It's true that a good 90% of all my dives have been in Utila, so the opportunity to explore reefs in different countries and oceans is always exciting. In 2018 my partner Asa and I visited his home town in Newcastle, New South Wales to surprise his family and friends for Christmas. During our 6 week visit to Australia, we knew that we had to take advantage of this chance to dive the local area and even plan a road trip to access the more remote dive sites, only reachable by boat.
The year before, Asa and I had a memorable conversation with one of our dive customers in Utila. He told us about how some of the best diving he had ever experienced was in Nelson Bay, and he couldn't fathom that it was just one hour from Asa's family home yet he'd never been to dive! Though we both felt like seasoned divers in the Caribbean, this would not only be our first shore dive but also our first dive without a local guide outside of Utila, and Asa's first dive in Australia!
After some research we rented tanks and weights from a nearby dive shop in Newcastle before driving to Nelson Bay. Upon arrival we sought out one of the local dive shops Let's Go Adventures to get the inside scoop from a staff member, ensuring that we weren't about to enter blindly into any rip currents, boat traffic or Great White breeding grounds... (just kidding). After establishing that we were safe to proceed along with some helpful tips about what to see and which direction to go, we drove up the road towards Fly Point and parked directly opposite a stairway, leading down to the shoreline where we would enter the water.
[Map of dive sites in Nelson Bay]
Now would be the time for me to exclaim how happy I am with past-Abi for keeping a log of these first two shore dives at Nelson Bay! Below is an unedited post-dive account from my experience: what we saw, how I was feeling and what didn't go to plan...
Tuesday 11th December 2018
FLY POINT - Nelson Bay
Max Depth. 14m
Total time. 60min
Bottom temp. 17C
Vis. 8-12m
Buddies: Asa, Marko
Air: exited with 70 bar.
Our first dive this trip, our first ever shore dive, and Asa’s first dive in Oz! Blown away by the life, especially the macro. Must’ve seen over 50 nudibranch, an incredible 2ft sea hare, large blue wrasse, small stingrays, a crested hornshark, some wobbegongs which I had been looking forward to seeing, possibly the tail of a ‘blind’ shark, Asa spotted an eel, and then an array of interesting fish of all new shapes and patterns! I recognised the shape of many fish species, belonging to the damselfish family for example, though it was like they were dressed in the 'Spring Collection' of their scales, differing in their markings and colours to the fish I know so well in the Caribbean.
[Before entering the water at Fly Point with Asa & Marko!]
We were all definitely taken aback by the water temperature. All of us were wearing 5mm wetsuits and booties, with around 12lbs of weight (too heavy for me even with the added buoyancy). At first my head was pounding from the immediate shock of the cold water, but I soon got used to it. My hands and feet were the first to really get cold; so much so that around the 45min mark it was almost unenjoyable and I could tell that I started to keep an eye on the time and kick faster to return to our entry point. Totally worth it though because every few inches I was distracted by seeing something new and amazing. I was wearing 5 weights in total, 2 in my trim, 2 in my pockets and one on my BCD waist strap. In the water I kept feeling my legs rise upwards so I asked Asa to move the 5th weight from my waist to my tank strap, but it just messed up my buoyancy and I felt like I kept tipping to one side. For the entire dive I felt quite awkward and even resulted to using my arms to offset my positioning which made me feel very unprofessional! Then again I was enjoying the dive too much to really let it affect my mood.
This dive site seems to be an ‘easy’ location for beginner divers, therefore it was quite popular on this day and I found it reassuring that there were other divers around us, some of which we passed underwater; I think one lady was doing a DSD and some younger girls were maybe completing a course. I had a few worries about navigating the dive site so seeing the other divers was helpful, but I was impressed by our natural sense of navigation regardless!
I would love to return to this dive site because I don’t feel as though we got to see as much of the ‘best’ part as I wish we had. We started the dive swimming slowly as always but we all got so distracted from seeing new creatures that we barely moved from the same spot for the first half of the dive; so by the time we reached the slightly deeper sponge gardens where we started to see even more (bigger) life, time was running out and we were all feeling the cold so we hurried back.
[Just some of the incredible wildlife we encountered! Left to right: Crested Hornshark, Common Stingray, Green Turtle, Nudibranch, Mourning Cuttlefish, Eastern Red Scorpionfish]
All in all we exited the water feeling ecstatic! The vis wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, the dive site was easier to navigate than I thought and the amount of LIFE left us all speechless. Asa and Marko even more so as this had been on their doorstep their whole adolescence and they had no idea. It gave us all a whole new appreciation and love of diving.
Wednesday 12th December 2018
HALIFAX PARK - Nelson Bay
Max Depth. 19m
Total time. 50min
Bottom temp. 17C
Vis. 8-10
Buddy: Asa
Air: exited with 100bar.
