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DIVE QUEENSTOWN BLOG:
Merry Christmas everyone!posted 24th December 2011
Hope you are all keeping cool. We can't imagine a better way to spend these hot Christmas days than underwater. On our dive yesterday in the river we have already reached 18 degrees! This is going to be a hot hot summer with lots of fun to be had. We have also visited the caryard in Lake Wakatipu again to see if those old beauties haven't yet disappeared into the abyss.
Roy from the Netherlands and Lance just before taking off in the river current
Steven checking out the cars in Lake Wakatipu
Summer diving
posted 12th December 2011
This is the time we all love here in Queenstown. Warm long summer days with plenty of time to play in the water. The river is as fast and clear as ever and proves to be very popular. Can't get the grin of people as they experience the rush.
We are also running regular dive courses, so if you want to learn to dive or up skill, give us a ring and we'll get you wet in no time.
Fiordland diving trip to Dusky Sound
posted 23rd October 2011
We just came back from a diving trip to Fiordland on the charterboat "Jewel". We had a fantastic time with an awesome crew and got a taste of the beauty and the clear water of Chalky and Dusky Sound. Three days at sea, admiring the rough south coast and the calm waters of the Fiords, and lots of wildlife, and some diving thrown in, what more can you ask for.
early morning start from Riverton onboard the Jewel
arrival in Dusky Sound, Fiordland
Our mooring base for the night, and pick up drop of point for our clients
Mission accomplished South coast Albatross on the way back
Spring is here and the water is clear
posted 22nd September 2011
Warm days and beautifully clear blue water is making us very happy at the moment! The river is perfect for drift diving and we even explored it on snorkel for a bit of refreshing fun! What is fun under water seems to be quite fun on the surface also. With spring around the corner we can feel the excitement of a great diving season ahead. Come on in and feel the current!
River drift dive girls Simone & Karin
Winter Discover Scuba Special:
posted 24th July 2011
The snow finally arrived in town and open skifields with plenty of the white stuff puts a smile on the winter crowd. We also smile as winter comes with plenty of sunshine and calm days here in Central Otago and we are enjoying good visibility in the lakes and rivers. The river is flowing gently at the moment and on our last dive a couple of days ago we came across hundreds of schooling juvenile trout.
For any of you who want to give diving a go in the comfort of a pool, we are now offering Discover Scubas in the Alpine Aqualand Pool here in Queenstown.
Lake Wakatipu boating:
posted 29th June 2011
A bit of fun on a lovely 'winter' afternoon. With no snow yet on the ski fields a trip out to the other side of the lake at hidden island seemed like a nice place to soak in those last sun rays for the day. An unusually warm May and June have kept the snow off the mountains and Lake Wakatipu 2 degrees warmer than usual at this time of the year.
Milford Sound, Fiordland dive trip:
posted 16th May 2011
A dive club trip from Queenstown, exploring some of the marine reserve life in Milford Sound, Fiordland. Out of 3 days we got 2 days on the water and the rest of the time enjoying the comfort of the MiIford Lodge. We came across curious spotted dog sharks, a seal, black and red coral and plenty of other interesting life. Milford Sound scuba diving is very unique as a fresh water layer on the surface is responsible for deep water species to live in diveable depths. Black coral can be found in as little as 10 metres depth. Many more club trips are planned in the future let us know if you want to come along :)
Check out the video from the trip:
Intro drift dive movie:
posted 09 April 2011
Check out our guided intro drift dive. Some current and schooling trout in HD. As autumn with more settled weather comes along this dive is great in terms of visibility and water flow.
Feel the current,
Simone
Autumn colours
posted 02 April 2011
Nice people, autumn colours and beautiful scenery make for a great dive day. The river drift dive is on and so is the sunken bridge.
Upcurrent scooter dive
posted 10th February 2011
We snuck away to one of our favorite dive sites in the south island - the Pelorus river to give our scooters a good workout. Warm and clear water and some current always make for a good dive. Check it out:
Warming up for summer!
posted 02nd November 2010
The summer sun and temperatures are here already resulting in warming up the water quickly and our drysuits have been pushed to the back of the suit rack in favor of wetsuits. We have certified a few keen local divers over the last weeks and are running regular dive courses for all levels. Now is the time to start thinking about up-skilling or learning to dive.
Erin and Craig - the smile of freshly certified open water divers
Megan Cassie perfecting her trim on ascent from her final open water dive
Introducing "Pacific Runner"
posted 22nd October 2010
After driving the length of the country to pick her up from Paihia/ Northland (thank you greatly Bev & Trev), we are proud to announce the arrival of our alloy catamaran dive boat in Queenstown.
