Cathedral Cove Marine Reserve
About Dive Zone Whitianga
Darrell Bird came over the Coromandel Range back in 2004 and discovered this stunning coastal town with its outstanding dive sites - and no specialist dive store. And so it began. Darrell opened his store in October of that year. Darrell's vision and constant drive is always ensuring that he provides quality brands of equipment and operates a safe and fun based adventure tourism and education business.
We are fortunate to have passionate crew of Dive Instructors at Dive Zone Whitianga - all of which have been through our own training programs and have continued to update and further their training and skills.
We are committed to the Tiaki promise...
We are community and sustainable focused...
With the many opportunities that we have in working with students ranging from school age through to young adults, we take pleasure in encouraging them in their dive training to not just be takers but to be Ambassadors for the ocean – respecting the marine environment, its fish and mammal life.
We undertake regular sea floor and road-side clean ups at areas like Otama Beach (a pristine beach with few houses) where we undertake our shore diving activities. Despite the lack of residences, we always find a large quantity of rubbish along the roadside and near the car parking area.
The Whitianga Wharf is always a great source of gathered rubbish needing removal from the marine environment.
We have also targeted areas like the rocks at Matapaua Bay, where we have found a spot where discarded fishing line seems to gather.
We dont sell water in plastic bottles and encourage our customers to fill their refillable bottle from our filtered tap water.
We lobby our suppliers to supply product in sustainable packaging - and are delighted to see the steps most are taking.
We provide our own shopping bags that are made from recycled plastics and are reusable.
Dive Zone Whitianga are sponsors of many activities and groups within our community:
Whitianga Scallop Festival Inc – both Linda and Darrell have been long standing committee members (Linda is Chair) of this major fundraising event for Whitianga.
Linda is a volunteer member of the Whitianga Marina Society Committee.
Annual Corporate sponsor of the Auckland Rescue Helicopter Trust
Annual Sponsor of the Mercury Bay MX Club
Annual Sponsor of the Hot Water Beach Lifeguard - Member of their Services 500 Club.
Annual commitment to Kuaotunu Bird Rescue.
Main prize sponsor for our local area school’s annual raffle.
Donation of use of our kayaks for safety support for the Annual Area Schools Cross River Swim.
Donation of use of our kayaks at the annual week long Year 9 school camp.
Annual sponsorship for the Whitianga Bike Park.
We love taking our local schools learning support kids out for their annual end of year sea experience.
Donation of our time, divers and vessels to undertake the needed scallop survey work to help Ngati Hei, the Opito Bay Ratepayers and Legasea gather the information needed to apply for the Rahui over the eastern Coromandel scallop beds.
Sponsorship towards Eden Boyd towards her fundraising to enable her to attend National horse jumping event.
Sponsorship towards Caitlin Silcock towards her fundraising attend Rowing Nationals.
Sponsorship towards Mercury Bay Sevens Rugby Team to enable them to attend Nationals.
Recently we have also donated prizes to:
Kids hunting competitions; Coromandel Pig Hunting Club & Whitianga Pig Hunting Club.
Mercury Bay Rugby
Matarangi Fire Force
Mercury Bay Trailer Boat Fishing Comp
Mercury Bay Ladies Fishing Tournament
Bayleys Whitianga Pink Ribbon Evening
Mercury Bay Area School end of year Prize Giving
Prizes for fund raisers for Napier recovery after Gabrielle.
Offered safety boats & staff for Wakaama long distance nationals
Whitianga Pig Hunting Club's "Take A Kid Hunting" Competition.
Send Us A Message!
Got a question? Want to find out how to book a trip? Need some dive advice? Send us a message below and we will get right back to you.