The waterways of the Marlborough Sound are located in the North East of the North Island of New Zealand, just along the coast from the Abel Tasman National Park. This area offers some great diving, and for fans of wreck dives, offers access to one of the largest wreck you can dive.
The sounds themselves cover a total of just over 4,000 square kilometres of waterways, and are divided into the Queen Charlotte Sound, the Pelorus Sound and the Kenepuru Sound.
As with the majority of the scuba diving on the South Island of New Zealand, it tends to be shaped by the rich levels of marine life, and the extensive kelp forests which inhabit these rocky waters. Throughout the Marlborough Sounds, strong currents also exist, so it is always worth seeking out local advice before going diving here.
There are a number of excellent dive sites throughout the Marlborough Sounds, all of which offer good diving. Tonga Island, Cape Jackson and Long Island Marine are all decent dive sites, with good populations of Blue Moki, Crayfish, Wrasse and Marblefish as well as a good variety of sponges and anemones.
Despite there being a number of decent dive sites throughout the Marlborough Sounds, the main attraction of the area for scuba divers is the opportunity to visit the awesome wreck of the Mikhail Lermontov, which lies in water ranging between 15 - 35 meters in Port Gore.
The Mikhail Lermontov struck rocks on the 16th February 1986, with over 700 people on board. Having struck the rocks, and taken on considerable amounts of water, the Mikhail Lermontov began to list badly starboard. Despite the ship managing to limp back to Port Gore, it had suffered too much damage, and eventually sank in just over 30 metres of water.
Nowadays the Mikhail Lermontov is lying on her starboard side on the seabed, and at present is fully intact. Slowly, over the years, this 150 metre long wreck has become an artificial reef. It is now encrusted and is home to a large amount of marine life. Most of the dive operators in the area will offer penetration dives to people with sufficient experience.
Throughout the Marlborough Sounds, the visibility can vary between 5-18 metres, and the water temperature will vary between 10 - 18 degrees centigrade depending on the time of year.
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