By Jonty Ralphsmith
It’s September 2010 off the coast of Vava’u, Tonga. The water is dark green and Cranbourne resident Christine Reynolds is preparing for a day of scuba diving, something she has been passionate about since 2006.
Despite her experience, Ms Reynolds is perplexed when her guide tells her to quickly jump into the water, but sensing the urgency in his voice, she duly obliged, leaped in and was greeted by the sight of a marvellous humpback whale.
“As I went down there was a great big eye that filled my camera lens, she was that close!” Ms Reynolds exclaimed.
Soon after, Ms Reynolds recalls being pulled back by her diving instructor because a humpback was coming up from underneath her.
Unlike Australia, Tonga does not have an exclusion zone from humpback whales, meaning the telephone sales consultant at Star News Group was an arm’s length away from the creature, swimming with 14 on that day.
Across the years, there is a long list of creatures that Ms Reynolds has dived with including reef sharks, rays and sea snakes but it is humpback whales, along with whale sharks, that she has yearned for since her first dive.
Cebu, Philippines was the destination to see whale sharks, and she has also dived in Fiji and Vanuatu, but it was a spontaneous dive off Townsville that whet Ms Reynolds’ passion.
“I did a try dive out on the Great Barrier Reef so we went out there, they dress you up in a scuba suit, tell you about it and after 30 minutes they send you underwater,” she said.
“That’s a skill that takes a bit of getting used to and from that moment I loved it.”
Beaches were central to Ms Reynolds’ upbringing, as she recalled snorkelling and wading in the shallows at Safety Beach, where her family had a house from when she was four-years-old.
“I love interacting with the wildlife because they’re intelligent,” she said.
“When I tried scuba diving, I was down there with the fish, being treated as one of the fish and I was just addicted.”
Ms Reynolds also has six diving qualifications that enable her to dive in waters as deep as 40 metres where she has seen war time wrecks and Gorgonian Coral.
Her most recent trip was 250 kilometres off the coast of Cairns last month, a reef she described as the cleanest she has seen – but you do not need to travel that far to see majesty underwater.
In between the travel, she has seen seals, dolphins and rays at Port Phillip Bay, recommending it as a local mecca, having attained her qualifications from Mornington.
Ms Reynolds still has plenty more diving she wants to do, with Komodo, Indonesia high on the bucket list.
