How deep will you go?
Descend with our Ngāti Kahungunu ĀI Operators aboard TOHORĀ — 3,800 metres, to a floor no light has ever reached.
The only layer the sun ever touches. Paikea, the whale-rider's tohorā, escorts the descent to the edge of the light — then turns back. Below this line, you are the visitor.
A billion tonnes of life rise and fall through this zone daily. Our tūpuna spoke of taniwha in the deep places. At 700 metres, with the floodlights waking, you may understand why.
No sunlight has ever reached this water. Yet it is not dark — three-quarters of everything alive down here makes its own light. The hull passes through a galaxy that closes behind you.
Two PAMANA crew. Six deep-ocean specialists. One descent, twelve hours, recording the deep-sea topography where ancestral navigation lines meet the benthic floor. A singular mission to document the silent depths of Te au o te Moana.