Growing up our summers were spent swimming, camping and heading to one of the many pristine beaches in Northland. Gathering seafood was always a must and our Dad was our main diver until we were confident enough to gather ourselves.A proud moment was getting my first Kina and showing him. His smile was priceless and he knew this was going to be the start of our connection with the ocean.
As we grew older diving became second fiddle to the sport of Surfing and when Dad wouldnt let us use his car we would go see my nan and ask if could take Uncle Laddies blue Cortina. She was cool our Nan and always let us take it, so off we went to places like Shipwreck Bay, Taupo Bay and Waimamaku, stopping in at our Aunty Girls fish and chip shop in Kaeo to get the biggest pieces of battered fish. I remember Dad use to always get wild at us for going out surfing and never bringing home a kai but Mum would save us and tell him to leave us alone hahaha.
Our love for the ocean grew into kai mahi, gathering for tangi and functions,from fishing and diving to hunting my big brother Robbo was my idol, watching him come home with kingfish speared from Cape Brett to big snapper caught on handlines. I wanted to be on that level of kai mahi.
Fast forward to 2014, Jacqui, Stella and I left the far north and headed to the South Island of New Zealand for work, Dunedin was chosen as our home base and my first mission was to find out where all the kai was, I drove all the backroads,beach roads, highways around the coast to figure out where all the seafood was. I knew our first year down here was gonna be a struggle setting ourselves up but at least we knew we weren't gonna starve.
The abundance of marine life in the South Island is second to none and has taken me to some unreal destinations, diving along the highway in Kaikoura, under Mitre peak in Milford Sounds where the cliffs drop 300m straight beneath the water to the rugged and beautiful Stewart Island with good friends and family.
Last year I decided to do my Dive Instructors Diploma with Dive Otago, to help with the water safety aspect of our business, I had an incident a couple months before this where me and the cuzzie were free diving for paua and had a sea lion come up to check us out, the cuzzie had never seen one in the water and when it decided to charge us he freaked out and started to panic which then set off his asthma. As I was trying to calm him down he kept pushing me under the water I had to hold the bull kelp to pull me back up i was lucky some of the boys were diving not far from us they came over to give me a hand but i learnt a big lesson that day which could of cost both our lives.
Dive Otago taught me a lot about not only water safety and diving but being in the diving industry as a business and i am so grateful i took a year off to do the course making new friendships and bonding with like minded people and our love of the ocean.
Today my journey takes me to sharing my knowledge through our Mahi Mātātoa platform teaching people about sustainability, looking after our moana, teaching people how to dive safely and making new friends and stories.
