The Lighthouse
On the southwest side of Ura Island is a small lighthouse, below which there are huge coral rock bommies standing at least 6-7 metres tall. There are resident double-headed maori wrasse, coral trout, crayfish as well as heaps of critters like nudibranches. We swim down through the bommies until you get to a flat bottom where there are barrel sponges, sea whips, lettuce leaf coral and schools of reef fish, all just in 16-20m of water. One of my most talked about dive sites.
Lloyd Woo, Dive Guide
Location Map
Back to Top
A small seamount just a short swim from the main reef Tom. This outcrop of hard and soft coral is an nice point to hover in the on-coming current to see the world pass by...
Being between it's two brothers - Tom and Harry, Dick is generally a start or finish point when the current is a bit too fast for the divers. On finishing here in the shallows, Dick consists of an apparently barren field of rock and some clusters of coral. Taking the time to peruse this field will pay off with nudi's and shells.
This is the longest of the three reefs (Tom, Dick & Harry) and has a much deeper flat than the other two reefs.(12m). Harry is 90 % live coral, from staghorn to large plates and barrel sponges.Having a high likelihood of seeing pelagic species pass by makes this one of my favorites to dive...
(picture by Jürgen Freund) Named after the photographer's nickname, this site is only 5 minutes from Kabaira. Mainly a hard coral reef, it has large plate corals - some the size of a double bed - with its own collection of fusiliers and other marine fish. It makes for a nice relaxing dive to end the day or the week. Oh, and it's the only spot so far that we've had an 11ft tiger shark say hello.
As the name suggests, this is the closest site to Kabaira where I have found a small cluster of Pigmie seahorses. They were nestled under an over hanging branch of coral fan amongst other fans and black coral trees. This reef also has a deep wall for you to peruse to your hearts content. It would be classed as a classic wall dive.
This is a small sunken reef that rises up from a deeper coral ride. With the right moon and tide this site is amazing with dozens of different fish species going for broke in the current. Even when the time isn't right this site still produces something interesting either large or small.
This wall has over hangs, short swim-throughs, and canyons spread right the way round the open side of the reef. The drop-off plummets to 50m before easing away. Many small schooling fish travel the wall, rainbow runner's and blue fin traveally to name two, but the wall is also covered with smaller and cryptic creatures.
A fantastic dive, with lots of colourful corals ranging from the 3m to the 30m depth mark. With hard and soft corals, barrel sponges, olive sea whips and more on site, you'll be definitely happy with this dive and relaxed. It is also great for the snorkeler as there is plenty of colour in the shallows and has it's fair share of marine life to be seen.