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Log This Dive

Dale Point

Dale Point. This is one of those Fiordland spots where you just drop in and feel the place wrap around you. We love a wall dive, and here it’s an absolute stunner, plunging down to 21 meters, thick with those ancient black corals. They’re everywhere, some branching like skeletal trees, others just a solid mass, draped in yellow zoanthids that look like someone splashed luminous paint all over the place. Visibility averages 11 meters, which in Fiordland terms, is perfectly good for soaking in the details. Keep an eye out for the smaller stuff; we’ve spotted Swarming Squat Lobsters clinging to the black coral branches and nudibranchs grazing the walls. Butterfly perch drift in schools, and you’ll inevitably find kina (sea urchins) and Red Rock Lobsters tucked into crevices. It’s a site that really shows off the density of life in the fiords, suiting divers who appreciate a slow, deliberate exploration of a vibrant temperate reef.