Deciding you like somewhere before even stepping foot out of the airport has to be a good sign. Many people had told me that Sydney is not your average city. Many non-city people had told me Sydney was one of the few cities they really enjoy. And for those city lovers who visit Sydney – I would imagine they leave feeling a tad disappointed with their home city.
Not being a city person myself I was intrigued by Sydney and what it had to offer an outdoor loving scuba diver. Making my way out of the airport I passed whole families clad in boardshorts and exited into the blissful sunshine. I was immediately content having left a bitterly cold Scotland a mere 24 hours earlier. Christine, my great friend and a Sydney local, greeted me at the airport and whisked me off into the heart of Sydney. In less than 10 minutes we had arrived at a stunning coastline – golden beach after golden beach unfolded in front of my eyes. As we continued with our drive I was amazed at how lush the city was. Trees line virtually every street in Sydney and great expanses of parkland are not hard to come by. Runners, cyclists and surfers were buzzing around everywhere, either heading toward or coming back form the beach. I had been in Sydney for a matter of hours and was already hooked. Clearly Sydney had plenty to offer me.
I was here thanks to an extremely kind and exciting invite. Jayne Jenkins, the OW-USS Australasian coordinator, and her husband Colin had invited me to spend Christmas and New Year in Sydney – with diving planned throughout. As the next two weeks unfolded I celebrated Christmas on the beach and witnessed the famous New Years Eve fireworks illuminating Sydney harbour in a display that would certainly impress the keenest of pyromaniacs. In amongst all the festivities I was able to dive a collection of super sites, with Jayne and her fellow local experts seeking out all of the best creatures Sydney diving has to offer. What’s more, being in Sydney meant I could catch up with OW-USS friends, as well as and be introduced to an array of interesting and helpful people.
My first dive in Sydney was a cracker thanks to the sharp eyes of Nick Missenden Being able to spot a tiny camouflaged creature in poor vis is quite a skill. It took me a while to tune my eyes into the delicate and intricate form that is a Pygmy Pipe Horse (Idiotropiscis lumnitzeri). At first I was blindly trying to get a shot of this miniature organism – Nick had found it amongst a sparse patch of seagrass, but it took me a while to single it out. Eventually I was able to make out the subtle sweep of its body and the delicate dorsal fin. Then the tiny but sharp black eyes emerged from what otherwise appears to be a floral component of the sea floor. I.lumnitzeri is one of three Idiotropiscis species found in Australia, but I.lumnitzeri is endemic to New South Wales and was discovered as recently as 1997. Few divers are fortunate enough to spot the Pygmy Pipe Horses. Even many local Sydney divers are yet to find one. I was delighted to witness such a unique animal in Sydney waters. Despite being a city of over 4-million people, and boasting one of the World’s busiest harbours, Sydney is home to an array of remarkable marine creatures.
Indeed my second dive in Sydney brought with it my first ever sighting of a Seahorse. I was diving alongside Jayne and Aengus Moran – who took to the water only after ensuring his partner Laura, who was due to give birth that day, was not actually in labour! The dive site was Chowder Bay – one of Sydney’s many beautiful beach inlets. Stretching out beneath the jetty at Chowder Bay is a net, which provides a habitat for an assortment of sponges, small fish and invertebrates. Despite having dived on many reefs and in many countries, seahorses remained elusive to me.
Sydney is not surrounded by coral reefs. It is a temperate environment influenced by the continental shelf and the East Australian current, which bring nutrient rich water and tropical species respectively. As such, many endemic species inhabit Sydney waters, the White’s Seahorse (Hippocampus whitei). As Aengus guided me around Chowder Bay he spotted many seahorses; their tails meandering around the net, acting as anchor in the gentle surge. With my Light and Motion housing in tow I was able to gather footage of the seahorses as we made our way along the net. Stopping to film the seahorses made me realise these are characterful little creatures and they certainly kept me amused as we surfaced with a dive time pushing 90 minutes (the baby had not been born in these 90 minutes).
I was to return to Chowder Bay a few days later with Chris Miller – a freelance videographer and photographer and one of Jayne’s longstanding dive buddies. Jayne had arranged for Chris to help me out with a number of my photography and videography skills and he proved to be an invaluable help. Taking to the Chowder net for a second time I had my Olympus Pen camera set to underwater macro mode in preparation to get some snaps of the charming seahorses. Chris and I notched up another 90-minute dive as we spent our time finding and framing the critters. Being able to dive alongside great underwater photographers such as Jayne and Chris is a huge help: being able to surface from a dive and bounce off a number of questions, or sit down and discuss the shots and how they could be improved, means I am much more aware of how to shoot when underwater.
Not only did Chris help me with my underwater photography, he also showed me how to set up a time-lapse on-land. A morning spent taking hundreds of pictures of a scenic waterfall in the Australian bush was followed by an afternoon of editing the stills into a moving image. I am still to learn much of the more technical side of photography, and although I like playing around with images in photoshop, I definitely benefitted from a Chris’s tuition in the more serious and precise nature of editing.
