In 2005 I had the privilege to travel across the ditch to the Land Down Under\u00a0(otherwise known as Australia) on a family vacation. A few weeks to visit\u00a0Whanau and explore the pristine east coast via a rental car that absolutely\u00a0could not hold the amount of Aunties, Uncles, Cousins, Brothers we were\u00a0visiting. Unbeknownst to me this unassuming trip is where my passion for the\u00a0ocean would develop, which lead me to where I am today working as an Open\u00a0Water Specialty Scuba Instructor.<\/p>\n
From the Gold Coast to Cairns we zig-zagged out way up the coast. Visiting\u00a0every back wood town possible. Every beach we found we swam at. Every\u00a0waterfall we trekked to. It wasn\u2019t until the later half of the trip my father\u00a0suggested we go on a day trip out to the famous Great Barrier Reef, an\u00a0opportunity we couldn\u2019t pass up. As a nerdy\/very uncomfortably awkward kid\u00a0growing up I wasn\u2019t the most athletic, never excelled in any particular sport but\u00a0my goodness chuck me in the pool or the ocean and my parents would have to\u00a0literally drag me out whilst I threw a hissy fit.<\/p>\n
So naturally the trip out to the reef\u00a0\u00a0was something that held my excitement as soon as we discussed it.\u00a0A bit overwhelmed by the shear number of people they fit onto a boat, freshly\u00a0bought mask and snorkel in hand I ran from bow to stern taking in the sights of\u00a0the open ocean (which unsurprisingly didn\u2019t wield much but just the fact I was\u00a0on the water was enough for me). We finally moored at our snorkeling site after\u00a0which seemed to be an eternity. I had never seen a fish underwater, as a matter\u00a0of fact the only fish I had ever seen were on the end of my fathers fishing pole\u00a0or in goldfish tanks, not knowing what to expect I take the plunge off the edge\u00a0of the pontoon. A Green Sea Turtle greets me as I orientate myself in the water.\u00a0The first aquatic animal I had ever seen in its natural habitat. I am absolutely\u00a0dumbfounded. At this moment I knew I wanted to feel this way for the rest of\u00a0my life.<\/p>\n
So that\u2019s exactly what I strived to do. As a young lad I was lucky enough to do a\u00a0little bit of travel around South East Asia and complete my PADI Open Water\u00a0and Advanced Open Water on a little island called Koh Tao in Thailand. From\u00a0here I looked at potential countries to develop my diving skills to become an\u00a0PADI Open Water Scuba Instructor. I just so happened to come across\u00a0something on a visit to my hometown in Christchurch. \u201cGet a Diploma in\u00a0Professional Scuba Instruction\u201d from Dive HQ a cheeky Instagram ad\u00a0(Zuckerberg must have been listening) and it all clicked, I couldn\u2019t think of a\u00a0better way to complete my goal than in my own moana. So that\u2019s exactly what I\u00a0did.<\/p>\n
I packed my life into my car and made the journey up north from Otutahi to\u00a0Tamaki Makaurua, excited about the prospects of a year of hard mahi and\u00a0coming out as a PADI Open Water Instructor. Through some solid tuition and\u00a0and some hardwork through COVID lockdowns I finally realised my dream and\u00a0came out the other end with a fresh Diploma and a job offer I couldn\u2019t resist as\u00a0a new up and coming instructor. I look back on my first trip to the Great Barrier\u00a0Reef, reflecting on how far I had come from that moment, I couldn\u2019t think of a
\nbetter way to take the plunge.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In 2005 I had the privilege to travel across the ditch to the Land Down Under\u00a0(otherwise known as Australia) on a family vacation. A few weeks to visit\u00a0Whanau and explore the pristine east coast via a rental car that absolutely\u00a0could not hold the amount of Aunties, Uncles, Cousins, Brothers we were\u00a0visiting. Unbeknownst to me this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=836"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":894,"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/836\/revisions\/894"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/divehq.co.nz\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}