Anyways I'm sure you hear this a lot with newcomers, but I had a few questions about Paua on the North Island.

I am from California and I do a bunch of freediving at home for lobster (crays) but wanted to get into Paua here. I'm up in Auckland for work, but will get down to Wellington a few times hopefully to dive.

I wanted to know mostly how to somewhat forecast decent clarity for my dives. I won't ask much about spots because likely no one will want to give them away haha, but how often does the clarity go bad during the winter. Does it clear up down there after the swell dies a bit? Does the wind stir it up?

Obviously different areas will be affected differently, but general zones I might poke around in could be the Red Rocks area and Makara Beach area. I only will have a rental car and no boat so sadly I can't explore too far off the path, but I'll definitely going to walk/swim outside of the likely "overfished"/easy access areas hopefully.

I'm not worried too much about exploring or finding my own spots, I just can't afford to drive all the way from Auckland to get terrible, undiveable clarity so I was hoping to know what makes clarity good in the winter.

Whoever read all this thanks haha,

If anyone seriously helps out, I'll buy ya a beer as a thank you if I score some paua while I'm down in Wellington.

Jake