Chris was one of many of Jayne’s friends who made my stay in Sydney both enlightening and fun. Another of Jayne’s dive buddies, Dave Thomas, spent an afternoon teaching me how to strip down a reg and service it. Too often I am caught out when it comes to explaining the more involved mechanisms of a reg to an inquisitive diver. So it was a super help to see Dave remove all the key parts of my TUSA regulator, explain what each part was for and how it worked, then reconstruct the reg.
When it came to Christmas morning Dave, Chris, Jayne and I all took to the water, this time at Shelly Beach. The beach was bustling with santa hats and barbeques as we set up our dive gear. The conditions for this dive were pretty poor, but I was still able to have another first encounter – this time it was a Woobegong. Wobbegongs are Carpet sharks – harmless bottom dwellers found in the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean. Even though the visibility wasn’t great and the surge was giving us a good swing we had a super post dive snack to look forward to thanks to Jayne – Champagne and mince pies on the beach, accompanied by sunshine.
Christmas day in Australia was great. Many people from home like the snug atmosphere of a winter Christmas, but I loved the party atmosphere and outdoor orientated nature of a summertime Christmas. Plus Jayne put on one of the best Christmas lunches I have ever had. Gorgeous salads and seafood was a real contrast to turkey with all the trimmings and perfect in the summer heat. Of course I will always love my mum’s Christmas dinner, but when in Australia you have to do as the Australians do!
Australians certainly know how to do Christmas and New Year well. As I ran along the Manly beachfront on Boxing Day there was still a real holiday spirit in the air and the beach was full of people celebrating the festive season. The more time I spent in Sydney, the more it was growing on me. That evening Jayne had prepared another delicious meal as it was also Colin’s birthday and we had the pleasure of having Ron and Valerie Taylor for company. I have never listed to such fascinating stories over dinner. Ron and Valerie are a charming and enthralling couple. Hearing about their experiences whilst filming Blue Water White Death; dining with Royals; working alongside some of the world’s most famous actors and travelling to some of the world’s most remote and primitive locations was captivating. When you are young and trying to forge a career for yourself in the underwater world it is extremely valuable to spend time with people who have accomplished great careers in an underwater-related field. Ron and Valerie are pioneers of the underwater world. They prove that through hardwork, creativity and plenty of daring you can have a successful underwater-related career, and one that is very effective in publicizing the importance and vulnerability of the oceans.
The ocean is a huge part of life for so many Australians. Being someone who loves every aspect of the ocean it was great to be in a country where it forms such a prominent part of everyday life, whether that be through work or recreation. I was fortunate to spend a lot of time out on Sydney harbour during my stay. One of my trips out onto the harbour was on a Pilot boat. Colin is a pilot on Sydney Harbour and on this day he was taking a large cruise liner out. Jayne and I rode on the Pilot boat as it shooed away the little yachts and motor boats that dared to venture into the path of the immense ship as it proceeded toward the open ocean.
I had never properly contemplated how Colin would get off the cruise liner once he had the ship safely out of the harbour– but I was about to find out. It has to be one of the most fascinating things I have ever seen, and perhaps one of the most extreme. As the miniature pilot boat pulled alongside the mammoth liner, both boats set a coinciding pace. The liner loomed above us and if boats could intimidate one another this was it. Three men stood at a little hatch in the side of the ship, the scale of which resembled a single lit window in a skyscraper. As I looked at the rope ladder the three men were holding I realised this piece of twine was to be Colin’s vital link between the two boats. Indeed a few minutes later he appeared at the hatch. As the pilot boat jostled at the side of the liner the ladder was thrown down and Colin made his way from one boat to the other with evident ease. I sat on the pilot boat in a state of complete unease as the scene unfolded in-front of me.
One of my more relaxing experiences on the harbour, but just as impressive, was the New Years Eve fireworks display. Moored in the middle of the harbour and surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of other boats of varying shapes, sizes and colours, our boat from Prodive dive centre staked its claim to a good spot. Jayne and I watched the Sydney skyline ignite. It was hard to fathom the scale of the display as the harbour bridge and the majority of the cityscape exploded in colour. The most famous fireworks display in the world didn’t fail to impress. It seemed a fitting end to what has been an amazing and life changing year for me.
I will never forget my time in Sydney. Jayne and Colin pulled out all the stops and showed me the best Sydney has to offer. When the conditions were too poor to dive we had no trouble filling our time. Catching an open-air movie while overlooking Sydney harbour was unforgettable, plus a trip to the zoo meant I wasn’t going to leave Australia without seeing a Kangaroo! And of course Maisie the Jack Russell always enjoyed a walk along the beautiful Sydney coastline.
