If you’ve just finished your Open Water course and you’re wondering whether the wrecks are out of your reach, they aren’t. We take newly certified divers onto both the Canterbury and the Rainbow Warrior most weeks. You dive it with one of our instructors as a Deep Adventure Dive, and it counts towards your SSI Advanced Open Water certification. So you get a wreck and a step towards your next card out of the same day.

Why a Deep Adventure Dive?

Your Open Water card takes you to 18 metres, and both wrecks lie deeper than that. On a Deep Adventure Dive an instructor dives alongside you and briefs you on what changes at depth: air use, no-decompression time, and how colour and light fall away. It’s $50 on top of the trip. If you already have logged dives to 30 metres you don’t need it. You dive with the group at the standard rate.

Two wrecks, two different days

The Canterbury

The Canterbury is a decommissioned navy frigate, sunk in 2007 in Deep Water Cove near Cape Brett. We leave Paihia at 8:30 a.m. on Sentinel and it’s about half an hour out. The top of her sits at 14 metres and the decks run from 22 to 28, so your first descent lands you on structure well within reach. She’s covered in jewel anemones, with snapper and kingfish coming through and bigeyes in the dark openings. Deep Water Cove has been under a rāhui since 2010, and the fish life shows it. We’re back alongside around 3:30 p.m.

The Rainbow Warrior

The Rainbow Warrior is a different kind of day. We meet at the shop at 7:45 a.m. and drive 45 minutes north in our van to Matauri Bay, where we keep the boat on its trailer, and launch off the beach. It’s eight minutes out to the wreck. She lies in up to 26 metres, a smaller ship than the Canterbury, and every surface is covered: anemones, sponges, a resident school of golden snapper. After the wreck we have lunch on a Cavalli Islands beach and do a shallower reef dive in the afternoon. We’re back in Paihia around 4:00 p.m.

How the dive goes

You’ll get a full briefing on the boat before you kit up. You go down the line with your instructor and stay together the whole dive, on the outside of the wreck. There’s no going inside on your first one. Your instructor keeps an eye on depth and time and brings you up the line to your safety stop. Most people tell us the descent is the part they were nervous about, and the bit they forget about the moment the wreck appears below them.

Before you book

• You’ll need to have dived within the last year. If it’s been longer, do a refresher with us first and get a couple of reef dives in before the wreck.
• Advanced divers need a dive within the last 18 months.
• You don’t need to bring a group. Plenty of people book on their own.
• Bring warm layers for the boat ride home, whatever the season.

What it costs

$319 for the trip with the Deep Adventure Dive included, $359 with tanks and weights, and $419 with a full set of hire gear. A packed lunch is $17, or bring your own.

See the Canterbury and Rainbow Warrior trip pages for dates and online booking, or call the shop on 0800 107 551.