Storm clears the way for divers’ delights
A DIVE wreck’s unscheduled ‘‘haircut’’ in the June storm, which barrelled record-breaking waves into Wellington’s south coast, has been revealed in a new video.
The National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research has been recording wave heights 2 kilometres off Baring Head, south of Wainuiomata in the Hutt Valley, since 1994.
During the June storm, the highest waves measured were 16 metres from peak to trough – the biggest waves since records began.
Anecdotal reports had the April 1968 Wahine Storm waves at up to 14m.
While the damage done on land, including a sea wall washed out at Island Bay, is well documented, the undersea damage is now becoming evident – and it could be a boon for divers.
HMNZS Wellington, known as F69, was sunk off Island Bay in 2005.
A team from Dive Wellington went down to the wreck after the storm and recorded the changes resulting from it.
Sink F69 Trust chairman Marco Zeeman said the wreck, which used to have weeds up to 1 metre high growing on it, had largely been stripped back to steel and algae.
‘‘The ship continues to settle in the sand as we predicted, with the lower three decks now fully buried in sand.
‘‘This storm did give the ship a serious haircut, with seaweed up to one metre stripped from her steel structure, much like the surrounding reefs.’’
On November 13, 2005, tens of thousands lined Wellington’s south coast to see the decommissioned Royal New Zealand Navy frigate’s final moments afloat.
Beneath a ball of orange flame, the 113-metre, 3000-tonne warship dipped beneath the waves to start its new life as a diver’s treasure chest behindTaputeranga Island.
After a savage storm in 2006, surges snapped the F69 into three sections and scattered debris along the shoreline.
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