Diving the Rainbow Warrior
A guide to the wreck
The Rainbow Warrior lies off Matauri Bay, near the Cavalli Islands, where she was laid to rest in December 1987. She was the Greenpeace flagship that French agents bombed in Auckland in 1985. No other dive in New Zealand comes with a story like hers, and the wreck is now covered in marine life. We’ve been diving her since she went down in 1987.
At a glance
- Top of the wreck: 18 metres
- Sand: 26 metres
- Length: 45 metres
- Sunk: 12 December 1987, off Matauri Bay near the Cavalli Islands
Diving the Bay of Islands since 1978. Rated 4.9 on TripAdvisor (565 reviews) and 5.0 on Google (390).
The full guide
Her history
She was built in 1955 by Hall, Russell & Company in Aberdeen, Scotland, as the fisheries research trawler Sir William Hardy. After she was decommissioned, Greenpeace UK bought her in 1977 and relaunched her on 2 May 1978 as the Rainbow Warrior, the organisation’s first ship.
Over the next seven years she campaigned against whaling, seal hunting, nuclear testing and the dumping of nuclear waste at sea. In May 1985 she moved around 300 people from Rongelap Atoll in the Marshall Islands, which had been contaminated by fallout from American nuclear tests.
On 10 July 1985 she was in Auckland Harbour, preparing to lead a protest flotilla to Mururoa Atoll against French nuclear testing. That night, two bombs placed by French intelligence agents exploded against her hull. Photographer Fernando Pereira drowned in the flooding cabins.
The hull was too badly damaged to repair. On 12 December 1987 she was towed north and scuttled off Matauri Bay to become a dive site and a home for marine life. A memorial by sculptor Chris Booth stands on the headland above the bay.
The wreck today
She’s 45 metres long and sits upright on the sand at 26 metres, with the top of the wreck at 18 metres. Nearly forty years on the seabed have taken their toll on her structure. They have also made her one of the most colourful wrecks you’ll dive. In April 2013, Lonely Planet included her in its list of the world’s top 10 dive sites.
Where the Canterbury has big patches of colour, the Rainbow Warrior is a kaleidoscope, with colour everywhere. Jewel anemones, bryozoans and ascidians cover her, and the macro life is outstanding: nudibranchs, triplefins and blennies. Bigeye (cave fish) live inside the wreck, along with a resident school of golden snapper. Around the outside you’ll see john dory, snapper and kingfish, and in spring the demoiselles nest on her.
How the day works
This day is quite different from our Bay of Islands trips. Meet at the shop in Paihia at 7:45am, and we leave at 8:30. We drive about 45 minutes north to Matauri Bay, towing our RIB Aka Maru, and launch off the beach. The wreck is only about 8 minutes from shore.
After the Rainbow Warrior we head out to the Cavalli Islands for lunch on a beach, then a reef dive in the Cavallis. We’re back at Matauri Bay at about 2:30pm and in Paihia at about 4:00pm.
There’s no toilet on Aka Maru. There are facilities at the Matauri Bay campground at the start and end of the day, and at lunchtime there’s the DOC hut on Motukawanui Island.
The trip is $269 with your own gear, $309 with tanks and weights, or $369 with all equipment. Open Water divers diving the wreck with an instructor add $50 for the Deep Adventure Dive. The full list is on our rates page.
Who can dive her
You don’t need to be an Advanced diver, and you don’t need to bring a group. We take individual bookings.
- Open Water divers dive the Rainbow Warrior with one of our instructors as an SSI Deep Adventure Dive, which counts towards the SSI Advanced Open Water course. You’ll need to have dived within the last year.
- Open Water divers with deep experience who can show proof of dives to 30 metres dive with the group at the standard rate, without the Deep Adventure Dive.
- Advanced divers need to have dived within the last 18 months.
- Been out of the water a while? Our Refresher gets you back up to speed first.
When to dive her
The Cavalli Islands are more exposed than the inner Bay of Islands, so this trip depends on the weather more than most. Autumn usually brings the best visibility of the year, 15 to 30 metres or more, and spring is the least reliable. Water temperatures run from about 16°C in late winter to about 22°C in February. We make the call on the weather, usually the day before, and refund you in full if we cancel.
Want to see where else we dive? Explore all our Bay of Islands and Cavalli Islands dive sites.
Planning a wreck trip? See how the Canterbury and the Rainbow Warrior compare with other wreck dives around New Zealand.
Book the Rainbow Warrior
Press the Book Now button below to see dates and book online, or call the shop on 0800 107 551.
Diving Packages
Experience Scuba Diving in the Bay Of Islands.
important information
Before diving with Paihia Dive please have a look at our Understanding The Risks form, as this will need to be completed before joining any of our trips. If you are doing any dive training including Intro Dives or refreshers, please have a look at our Medical Form, if required you may need to get your doctor to sign you off as fit to dive, before completing the activity.
