New Zealand is a wonderful place to vacation, and scuba diving around our coastline is simply breath-taking. Our coastal waters offer some of the best scuba diving and snorkelling in the world.

There are many wonderful New Zealand dive spots including the world renowned Poor Knight Islands and the Rainbow Warrior Wreck, plus closer to Auckland, Goat Island and Little Barrier Island. The South Island also offers the Marlborough Sounds and Milford Sounds as great diving destinations.

Diving courses are available through dive shops in most main centres. Open Water Scuba Certificate courses cost around $400-$500 and include twelve hours of theory and pool instruction, plus two sea dive evaluations. The two main certification types in New Zealand are PADI and SSI.

Scuba Diving can be relatively inexpensive to get into, with a basic diving equipment package starting from $2000 which would normally include the following: wetsuit, dive boots, fins, gloves, mask and snorkel, Buoyancy Control Device (BCD), regulator and gauge, and a tank. Most dive centres also give you the opportunity to hire gear when first starting out on a diving courses, which can go a long way towards helping you get into scuba diving in New Zealand.

Check out Dive New Zealand for some great diving resources and information on dive sites, diving tours and more.

Image from Flickr.