The title, "Fight for the future" sounds a little dramatic. When you look at the picture above, imagine all the plastic and man-made junk from a global perspective, it's insurmountable. it's a war against plastic and man-made junk; a battle against ignorance and only a few are prepared to lift a sword against this oppressor.

Well yesterday was a day where a renegade legion of mercenaries banded together for a fight at Greta Point in Wellington Harbour, a location which myself and a few others dived the weekend before and found a great deal of rubbish.

After that dive I sat a home and trolled the net, as usual I saw the amazing work of the "Ghost Fishing" crew on Facebook. For those who haven't heard of the Ghost Fishing crew. (Check them out here - http://www.ghostfishing.org/)

"Ghost fishing is a term that describes what happens when derelict fishing gear ‘continues to fish’ " - Ghost fishing crew.

So I thought, it's time to stop talking and get something organised.. So before we knew it, we had a team of divers ready and we were on the beach getting some site pictures taken and sizing up exactly where the Patent Slip protected zone was. The Patent Slip is a historically protected site now thanks to MAANZ. See here for more information http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/evans-bay-patent-slip

This time it was short notice and a bit of a test to see how things would fall into place. Ground crew chief was Zachary Best who did an amazing job with his team getting the huge bags of rubbish up and out of the water from the divers. Dive crew was a varyied skill level of diver but all very keen to help and make a difference. We had also organised with a company to get some big underwater capable mesh bags made up specifically for these types of mass clean ups.
The lady whom we talked with to on the phone turned out to be the owner of the company, once she realized that we were paying for the bags out of our own pockets for a volunteer event, she donated them to the cause...!! We were all stunned by such an awesome gift to the cause, and I have just found out after we let the owner know the incredible success of her custom bags she gave us another two...!!!!! (And these were not cheap bags.)
The bags took some incredible punishment as well, tyres batteries, very sharp glass and was very durable with withstanding the harshness of the environment and the means of getting out of the water with ease.

The divers and crew from the day were Zach, Laura and partner ,Lorraine on the camera, Barb and Christian, Shayne, Kerry, Tracey and her VUCEL crew - David and Hannah, Shayne, Kerry and myself. These legends were not afraid of getting their hands dirty, Zach Best and David Burr did an absolutely top notch job getting the heavy loads of junk out of the water from the divers.

Zach before most arrived had already jumped in and had a freedive around the place and even set the dive flag on one of the locations where there was a significant amount of junk (6.4m deep). Zach and Laura had done their Divemaster mapping on this site prior to this dive as welll so Zach also had a fair idea where the bad spots were.

This wharf before the rebuild for the SOI restaurant was home to the Greta Point Tavern which must have closed down 10 years ago or more, sadly the beer bottles and similar remains reminded us that 10 years is nothing underwater as there was a mass grave of all sorts of bottles and junk. In my years of dive clean ups I have never seen so many bottles come out from the ocean.. It was just ridiculous.

The wharf rebuild which took place in the late 90s or early 2000 also had created a fair bit of mess as we found a great deal of junk from the builders etc. Building sites above water can be problematic and also Wellington and it's wind can be a huge issue for things getting blown over the side. Not only just that the things could be accidentally disposed off in the water, but we also found items that were intentionally disposed of. We found two car batteries just off the end of the wharf and also an aluminium ladder literally tied to the wharf pile in about 2m of water.

Christian Jones and I attacked this as Justine managed the rubbish bag which was getting fairly heavy. Christian took to the ropes like a chainsaw and after a few minutes of cutting in .5m visibility we had it free.. "High five" and we were off to an area with better lighting to strop the bag and other junk to the lift bag to send to the surface.

Most of the divers were down for over an hour, Justine and Christian and I did at least 4 trips from the sea floor to the shore with a good load of junk each time. The visibility was not the best with the ~20kt southerly wind that chopped up the water a bit. Underwater the vis has been a lot worse on other dives so it was well manageable, although when you start to tie objects together or pull items from the silt, the vis (visibility) drops to zero for a while.

Learning to manage zero vis is an art in itself. Also very good buoyancy and trim on dive such as these is very important. Poor kicking technique or using hands to create propulsion U/W comes with disastrous results as the clouds of silt will engulf you in seconds... This can be very frustrating and extremely dangerous for the divers in the immediate area if they're in the process of lifting something bigger.