As you can see she is not exactly small and with twin 150hp outboards and sizeable fuel tanks we will be able to access awesome local lake and ocean dive sites in warmth, comfort and with some serious speed!
Come join us some time this summer for some serious exploring... Lance
Dive Queenstown on Prime TV - 12th September in 'Rivers'
posted 7th September 2010
If you are in N.Z this Sunday night watch the TV program: "Rivers" at 7.30 pm on Prime TV. Join acclaimed Kiwi photographer and conservationist Craig Potton as he explores how gold mining, winemaking and hydroelectric dams have shaped New Zealand's largest river, the Clutha.
We were involved in the underwater filming for this episode and will feature an interview regarding our thoughts about the beautiful Clutha river where we drift dive!
Read the full article on Prime TV
Cromwell Bridges - Two dives one clip
posted 24th August 2010
Featuring the historical twin bridges in Lake Dunstan, Central Otago, Queenstown New Zealand.
The first bridge is a the Cromwell Bridge, built 1864. The second is the Lowburn Bridge built 1938. Both bridges were submerged in 1992 with the flooding of the Clutha river for a hydro electric dam development forming Lake Dunstan.
The two dives are available for guided dive tours with us.
Filmed by Lance McKirdy, diver featured Simone Schreck, featuring Dive-Xtras Cuda scooters.
Drift dive teaser
posted 5th August 2010
A little teaser of what we love doing here at Dive Queenstown. ExtEEEEme Fun! Enjoy watching!
Mid winter fun
posted 27 July 2010
Central Otago is treating us with a mid winter warm spell and we are getting lots of sunshine. The water temperature sits currently on 8 degrees and visibilty is getting better again after the flood Queenstown had a couple of months ago. Perfect for those drysuit orientation dives which James from the UK did today or for some dive training like Cliff as part of the PADI advanced course.
Cliff Erskine and Lance after their refreshment James with Simone before his drysuit intro
Winter diving
posted 08 June 2010
Hanging out in understuits before our dry dive today. Yes. It's snow. No it isn't cold. Carl, Lance, Helga and Simone.
Drysuit time!
posted 22 May 2010
It is that time of the year again, ski fields are just about to open, the snowline drops and so are the temperatures in and out of the water. From now on and throughout winter we are conducting all courses and tours for you in drysuits to keep you warm and comfortable. There is something amazing about staying completely dry underwater! No problem if you have never dived in one either, we will teach you how. Looking forward to share the experience with you,
Happy diving,
Simone
Lowburn bridge dive
posted 14 April 2010
We have dived both Cromwell bridges this week and are happy to be able to show you some first photos of the second bridge in Lake Dunstan, the Lowburn bridge. This was a fantastic dive which started off by scootering through some orchard remains until we found the old Clutha riverbed. And there she was, built out of concrete in 1938, the Lowburn bridge. There is some nice structure, an old car still sitting on there at about 10metres and the maximum depth is at 20 metres.
...scootering through orchard remains
...and along the railing of the Lowburn bridge
meet the car
and big concrete pillars.
Scooter, bridge and drift fun
posted 14th March 2010
We had great fun the last couple of days with scootering, diving the Cromwell bridge in the best visibility we have ever seen it in, and drift diving the more advanced sections of the Clutha river with Tim and Jasper from Holland and with Matthieu from Ireland who braved our canyon-whitewater-section for some extra excitement!
Jasper backflipping Cromwell Bridge And the group before the advanced river drift section
ready for some action? And drift, Matthieu, Tim and Jasper.
Tim caught in the current.. and spotting trout in the Whirlpool..
The exploration continues
posted 23rd February 2010
Congratulations to Leslie and James from Canada. After some navigating, fast scootering and diving on the sunken bridge in Cromwell they are now certified advanced divers, well done guys! Queenstown is treating us with great weather and the water temps have peaked for the summer. We are even taking our gloves off :)) We are still exploring more of the Clutha river and came across deep whirlpools, canyons, more whitewater and trout sanctuaries..
Exploration Week
posted 02nd February 2010
Together with Rich and Beau we pioneered a further stretch of the Clutha River today. River Drift Diving is becoming more extreme! We found rocks the size of busses, areas of the bottom where stones moved with us in the current, bubbling with whitewater and creating a great rumbling sound. Great visibility, water temperature of 19 degrees and consistent speed. 6 kilometers in 35 minutes.
Queenstown Summer Time
posted 26th January
After a cold start in the first weeks of January we are finally experiencing hot long days in the sun with the lake treating us at its best with over 15°C. The river is even warmer with about 17°C and is currently full of schooling rainbow and brown trout juveniles. Now is a great time to learn to dive or to get back in the water to refresh or learn some new skills.
