In less than a month I'll be in sunny, sunny Invercargill and staying for at least a year - so, where the heck can I dive down there? Are regular dives even possible or is it only on rare calm days?

there is some very good diving to be had down the bottom of NZ heeps of paua crays  trumpeter ,  and the water can be very clear , there is a club in Invercargill

Argh, bugger - I won't be there til the 6th   Cheers though.

I,ve edited my post with kelvin,s contact he will be able to give you a lot of info

you should only need a 7mm for winter, I dived down there in the comps in a 5mm for 4 hours with out getting cold

oldfela wrote: you should only need a 7mm for winter, I dived down there in the comps in a 5mm for 4 hours with out getting cold

Yep, 5mm is OK for much of the year.

Not really, the bit you can drive too is dominated by the river/estuary. That said, I haven't dived that far in. So if you can get below the freshwater layer, you might find something. 

Mean. Were you spearing the puks?

No we were anchored for the night in one of the sounds and someone dropped a line over the side. After been in the water all day spearfishing was not high on the agenda. Saw one or two while picking pua along the north side of charlky inlet. The crays in the photo came from the southern end of Fiordland were gathered for a function in about 20minutes by three free divers the size limit was they had to fit in the pot we had so we left bigger ones alone. CBF

Trip to Fiordland to satisfy your mainland Puk fetish LJ??