The rubbish was a constant flow for the ground crew as multiple lift bags hit the surface one by one and junk came out by the load each time. Car tyres which can be very heavy when filled with silt are another vis destroying object. Especially when fighting against the suction of the tyre in the silt.

Car batteries are another common find, and are very hazardous to handle as battery acid is toxic and can cause burns.
Even batteries that have been sitting on the sea floor are still just as dangerous if not more as they are a sealed unit.
Apparently they are worth $12 a pop for the lead in them alone.

So where does it all end...?
It doesn't.. This is an ongoing battle against a relentless enemy. We will continue to organise clean ups and just keep chipping away at the beast lift bag by lift bag.

I would like to say a huge thanks to everybody that came to support us at the clean up, it was an amazing turn out and everybody did an amazing job. Barb also for the occasion baked some lovely cupcakes and brought some Fresh Up juice for the crew which was magic.. So with that and Cheese Balls the crew was well fed.. Ha ha ha..

Also thanks to the couple that lived on site at Greta Point for lending us their hose for cleaning up at the end of the dive.
Final thanks to John Curran and the team at the Wellington City Council for sponsoring us with 120 bags and 100 pairs of gloves for handling the junk.

Great work team...
Regards Rob Wilson.

Well that time had come again when we load up the trucks with everything from Oxygen bottles to remote flashes.
It was trundler time.. at Blue Creek..
Last year I was lucky enough to have been invited on a trip to Blue Creek with GUE New Zealand and expedition leader Jamie Obern.The trip last year was quite an expedition as we had to carry a lot of heavy equipment  over terrain that wasn't lovely flat surfaces.Getting to the Blue Creek resurgence on a daily basis for the diving required ~22kms of dirt road driving to Courthouse Flat (Named in memory of the old Courthouse that once was there) and from Courthouse flat to the actual dive site another 1.7km one way winding uphill via rough foot track.
(4 runs out and back in a day were not unheard of on last years trip...!)
On the subject of Courthouse flat, the current residing judges, juries and executioners are the New Zealand Sandflies, so, when we strap the tanks to the trolleys and gear up the equipment, its more like a Military drop.. we form an all round defence and then head off in rapid patrol formation to safe ground beyond the flat.
Thankfully this is really the only area they exist in this incredibly beautiful spot of New Zealand bush.

Now before I go any further, lets take a look at what Cave Diving is and where it sits at the table of the "Most dangerous sports" - (So we will have a look at just how serious this form of diving is.
Firstly, here is the definition of "Cave Diving" -

Cave Diving according to Wikipedia -
"Cave diving is underwater diving in caves which are at least partially filled with water. The equipment used varies depending on the circumstances, and ranges from breath hold to surface supplied, but almost all cave diving is done using scuba equipment, often in specialised configurations. Cave diving is generally considered to be a type of technical diving due to the lack of a free surface during large parts of the dive, and often involves decompression.

In the United Kingdom it is an extension of the more common sport of caving, and in the United States an extension of the more common sport of scuba diving. Compared to caving and scuba diving, there are relatively few practitioners of cave diving. This is due in part to the specialized equipment (such as rebreathers, diver propulsion vehicles and dry suits) and skill sets required, and in part because of the high potential risks, including decompression sickness and drowning.

Despite these risks, water-filled caves attract scuba divers, cavers, and speleologists due to their often unexplored nature, and present divers with a technical diving challenge. Underwater caves have a wide range of physical features, and can contain fauna not found elsewhere."

Cave Diving is something that requires training and an extreme respect of the cave and environment.The image to the left shows exactly what defines a Cave dive or an overhead dive environment.Cavern dives are where the exit or a light source is still visible and a clear exit.Open water dives also can have what's called an "Artificial overhead" this is of course due to the decompression obligation divers have on deeper dives.

The trip to Blue Creek started, for some, in Auckland. Jamie and James both drove down to RV with us at GUE Welly HQ (AKA "Mums house" - ha ha) from there Jamie and I and newcomers to Blue Creek Colin Davison , Nicole and Brendon Lawton another GUE diver from Wellington.
We piled the dive gear and photography equipment into the Landcruiser and had a bit of surplus space until Nicole arrived with enough bags to start an Indian market..Now we had the trucks rear loading area stacked to the roof and bags between the two passengers in the rear seats and also some gear on laps.. ha ha ha.. (Classic stuff)
But either way the truck was ready for some action with fresh oil and lovely clean glycol and even fresh diff oils thanks to "Oilchangers" in Lower Hutt.. (Great work at a super cheap price).
The Bluebridge Ferry was our first port of call and, after an eyebrow raising arrival, (Roaring laughter from inside the truck as well.)  my truck thundered up the ramp and into the belly of the iron barque. We were ready for the 4hr wait as we crossed to the Southern island of New Zealand.