Congratulations to Brian (14), George(16) and Tom(18), brothers from Twizel for completing their Open Water Course, they certainly brought up some treasures from the lake :-) and also to David from Canada who just finished his Open Water Course and is expanding his experience now with the Advanced Open Water Course.
December Updates
posted 20th December
The last couple of weeks we had the pleasure of releasing divers out into the world after completing the Open Water Course. Happy diving and travelling to Asa & David and Sam & William!
The water temperature hit 12 degrees recently in Lake Wakatipu and 14 degrees in the river. The river is running strong and fast at the moment with currently 380 cumecs (cubic metres per second), easy to travel the distance of 5 km in 40 minutes! Adair from Brazil claimed it to be the fastest drift dive around, and Christophe and Sarah, both Divemasters from around this area proved that you can do some great freestyle moves playing with the current.
Dive the Car Yard
posted 8th November
Following some rumors we had the chance today to do some boating along the Wakatipu shoreline and found the Car yard. With the lake floor plummeting straight down to 100 metres close to shore we were not expecting the cars to be at a diveable depth but surely there were two beauties right there still clinging on to their lives in about 10 metres depth on a plateau. Parts anyone? Thanks Nina and John for the exploration spirit!
Summer has arrived
posted 3rd November
With the Central Otago sun shining its brightest we had the pleasure to take out Sarah from Melbourne for some guided dives. We started off with a scooter dive along the cliff faces of Lake Wakatipu and rounded the afternoon off with a swift drift dive down the Clutha river. Visibility hovers around 15 meters in Lake Wakatipu and the water temperature just burst the 10 degrees mark and about 12 degrees in the river, toasty warm in a 7mm semi dry!
Lermontov Club Dive Trip Report:
8th October
What a great long weekend!
After a swift drive from Queenstown we were rewarded for our travel with a very tasty home cooked meal, good wine and comfortable beds in our Blenheim B&B. After an early start Friday morning we arrived at the Lermontov Lodge in Port Gore, Marlborough Sounds to meet the other club divers from all around the country and a few internationals. We geared up straight away into our Otter drysuits which we found toasty warm in the 12 degrees spring water temp. Our Dive Queenstown buddy dive team consisted of Lance, Rich from the UK and I (Simone) for all our dives.
After initial dives being orientated to the Lermontov by Lance (Dive Queenstown) whom has guided on the wreck while working and training as an instructor with Go Dive Marlborough in the past we were shown some well known penetration areas in the light zone.
Lance was very excited to be testing some soon to be released LED torches which was akin to watching a light saber blade cut through the darkness.
We are still buzzing from the excitement of the dive through the engine room. Thanks to Brent McFadden who knows the ship like his right pocket we felt safe and could enjoy the light play of our dive torches on the massive cylinder heads, huge engines, and a maze of pipes, gauges and other treasures. It felt amazing hovering in the pitch black three storey high engine room. Exiting up through a narrow steel shaft towards the light felt like being born again!
The dives leading up to that are also not to forget: Hovering in a 30m deep pool looking up through the glass is quite memorable with the sideways chairs of the Neptune Bar inviting you to stay for a while longer, the swim through the Companionways, the Bridge.. it all just proves that this wreck is an amazing world class dive site and calls us to come back to do some more exploring.
On Sunday we were welcomed back in the Blenheim B&B for some more great food and a soak in the Spa allowing us to sit back feeling elated by our experiences.
left to right: Darren, Steve, Yolene, Andrea, Jorgie, Mike, Warren, Rich, Simone, George, Andrew and Lance in front.
Thanks to Andrea and Mike, Go Dive Marlborough Crew and big chief Brent for hosting us.
Happy diving,
Simone
Lermontov Wreck Dive Trip 2nd - 5th October 2009
6th September 2009
Don't miss out on this amazing opportunity.
Two days boat diving with the crew of Dive Queenstown and our friends
Godive Marlborough.
Great accommodation, food and world class diving return from Queenstown!
Check the multi day tours page for details and give us a call or an email for any questions and booking.
Welcome to Dive Queenstown Blog!
18th July 2009
Keep updated on news, dive trips, specials and more on our blog. Winter is in full swing in Queenstown, the town is buzzing with people here for the snow living it up. We are enjoying snowboarding on our days off but the colder season doesn't keep us from diving. Thanks to our Otter drysuits we keep everyone warm and happy.
Last week a 13 year old girl from the sunshine coast Australia stated she has never been warmer on a dive! Hear that...diving with us is warmer than on the Great barrier reef...haha.
Hope to see you all soon in the water with us.
Lance & Simone