The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust
Where does your wanderlust lead you?
To Melbourne’s cafes or the vast deserts of the Empty Quarter, a New Zealand vineyard or the pavements of New York… what’s your neighbourhood?
Join travel journalists and editors Kirstie Bedford and Belinda Jackson for inspiring stories and inside information from across the world.
Website https://theworldawaits.au
Instagram @theworldawaitspodcast
Support us https://ko-fi.com/theworldawaits (thank you!)
The World Awaits: travel tales to inspire your wanderlust
EP 108 World's best dive sites; top cities for a workcation & do you need domestic travel insurance?
Welcome to the underwater world of photographer and professional diver Todd Thimios, who shares his best dive sites in Australia and around the world – he’s got some hot tips for snorkellers, too.
To win a copy of Todd's book, Ultimate Dive Sites (Hardie Grant), follow us on instagram @theworldawaitspodcast and catch him MC'ing at the Go Diving Show at Sydney Showgrounds 6-7 September, see godivingshow.com/anz/sydney-dive-show
Also, do we really need travel insurance for local travel within Australia? Southern Cross Travel Insurance’s (SCTI), most recent Future of Travel report might just change your mind, scti.com.au
And where's the best place in the world to work and holiday? IWG's annual Work from Anywhere Barometer names the best cities for a workcation, and there are a few surprises in the top 10. Listen for the full list, see iwgplc.com
Also, click here to listen back to Jacques Smit of Sabi Sabi private game reserve in South Africa, and read Kirstie's story from her interview with Jacques here.
And to find out more about the next big hot in cycling tourism, take a look at Victoria’s High Country's gravel bike riding campaign victoriashighcountry.com.au/ride/
Visit us at https://theworldawaits.au
Welcome to The World Awakes. Welcome back to The World Awakes. How are you all? Hope you've been well and had an amazing week. How's your week been, Belle?
SPEAKER_02:Well, you know, always busy. Look, there's a couple of things. I caught up with all of the news happening in Victoria's high country at an event run by the Australian Society of Travel Riders. So this region in Victoria, which runs up to the New South Wales border, is Australia's premier cycling destination, and they have now got new rail trail routes and a big focus on gravel bike riding, which is kind of like a cross between mountain biking and road biking, but you're not on the road. And they are tipping this as the big opportunity hot in cycling tourism. So the region, we're talking about the Glen Bright, Beechworth, all those sort of high country areas, has more than 2,000 kilometres of gravel routes. So that is definitely a trend and a region to watch. And I'm going to put a link to the show notes in there for you to take a look if you're up for a little bicycle holiday, because I think we've both got cycled through the high country and it is phenomenal. And it's not all like climbing up boulder and stuff like that. And also, Kirsty, because, you know, I like to keep myself busy with a little lunch or two, I caught up with Jacques Smit of Sabi Sabi Private Game Reserve, which borders on the Kruger National Park in South Africa. Jacques came onto the podcast last year to talk about what was going on with safari. And as he says, it's not just about finding the big five. It's also about incredible bird life, meeting local people, taking walking safaris. I'd love to do a proper walking safari. Probably, just hoping that it doesn't turn into a running safari. And I will put a link in the show notes and you can just scroll back to episode 53 if you want a little South African wildlife hit. So that's my week. What about you, Kirsty? I think you have something to tell us.
SPEAKER_01:I do. But firstly, I also did interview Jacques before that lunch. And yeah, he was so great to talk to. And they're also opening... They've also taken over a hotel that they're opening in Cape Town. So it means that you'll get that sabi-sabi amazing experience literally from the minute you land. So you can go and stay there before you go out to the safari. So that sounds incredible. And they're opening a new one too, a brand new safari in Africa. So, yeah, I will be writing a story about it for Carry On. So we will put the links and the show notes when that goes up as well. He
SPEAKER_02:was actually talking about that. that reserve in the lunch, which is really interesting, called Sandringham. And it was an old hunting ground and they have rehabilitated it to become a safari. Yes, they have, yeah. A safari reserve. So it's a phenomenal, phenomenal idea and amazing amount of work in there too. Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, absolutely. And it proves the power of what they're doing in their conservation efforts, which is no more evident than going to be at that Sandringham new safari when it opens. So yes, I have a bit of news. I am from the work front. I am stepping into a role as editor-at-large at Wanderer magazine. So I was editor of the publication, and it means that I can work on some other strategic projects that we have coming up at Madventure. and also which is the publishing house for the magazine and it also allows me a bit more time to work on my creative writing and my crime fiction which I love writing about crazy things to do with crime and my latest manuscript which is about a travel writer that gets kidnapped is actually currently out on submission with my agent so that's a really big passion of mine and something I want to focus my energy on and going forward and so yeah I'm working on a new one now so I'm still editor at Carry On and I'll be expanding my role a little bit there. And, of course, we have our baby, our travel podcast, which you're listening to right now.
SPEAKER_02:Oh, God, I thought you were going to tell me you're having a baby.
SPEAKER_01:That would be a nightmare. That would not be something I want to focus energy on, not at this age.
