Scallop Diving at the start of the Coromandel scallop season

If I had to choose my favourite seafood, scallops would have to be right up there. You can’t beat them raw, fresh out of the ocean ala naturale!

It is always exciting when the season opens on 1 September, and as has been tradition for a few years, a bunch of us head up to Opito Bay and have a mini scallop festival of our own.

This year we found them fat as and in good numbers

It is a bit of a tradition to cook up a storm on opening night, this year it was scallops three ways - scallop and pineapple ceviche, scallop roe fritter topped with ala naturale scallop, plus in garlic butter in their shell. Nectar!

My daughter Bella has recently done her PADI Open Water dive course with Dive Zone Whitianga, and she was keen to have her first crack diving for some scallops, so we looked a little closer to home, and while they were not as thick, we got a nice feed. It was awesome to see Bells enoying her diving and helping me gather a feed of scallops - it doesn’t get much better!