SHIPROCK, LILLI PILLI

Just got back from diving at Shiprock. It's the first time that I've been there.

It was a great dive, I was actually really surprised at how much stuff there was to see: cuttlefish, leather-jackets (some of them huge!), an octopus, moray eels, a numb ray, loads of hermit crabs and a few purple nudibranchs. Visibility was about 5 metres (which is apparently quite good) and maximum depth about 15m.

The shit thing about the dive is the fact that I'm still not used to shore diving in temperate waters and got myself a big frickin' cut on my palm from a frickin' oyster, and the fact that I hate lugging all my heavy crap up and down. I'm so horribly unco-ordinated (hey, that's why I'm a dentist) that I worry I'll fall flat on my arse and all the cooler, more experienced divers will laugh at me.

But it was a great dive. I'd definitely do it again.

A map of the dive site, courtesy of Michael McFadyen's Scuba Site.

Shiprock dive site, satellite view.