The month of December was spent around my local area on the Central Coast of NSW, Australia. After travelling pretty much constantly since June, it was time to spend some time at home with the family and catch up on some work that had piled up over the last few months. Eline was over here and doing some diving around Sydney and we got to catch up again, we also checked out the 3D IMAX film ‘Wild Oceans’, this was spectacular, based around the Sardine run in South Africa the 3D imagery was stunning.

This time in December also coincided with the first baseline surveys for the HMAS Adelaide artificial reef that is scheduled for scuttling late 2009. There I was able to provide assistance to the University of Newcastle where I completed my degree. We were using baited remote underwater video stations (BRUVS) a method that I have had considerable experience with during my Honours research and other marine park surveys. The experimental design for the monitoring of the ship is based around the planned area where the ship will be scuttled on a sand patch in 30 m off North Avoca Beach. We sampled reef areas both close and far from the site and three sand areas. Taking three days to complete, we also repeated this design ten days later to look at the natural temporal variation. The study went well and has already identified a large Grey Nurse Shark at a nearby reef and provided information of the diversity and abundance of a variety of fish species.

Over the year I have been ever practicing and enjoying my underwater photography – but I felt like the time was right to step it up from my Canon A640 compact to go DSLR. As I mentioned previously, when at DEMA, Michael Aw offered for me to join in with his underwater photography workshop in Indonesia in February. I had been in contact with him recently and asked about any second hand housings that he may know of and he came back with a very generous price on a second hand Hugyfot D200 housing that a friend of his recently traded in. This sounded great and I purchased a Nikon D200 body and Sigma 10-20 mm lens second hand, it was the perfect Birthday and Christmas present, so thanks to my parents for lending me the money!

The major days of the festive season was spent of the water with my Dad – Christmas Day, Boxing Day, NYE and New Years Day were all beautiful and I did some nice freediving along Sydney’s northern beaches even swimming with a pod of dolphins. I finished my time around home with a day in Sydney with Jayne and diving with my new camera along with Chris Miller (videographer for the TV program – Getaway ) and Aengus Moran (the website guru for this page).

Time went quickly and before I new it was a new year and time to get back on the road (or should I say back in the air?). This time flying to New Zealand, but with my experiences and still almost four months remaining on the scholarship, this year is looking very promising and exciting!