On arrival at Blue Creek, we said hello to our amazing crew at the homestead, Ed & Lorraine, who organise our accommodation while we are in the Creek area.Location wise, Blue Creek is between Motueka and Nelson, just out of a lovely little place called Tapawera,where the steaks are all the same and the beer runs like a river.
Actually I had the "Fish of the day" in the Tapawera Tavern and expected it to be "Fish of the year" but actually it was really very good,in fact all the meals there seemed very good.. Brendon's inch thick "Meat-lovers Pizza" looked a little over the top though.. (Inch thick before the layers of meat).
Anyway,at Blue Creek we must literally hit the ground running. Day #1 had Jamie showing  Colin, Nicole and I how to set up the zip line which we use to get the double tanks , stage bottles and gear into the cave.
Next day we were straight into loading the gear into the cave.
We were Team #1 (Jamie,Rob (me),James,Brendon,Nicole,Colin) and we all carried the gear in with not too much bother.

It's always a bit of a shock to the system pulling tanks on a trolley.

Just a snippet of history here on the alluvial gold mining,the area of Blue Creek was excavated as a site to extract gold from quartz,the regions quartz had slivers olf gold woven through the rock.
There is an old Quartz battery still standing strong close to the resurgence where the gold was processed.
Next question I guess is after the quartz was mined how was it processed..?
From here I will hand you over briefly to our resident historian Colin.

"The extracted quartz was paced in a stamper battery and pounded to a fine paste where it was added to a berdan with large metal balls and ground to a fine paste from there Mercury was added to the mix. Gold and Mercury stuck together was then added to a retort and heated . The mercury boiled off at a different temperature leaving the gold ready for refining into ingots" - Colin Davison

Sounds easy.. I cannot even begin to image the difficulties involved at that time with this sort of processing.
Incredible stuff.And managing drills and all manner of heavy pressure operated tools alone could be health hazardous without the likes of Mercury.

Well, the heavy gear was in and the rest of the team was inbound as we headed for full capacity.This year the entire team was myself and Colin, Brendon, Jamie, Alan, Tom,  Axel, Courtney, Russ, Louise and Nicole.
This years team was made up of a few of the veterans of Blue Creek and a couple of newcomers.
New to the team was a gentleman by the name of Axel Busch and, when I say gentleman, I mean it. Axel has some of the most incredible video and camera equipment I have ever seen.
On top of that equipment he has the skills and intelligence to really get some amazing footage. ( trust me, he did just that.)
Axel and I fought with our Si-Tech wrist seals until we both conceded and read the manual and found out it really wasn't that difficult to get the Dry Gloves off the suit ha ha ha..!
Axel was the driving force in the team to get some video and stills both above and below the surface.
Watching Axel in action on location, really motivated us all,myself included.

 Here is another newcomer to the crew, fellow Welly diver Colin Davison.
Now in the world there are some good characters and he is one of them.
Colin is not your average person, he has a mind wired quite like few others.
Think "Anchorman" meets "Rain Man". His knowledge of WWII tanks and some of the most obscure facts was bordering on the ridiculous.
In a close knit situation stress rises day by day as does the tiredness of lugging gear 3.4kms over rough ground everyday.
(Lets just say people get a little tense)
Colin was always there with some quote or snippet of information that would either raise an eyebrow or a bunch of nodding heads or roars of laughter.
People like Colin are an essential part of the whole machine,laughing and joking and having a bit of fun is an incredible stress relief.
Colin himself had a decent fall in the slippery riverbed and had to manage that on top of all the other stresses involved in such a journey.
Well done man, you did yourself proud.

