Staying Home Sucks, home
Nelson Bay - Corlette NSW, Australia - panoramio - pj soans (1)
Near Halifax, 1 km away. Photo: pj soans, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

Halifax

Dive site · Australia

Open Water divers and up

Scored for Advanced divers

Is it worth the trip?

65Good out of 100 for your dates

Home sucks

Best on Sat 7: Sea 0.3 m, Visibility about 8 m, Water 21 °C

Each day of your trip, out of 100

Mon 2 · 68 out of 100

Sea
0.4 m
Wind
5 kn
Gusts
8kn
Air
21°C

Tue 3 · 67 out of 100

Sea
0.3 m
Wind
9 kn
Gusts
17kn
Air
22°C

Wed 4 · 67 out of 100

Sea
0.4 m
Wind
8 kn
Gusts
13kn
Air
20°C

Thu 5 · 64 out of 100

Sea
0.4 m
Wind
11 kn
Gusts
15kn
Air
19°C

Fri 6 · 66 out of 100

Sea
0.6 m
Wind
6 kn
Gusts
9kn
Air
20°C

Sat 7 · 69 out of 100

Sea
0.3 m
Wind
4 kn
Gusts
8knboats in
Air
22°C

Sun 8 · 42 out of 100

Sea
0.9 m
Wind
18 kn
Gusts
25kn
Air
17°C

Tap a day for sea, wind and water. Full forecast

Forecast: next 10 days

Full forecast
  1. Sun 166, good
  2. Mon 268, good
  3. Tue 367, good
  4. Wed 467, good
  5. Thu 564, good
  6. Fri 666, good
  7. Sat 769, good
  8. Sun 842, poor
  9. Mon 963, good
  10. Tue 1067, good

The site in four facts

  • From the shorehow you get in
  • Open Waterand up
  • Water 21 °C5 mm wetsuit
  • Faces NEswell from there reaches it

Full forecast

every day, every number

The score doesn't know currents, the visibility on the day or your certification.

Suits Open Water divers and up, as a dive guide states it. Scored for Advanced divers.

Sea and wind forecast and score for each day at Halifax
DayScoreSeaWindGustsAir
Sun 1Nov66, good0.4 m4 kn13kn23°C
Mon 2Nov68, good0.4 m5 kn8kn21°C
Tue 3Nov67, good0.3 m9 kn17kn22°C
Wed 4Nov67, good0.4 m8 kn13kn20°C
Thu 5Nov64, good0.4 m11 kn15kn19°C
Fri 6Nov66, good0.6 m6 kn9kn20°C
Sat 7Nov69, good0.3 m4 kn8knboats in22°C
Sun 8Nov42, poor0.9 m18 kn25kn17°C
Mon 9Nov63, good0.6 m8 kn15kn18°C
Tue 10Nov67, good0.5 m5 kn10kn21°C
Wed 11Nov68, good0.6 m1 kn9kn21°C

Sea is the waves near the site, in metres; wind and gusts in knots. "Boats in": gusts that keep dive boats in. More

Tide

  • Sun 1 NovHigh 01:49 +0.2 mLow 07:07 −0.4 mHigh 13:52 +0.8 mLow 20:54 −0.6 m
  • Mon 2 NovHigh 03:07 +0.3 mLow 08:26 −0.3 mHigh 15:03 +0.7 mLow 22:02 −0.6 m
  • Tue 3 NovHigh 04:19 +0.3 mLow 09:49 −0.3 mHigh 16:13 +0.7 mLow 23:01 −0.6 m

Local clock times; heights about mean sea level. On open coasts the times are usually within a quarter of an hour; in bays, estuaries and on the Gulf of Mexico they can be an hour or more out. Slack water, the safest time to dive where there is current, is about half an hour either side of each high and low. Tide: EOT20 global ocean tide model, Hart-Davis et al. 2021, DGFI-TUM (doi:10.17882/79489), CC BY 4.0. Times and heights computed by us. A model, not a tide table: check a local table before you go.

Forecast updated . It refreshes every three hours. Forecast data: ECMWF, DWD, Météo-France and NOAA, served by Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0). Changed by us. Generated using E.U. Copernicus Marine Service Information.

Best time to go

No month stands out

Good diving days in a typical week, each month, for Advanced divers, from 2016 on (ERA5 history scored the same way).

  1. Jan6of 7: a trip from Sat 2 Jan
  2. Feb5of 7: a trip from Sat 6 Feb
  3. Mar5of 7: a trip from Sat 6 Mar
  4. Apr6of 7: a trip from Sat 3 Apr
  5. May5of 7: a trip from Sat 1 May
  6. Jun5of 7: a trip from Sat 5 Jun
  7. Jul4of 7: a trip from Sat 3 Jul
  8. Aug5of 7: a trip from Sat 7 Aug
  9. Sep6of 7: a trip from Sat 4 Sept
  10. Oct5of 7: a trip from Sat 2 Oct
  11. Nov6of 7: a trip from Mon 2 Nov
  12. Dec6of 7: a trip from Sat 5 Dec

Tap a month to see this spot for a trip then.

