Welcome to Total Bottom Time!

Total Bottom Time is my online personal dive log. A place where I can share my dives with friends, family, other divers, and the world. You can find out a bit more about me and see my full log of dives by clicking on my profile on the right. Feel free to subscribe to my dives via email or RSS.

Below are just some of my latest dives.

For the second dive of the day, I was buddied up with a couple of less experienced divers. I led the dive and the plan was to dive off Princess Beach into Houghton Bay and that we would turn back when running low on air. We wound up turning back sooner than later. 😁

Along the way we did get to see the usual suspects and one not-so-usual suspect.

Variable Triplefin

Crayfish

Grey Massive Sponge

Genus Polymastia

Banded Morwong

Scarlet Wrasse

Cook's Turban

The one slightly rarer sighting was this Green-boned Butterfish. Personally I can't recall seeing one before but I probably have and just didn't know what I was looking at. It was very reactive and bolted as soon as I got within sight of it.

Green-boned Butterfish

On club dives, you sometimes get buddied with less experienced divers and that's cool. Everyone needs to learn. However, I don't feel so bad about my own air consumption now. 🙂

I've taken to using iNaturalist NZ for fish identification and the findings for the day are at Observations on 2025-02-15.

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For the first dive of the day, I was buddied up with a newly minted Advanced Open Water diver. Naturally, he was inexperienced and a bit nervous. I led the dive and the plan was to go "around the block" from Princess Bay to Houghton Bay but that we would turn back if he was running low on air. We wound up turning back. 😁

Along the way we did get to see the usual suspects.

Banded Morwong

Blue Cod

Kina

Blue Moki

Purple Wrasse

Towards our turning point, I saw this impressive Giant Kelp. I wish I had taken a depth reading at the base of the kelp to get an idea of how high it was. It was definitely at least 10+ metres tall.

Giant Kelp

On club dives, you sometimes get buddied with less experienced divers and that's cool. Everyone needs to learn. However, I don't feel so bad about my own air consumption now. 🙂

I've taken to using iNaturalist NZ for fish identification and the findings for the day are at Observations on 2025-02-15.

Click here to continue reading...

Our second dive of the day at Houghton Bay was much more eventful. It started with us encountering many blue moki feeding amongst the kelp.

Blue Moki

There were many crayfish on the site but I enjoyed this particular shot from "Alan's Crack" with crayfish legs going every direction.

Crayfish

Then I found this Pegea confoederata (Salp). There's always a blue cod around to photo bomb.

Pegea confoederata (Salp)

Salps are fascinating. I found this great article on Radio New Zealand (RNZ) about them, Salps - a surprising jelly-like relative and this infographic on their life cycle.

Salp Life Cycle

I discovered the tiniest molt of a crayfish I've ever seen. It was surprisingly tough and didn't fall apart.

Molt of a Crayfish

A nice polymastia boletiformis (sponge).

Polymastia Boletiformis (Sponge)

As we headed back to shore, we stumbled across this beautiful octopus. I suspect it was older and more mature as it didn't seem to care how close we got. It didn't really back off at all. Maybe it just didn't see us as much of a threat and was used to divers with cameras.

Octopus

And of course there was the requisite ...

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