Next up in the new crew were Russell Hughes and Louise Greenshields, a couple of absolute classics.
Russ wasn't scared of hard work either, lugging a great deal of heavy dive equipment on a daily basis while some others mysteriously disappeared when the tanks appeared ha ha ha..!!
Lou' and Russ' gave me some great laughs during their stay at Blue Creek and both were incredibly capable divers.
Russ, apart from being a crack up dude and a great diver, is also a killer in the kitchen. Some of the food he prepared was just amazing. (Hell, I even ate Shepard's Pie for the first time,actually Scots Pie as it was beef mince.. and he even made a special no onions version for me..!! LEGEND)
Lou' also had hidden talents. Initially, after her saying that she doesn't know how to play poker or cards, we were soon to find out she knew exactly what she was up too... ha ha ha..
Really great to have met you guys and look forward to meeting you again.

Last, but by no means least, Dive Wellington's Brendon Lawton.Brendon is another GUE trained Diver from Wellington and raised his hand this year to take on the challenge of Blue Creek.
Brendon as a Chef took over the cooking on a daily basis and did a sterling job.We never went hungry on this trip as there was always food and plenty of it. You burn a lot of calories walking and dragging gear.
Diving in the sheer cold of the Blue Creek resurgence at 6 degrees also saps a lot of energy and calories.
Brendon and I did our dive in style. We planned it and executed it well within safe boundaries for our skill and training level.
Brendon and I did two dives in the resurgence and both dives went very well and to plan. On the second dive we did, we were tasked to drop some deco bottles at 21m for some the bigger dives going on that day. The vis at 6m, where the habitat was,was very very poor so pushing down to 21m in a 45 degree angled tunnel in total darkness in very cold water was difficult, to say the least.
But Brendon did it in style.. great work man. Would dive with you anywhere.
Maybe even Mexico..

The rest of the team were Blue creek veterans. Tom "Team Hobbit" was back this time no Mike though.
(I think the big guy is off adventuring somewhere,missed you bro..)
Courtney was on form, as usual, getting the lunches sorted as she did last year.
Any member with a sense of humour like Courtney is going to get on with a nut case like me.
Alan Jeavons (See below) was there again and it was great to catch up with him. I always enjoy his sense of humour, a real classic is Alan.He didn't hit it big this year on the cards,but I know he will be back for round two next year.
Nicole Miller was with us again for almost the whole duration and did everything from diving to dishes in her typical efficient manner. Never saw a camera in her hand this year but I know she was helping Axel with his gear and also doing some survey work for GUE NZ chief Jamie Obern.

James and Jamie are the backbone at Blue Creek, both are two of New Zealand's most highly qualified divers. They are just awesome guys who ooze relaxation and Zen. James is the sort of dude who quietly carts everything that nobody else wants to and never once complains. He is an incredible guy and a bloody good judge of beer.
These guys do dives that I can only dream of.
For these guys, the work starts long before Blue Creek and ends long after it has passed.
Doing accounts at the end, blending gas and making some of the best beef curry I have tasted, Jamie and James deserve a great deal of the credit in keeping the oil of the machine cogs rolling.
And it's amazing how suddenly that machine jolts to a halt in their absence...!!!! (Rock on guys).

So where am I going with all this..?
I have focused more on the people than the actual diving. Is there rhyme to the reason? Yes of course.
Its all about "Teamwork" - its the people who make expeditions happen ,it's people who make the cams lift so that the engine can gain speed.They say there is no "I" in "Team" and its a bit of a well worn phrase, but, in reality, its true.
( We all had a reminder here and there to shift up a gear and pull our weight,,some realized it without being told and others, well, some do need some subtle encouragement.
If you are coming to Blue Creek be prepared, it's not a holiday camp. Stuff needs to be done, the wheels need to turn and the Captain needs to steer the ship and crew to its destination.
Not all dives are fun... the habitat for one, is not a particularly fun job yet the guys who went in there and did the job came out smiling. They got out what they put in. The rewards are different, but just as good.

Well if you made it this far I thank you..
Its been an amazing journey and this is just a few facets of the actual trip, and only a few slices of credit to those who deserve it.
I still don't know who was magically doing my washing...!!!?? (Just for one example)
Below is the team at the almost closing point as we sadly separate and go our own different ways.
I thank everybody for their participation in the Blue Creek experience.
But as usual I would like to thank Jamie Obern for making the entire trip possible.
( How the guys knows what cards you are holding is still a mystery to me "Rob I know you have the two of spades" ha ha ha - good times)
Thanks all - Rob Wilson "Frontline Photography"