Dive Shop and Service
The dive crew will load the boat while you enjoy breakfast and meet you at the jetty at around 8am for the two morning dives. The boats used for the coastal boat dives are two 7m (22ft) centre-console boats with twin 50 Honda engines. They are big and comfortable enough not to have to sit with your tank the whole way out and take a maximum of 6 divers each.
'Prowler' is the name of the day boat, a 12m (36ft) catamaran with a cruising speed of 23 knots. The day boat is very well laid out with two tank racks and a big bench for seating and cameras. 'Prowler' has a toilet and shower. This is the boat that will have you at your Milne Bay dive site in a flash. After the dives, there are water, tea, coffee, soft drinks, snacks and towels provided. Of course, the boat also has all of the modern navigation aids such as GPS chart plotter, radar, HF and VHF radio, and depth sounders.
Up to 12 divers will be taken at a time. If there are less divers (2-4), a smaller but very comfortable banana day boat will be taking the divers to various coastal reef dive locations.
Dive Sites
Much of the diving at Tawali is made on the coastal reefs which are only a short boat ride away. There is a little muck-diving to be enjoyed, but most of it is reef diving. On one of these sites, 'Wahoo', mantas, barracudas, hammerhead sharks, stone fish and crocodile fish are common sights. The variety of marine life in Milne Bay is almost unbelievable. Not only are rare scorpion fish like the Rhinopia aphanes (or Merlot Scorpionfish) seen regularly here, but you also will find creatures that have not yet been recorded from other places of the world.
There are many other dive options for every taste. Visit Observation Point on Normandy Island - a great "muck" diving experience and home to seahorses, frogfish and rare species of garden eel, blue ribbon eels and many different species of clownfish. The day boat "Prowler", can zoom into actual Milne Bay in a very short time, where you can do some great drift diving.
The main house reef can be accessed from the jetty, no need to take the boat. This is great for snorkelling and many of the night dives are done here. There is a resident mandarin fish, loads of anemone fish, nudibranchs and flat worms. A Maori wrasse also appears to be spending a fair bit of time here.
Photo/Video Facilities
Currently no special photo facilities are available. Make sure you bring enough film and spare batteries. For the digital cameras, there is a computer where you can download your pictures. Rinse tubs are available on the boat and computers are on the way, so watch this space.
