Barren Arch

Barren arch was supposedly named in the old days by a group of divers who liked it so much, that they wanted to keep people away so as not to spoil it. Either that or they were being sarcastic. There are three main areas, being the arch, the bay and the cave. It is quite easy to see a good part of all three on a dive. From our anchorage, I normally snorkel over to the arch as there is a reef that separates the arch from the main bay and rises to 2 metres. Once I pass this I drop down into the arch, where it is normally not to difficult to see blue moki, pink and blue maomao and one or two pairs of Lord Howe Island coral fish. By keeping the wall on my left, I pass around the headland that the arch passes through, and get back into the bay. This is a shallow, and quite well protected area, with large boulders scattered around, large expanses of shingle and sea lettuce. It is normal to see combfish at their cleaning stations, myriad wrasse darting around, and crayfish hiding in the spaces between boulders and under kelp heads. In the corner of the bay is a small cave that penetrates the island 30-40 metres. The good thing about this cave is you can surface anywhere along its length, and is only 9 metres deep at the entrance. You can see a yellow banded perch hiding in a hole, a beautiful painted moki, quite shy, but worth the effort, and hundreds of Bigeye sheltering under an overhang.