After the hype from our first dive I personally went into this dive expecting great things; especially as the guy who we rented our tanks from was raving about this site. Marko had to work so it was just Asa and I - our version of a date! (my favourite type of date as well). This site seemed a little trickier to navigate and was recommended for more experienced divers, which actually made me feel both nervous and excited! As before, we researched what time was best to enter the water revolving around the tide, a concept which was very new to us, and we walked in off the beach and descended next to a wooden pylon.
For this dive I wore a neoprene hood and one less weight: SO much better. I felt more comfortable, both in terms of temperature and buoyancy, which meant I got to focus more on exploring the site. We weren’t totally sure on which way to go as I knew the general route was a circle and there was a ‘drop off’ to find. I soon realised I didn’t think we were diving the site the ‘right’ way but I was also wanting to keep on the shallower side for this dive so I didn’t really care if we were making up our own route.
[Equipped with a hood this time!]
We had been warned about the busy boat traffic in the area and to be extremely careful not to surface unless under 2m depth. When we first descended Asa and I had to waft our arms to help us sink, so I was a little worried about ‘popping’ up at the end of the dive. I also knew we were going to be diving a bit deeper and needed to complete a safety stop, and again, I didn’t want to risk floating up so we verged on the shallower side during this dive, though we could have gone a fair bit deeper. Also, I’m slightly embarrassed to admit this, but I felt nervous this whole dive… of sharks, to the point where I physically moved around Asa so he would be on the ‘shark side’ of the dive - ha! The typography of the site was a gradually sloping sand patch with various coral bommies, and I kept looking out into the depths worrying about seeing a large shadow. What didn’t help matters was that there had been talk just the day before about Great White sightings in this exact bay. On one hand, I thought how incredible it would be to see a ‘sharky’ shark, and I really wanted to, but I felt very vulnerable. Unlike the day before, there were no other divers, and I still felt that Asa and I were quite inexperienced for the area, not knowing the dive site nor the conditions that well yet… so I felt a lot more nervous than I would have hoped, and I think it affected my dive hugely. So we decided to keep shallow, therefore sacrificing probably seeing the better part of the site, but I’m sure we will return, hopefully with a local to guide us around.
[EDIT] Up until this point in my diving history I had only encountered nurse sharks and whale sharks, both of which belong in the 'puppy dog' category of sharks for me. I have such a profound respect for sharks - I love them! But I think that as divers we have a duty to protect them and their representation in society, which means not being naive to the fact that they are apex predators and every time we enter the water we need to accept that risk. I think it's healthy to feel naturally wary of sharks, they deserve that respect from us. I heard a story recently about there being a whale carcass washed up at a beach in Byron Bay which undoubtedly attracted a lot of sharks to the area. As a shark enthusiast was walking away, she saw a surfer approaching the beach and warned him about the situation, to which he replied "so?". This is when it is dangerous for people to act too blasé towards sharks, because when they insert themselves into an equation like this, they are completely disregarding the associated risk which will only end with the surfer being severely injured and the shark being torn to shreds by the media. Sometimes its the people who have no natural caution (and therefore no respect) towards sharks that can do the most damage.
[Back to our scheduled program...]
Other than that, we ended the dive after 50 min because Asa was approaching low on air and we had returned back to our entry point. Amazingly I still had 100bar, which shocked me because our max depth was deeper than the day before and I had felt nervous, then again I was far less cold than our first dive; whether I was getting used to the temperature or the hood may have really helped, but I felt like I could’ve kept diving until I became low on air too. In terms of life, we saw similar creatures: more nudi’s, wobbegongs, rays, another giant sea hare, a dusky flathead (looks like a sharky flounder), crested horn shark, leatherjackets (like filefish), and one of my favourites is an ‘old wife’ that looks like a mix between a drumfish and a damselfish.
[Swimming through the shallows]
I didn’t feel as awestruck as I did after the first dive, but then again a lot of the conditions and life were no longer brand new to me, and my apprehension of seeing a Great White may have slightly ruined the dive, but I look forward to returning to this site and doing it again properly!
[End of dive log]
After these first two dives, Asa and I went on to complete many more shore dives during our visit as well as a trip out to South West Rocks to dive the infamous Fish Rock Cave (which I will definitely write about!). In this entry I wanted to give an honest account of how despite my previous experience as a diver, I still felt nervous, I still struggled with my buoyancy from wearing extra exposure, I still had issues with navigation and overall at times I felt like a beginner again - but that's ok! This is the reason why I love to explore new and unfamiliar places, to test and improve my skills as a diver.
Safe diving & happy dreaming,
A.
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