The Neptune islands in South Australia have for many years been one of the world’s well known Great White hotspots. During my scholarship year, I was lucky enough to join Howard and Michele Hall’s trip with The Rodney Fox Shark Expeditions. Rodney Fox’s is the only dive operation in the world that you can bottom cage dive with these impressive animals. We geared up and were slowly lowered down into the blue water. Sitting on the bottom at 23 meters, we all look about us with a sense of urgency, squinting into to the distance. The chum in the bucket at the bottom of the cage makes the surrounding water taste metallic. In the distance the huge shape comes into focus and trevally part as a big female Great White Shark glides past the cage. I watch in awe as these gorgeous creatures come in and out of view over the rest of the dive. They are incredibly graceful and sleek, a side of them that many of the general public don’t usually see.

After long days diving, no one had ever had enough - the nights on board the Fox boat were spent gathered around laptops watching summaries of the day’s spectacular videos and photo plays. Every now and then we would also have story time – when Howard would bring out his laptop and show us slideshows and videos of his trips filming for IMAX.

Aboard the Princess II I learned the basics of photography and filming, made a great group of friends and experienced a part of the world I have always dreamed of visiting. Diving at the same spot that made these amazing sharks famous and meeting idols such as Rodney Fox and Howard and Michele Hall was a great way to start my scholarship year!