfish while there is a small cave around the point popular with stringrays.

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

Cave Bay

This is a great site with depth ranges to suit all ability of diver, from beginner to tech and all the levels in between. This site is on the seaward side of the Poor Knights Islands.

© DIVE NOW, 0110 Whanagrei

Northern Arch

Northern Arch is a renowned site that often has large pelagic species. The Arch is deep and bottoms out at over 30m, there is interesting structure on either side of the Arch and the Northern side of the Arch keeps sloping away.

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

Maomao Arch

This arch takes a diver from the western side of the island to the eastern side. Walls outside the arch reach depth of 30m, while the inside of the arch shallows up to just 5m. On the eastern side to the right there is a group of large boulders and a small cave at around 20m.

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

Barren Arch

Located on the seaward side of the islands near the northern end of Tawhiti Rahi. This site can be dived in many different ways. The shallower entrance is close to the enclosed back and has a shallow underwater reef lip at 2/3m. Depth ranges 10m down to 35m the entrance is made up of large kelp covered boulders.

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

Wild Beast Point

Wild Beast Point is an exposed point at the northern tip of the islands. The site drops off to 40m, with colourful walls and other schooling fish. There is often strong current at this dive site.

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

Hideaway Bay

Also known as Dutchmans Cove, this is a beautiful little site has plenty going on. On the left the wall gently sloped but knobbly and slowly get deeper out towards the point. On the right you have a shear wall with depth of 18m with a sand gully.

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

Matts Crack

An iconic site for photographers due to the blue glow producing an awesome silhouette shots. The crack is about 60m long and at the open end, is about 15m deep. It is open to the surface the whole length of the crack and approx 10m wide at the opening, narrowing to 3m wide.

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

The Gardens

Mixture of boulder and sandy patches at this consistently shallow site. The depth at the back of the bay is an easy 5-10m. The bay plateaus at around 10-15m for about 500m out from the wall. Around the wall at the back of the bay are a number of cracks and archways to go exploring in. Shark fin cave is beauty!

© Global Dive, 1010 Auckland

Riko Riko cave

The largest sea cave in the southern hemisphere, the size of Rikoriko Cave is impressive. This is a great dive site for many experience levels, and a good spot for a night dive too