I spent another night in Christchurch on my way back north - there was no earthquakes this time well at least none that I felt or head about! From Christchurch I headed up to Picton where I was going to be picked up for a dive trip. In the Queen Charlotte Sound in 1986 a large Russian cruise ship the Mikhail Lermentov sank because a local pilot (person who guides a boat not someone who flies planes) made a massive error in judgement and tore the hull of the boat on some rocks. Luckily especially given the average age of the passengers in the number of people on board there was only 1 casualty!

Also quite luckily for the diving community an attempt to beach the ship failed and it ended up being pulled back out into the centre of the sound where it sank to 40M becoming one of the world's larges diveable wrecks. It is massive and an awesome place for me to have my first wreck dive! There was only 2 of us diving with Brent the owner and diving instructor of the company.

The visibility on the dives was very poor - there had been storms recently and the water was full of plankton - outside the boat visibility was probably only 2-3 metres. When we got into the water we descended to the ship, and swam along the port side to the back. At first you couldn't really recognise it as a boat even - it has been fully encrusted with sea life. We reach the back of the boat and entered what was the swimming pool on board. Inside the boat because the water is sheltered the visibility improved to berhaps 5-6M. It was a completely surreal experience to be swimming in the swimming pool - we could still see some of the blue mosaic tiles that made up the pool floor and walls. We went over to the bar where there were seats and you could imagine exactly how it looked when it was a functioning cruise ship! We swam back up the ship along one of the promenade decks - it was simply awesome!

On the second dive we entered what was known as the Bolshoi lounge. In here because there were so many tables bolted to the floor it became a little disorientating because the boat lies on it's side! Swimming around a large lounge is also a pretty surreal experience, we swam over the balcony to the second level and then returned down some stairs! We also swam along to the engine room which we entered from the bottom and swam through which was also really cool to see!

I really enjoyed my first wreck dive, the more I dive the more I want to there is just so much to see under the sea! We returned to our lodge just on the banks of the sound where we spent the night. From here I returned to Picton to get my bus to Nelson where I would depart for my trip to Abel Tasman National park.