Typical, not a forecast: the sea and the mean wind of each day, with no gusts or rain in the history.

Map

the site, its town, photos

Each place wears its best day on these dates: green good, amber fair, pale red poor, as the key says.

The map needs JavaScript. Every place on it is listed on this page, and each place's page links to Google Maps.

One finger scrolls the page; two fingers move the map. Pins are our own positions. Map OpenFreeMap, © OpenMapTiles, data © OpenStreetMap contributors.

Photos of Halifax

Nelson Bay - panoramio
Near Halifax, 2 km away. Photo: LeoJingZhang, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
The View from the Port Stephens Lighthouse - panoramio
Photo: wood26, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons
The Dolphins Motel (That used be knowed as the PW Club) - panoramio
Near Halifax. Photo: wood26, CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons

More diving near here

5 places

About

the place in full, sources, credits

About Halifax

You get in from the shore. It suits Open Water divers and up, as a dive guide states it. The coast faces NE: swell from the NE reaches it, and wind from the SW blows out to sea. 1 dive centre or shop within 10 km, the nearest 2.0 km away. The sea is about 19°C in August, its coldest month (7 mm wetsuit and hood), and 25°C in February, its warmest (3 mm wetsuit). The town to stay in is Hawks Nest. Within 5 km we also list 6 surf spots and 2 dive sites.

  • What it is No source states what kind of site it is.
  • How deep No source states how deep it goes.
  • Getting in From the shore.
  • Who it suits Suits Open Water divers and up, as a dive guide states it.
  • Dive centres 1 dive centre or shop within 10 km, the nearest 2.0 km away.

Water about 21°C: 5 mm wetsuit. Typical sea temperature for the time of year, not a forecast.

Visibility about 8 m. Typical for the time of year, estimated from ten years of NASA satellite water clarity, not a forecast. Clearest in May, Oct and Nov (about 9 m).

The score is the conditions only: the journey, the price and the partners never change it (how we score, how we earn).

Rough cost (estimate): about US$1,750–US$3,350 each

about US$1,750–US$3,350 each · 6 nights, 2 sharing: flights, hire car, stay, food.

Our estimate from typical public prices, not a quote: check the real prices before you book (where they come from). Prices are about, in US Dollar (USD): our pound figures at the European Central Bank's rate of 30 October 2026.

How we worked it out 
Rough cost per person for this trip
WhatHow we worked it outEach
Flightsreturn MDW to SYD, estimated from distance and season, changing at LAX, full-service airlines, with a hold bagabout US$925–US$1,920
Hire car6 days, sharedabout US$147–US$241
Stay6 nights, a mid-range double, sharedabout US$355–US$596
Food7 days eating outabout US$322–US$596
Totalabout US$1,750–US$3,350

Guided dives are not priced yet: we have no sourced price, so it is not in it. Prices from public sources, checked in 2026.

Where to stay: Hawks Nest

Closest

Hawks Nest

8 min by car · 21 places to stay

about US$134/nightcountry average

See 21 places to stay in Hawks Nest · Booking.com

About Hawks Nest its beds, food and every spot near it

About US$134 a night is our estimate of the country's average 2-star double room that month: not each town's price, and not a quote. Drives are estimates. Prices are about, in US Dollar (USD): our pound figures at the European Central Bank's rate of 30 October 2026.

Getting there: about 30h 05m

About 30h 05m door to door from Chicago

Fly MDW → SYD, changing at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), then 3h 10m by road

An estimate, one way; the journey never changes the score.

In the water

Dive centres nearby

  • Feet First Dive 2.0 km

The nearest named dive centres and shops within 25 km, in a straight line; training agencies where the map states them. Listings, not a recommendation. Dive centres: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL). Credits

What you might see

Animals divers and surveys have recorded within 2 km of this site in the last 15 years. A record says someone saw it here, not that you will.

  • Pteraeolidia ianthinaNudibranch

    Seen in 3 records.

Records: OBIS (Ocean Biodiversity Information System, IOC-UNESCO), from the datasets named here, CC0 and CC BY records only. Names: WoRMS, through OBIS; common names from Wikidata. Largest datasets here: 0820b10a-5710-4e90-b9ed-a2ad7c7ec742; A photographically-vouchered global citizen science dataset of sea slugs (Mollusca: Heterobranchia) from the SEASLUG.WORLD platform since 2015; 9e54f6cc-c9a3-44cb-8b67-f2fcad6b5ccd; 00a7f490-7418-413b-a9f1-666f186769b6; d104db68-63cf-4f34-b92a-54bd55a07394. Credits

This week: visibility under 5 m, greener than usual (satellite plankton reading, 24 Oct). Estimated from the month's typical visibility and this week's satellite chlorophyll against the site's normal; heavy rain before a dive can still muddy it.

The current no free forecast gives. Ask a dive centre before you book.