SPEAKER_02:Now, yeah, it is. Well, I don't even know if we can call it a baby anymore. Two years old. It's a toddler and we're up to 108 episodes. So, yeah, I mean, don't forget you can always go back and listen to the previous episodes that you might have missed because we've got a Pretty strong back catalogue. And, you know, we're always finding people are doing just that because the numbers keep going up, which is really nice. So thank you for your support and listening to the podcast.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, thank you, everyone. Amazing. And so, and you may have heard too and seen on socials that we had a winner for our Avani Hotels and Resorts Thai giveaway. So you can, if you go to the World Awakes website, podcast on Instagram. You can find out who won. And that was Peter Hopf, and she's from Toowoomba, and she's winging her way to Thailand for Four Nights Day at Avani Plus Khao Lak. So go back to our socials and have a look at her little message. She was so excited to win. And given it's so cold in this part of the world right now, my God, how lucky is she to be going there? And besides the fact that that resort is stunning, five-star hotel on its own stretch of beach, and it's got four swimming pools, four swimming pools, No
SPEAKER_02:tropical dream holiday vibes right there. So this week we are kicking off with the annual Work From Anywhere Barometer because I could work from cowlack, couldn't you? Like, you know, do all the work from home thing? Yeah. No, I couldn't because I'd be in the pool all the time. So the annual Work From Anywhere Barometer by International Workplace Group is, this is the largest provider of hybrid working solutions. And with the way that the world is working now, why wouldn't you consider working from somewhere else, especially if you don't have any commitments to work at You know, to worry about, like, I don't know, feeding dogs and stuff like that. Yeah, exactly, kids.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, I've got a year and a half until I'm free of those school-aged children. It's the school-aged kids, right? And even then, you know, it's a bit of a worry, I guess, that first year out. Maybe we'll have to wait until they're, like, you know, 19, 20 or something. But, yeah, if I do wait until Jacob's 18, my youngest, I've only got away a year and a half, so can't wait for that, to be perfectly honest. So yes, actually, the place that has been named the world's leading workcation city for 2025 is actually Tokyo. And Melbourne made its debut on the list. That's cool. And Sydney also remains one of the top destinations. So go the Aussies.
SPEAKER_02:The cities were schooled across 12 criteria. including climate, broadband, broadband, good help me, availability of flexible workspaces, as well as some new categories, which include the availability and price of digital nomad visas, the proximity to beaches, mountains, or national parks. There's a few new additions on this list beside Melbourne. They're not all obvious, though. You've got Seoul in Korea. Rome, of course, because we love Rome. Cairo, which did surprise me because I had a broadband blackout there a couple of weeks. And no internet whatsoever. That's right, you did. I did. So I couldn't work. I could not work. I mean, not only could you not work, but you also couldn't pay for anything by... You know, there was no internet, so you couldn't, you know, use ATMs. Everybody went back to a cash society and had to go down the corner shop to get their gossip. Other cities that are probably better for workations include, new ones on the list include Mexico City, Cape Town in South Africa, Prague, Orlando, Florida, and Iceland's capital, Reykjavik. So what do you reckon, Kirstie?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, they are interesting, aren't they? I mean, God, I will do a workcation in Rome any day of the week. Oh my God, I just love that city so much. And I can totally see how, I mean, how amazing would that be? You know, you're just sitting there with your, eating your handmade gnocchi, And drinking your Aperol Spritz while you've got your laptop in the cafe. Oh, my God. Anyway,
SPEAKER_02:the reason... That sounds completely productive. Sitting there sucking down Aperol Spritzes. Would you meet your deadline?
SPEAKER_01:I would not. Oh, my God. I know. I'm such a lightweight with alcohol. One drink and I'll be dancing on the tables. So the research shows that 60% of hybrid workers are more likely to extend a holiday to work remotely than this time last year. And 86% said availability of flexible workspace is a major factor in their destination choice. So obviously, if there's somewhere to work, then, you know, you're going to be more likely to go there and go figure. Other interesting stats were that 78% of workers view a work from anywhere policy as a significant factor when considering a new job. I mean, again, like that's hardly surprising, right? And 87% of hybrid workers say the freedom to work from anywhere boosts their productivity. Well, it's damn well going to boost mine. I
SPEAKER_02:think it depends on the proximity to the apparel. But, I mean, you know, Australia's having this conversation at the moment, you know, while we're wrangling for the right to work from home. So, you know, this is right up, I think, everybody's... So according to the research, the top 10 countries where you can go for a workcation are Tokyo, followed by Rio de Janeiro, Budapest, Seoul, Barcelona, Beijing, Lisbon, Rome, Paris, and then Valletta. I mean, Tokyo is no surprise as the top workcation location. Given that we all just want to go to Japan, still absolutely smoking hot for travelers, Rio was a surprise at number two, as was Budapest in third place. Yeah. And I've got to say, number five, Barcelona. Do we really need to continue inflicting ourselves upon Barcelona while it is working through its over-tourism dramas? The one top 10 city that did surprise me was Valletta, which is the capital of tiny Malta. It's definitely doing a push into the Australian market at the moment. And I've got to say, I live in an area... In Melbourne, that has a very strong Maltese influence. Yum, that's all I can say, yum, yum, yum. But also the climate, gorgeous, you know, Mediterranean islands. So I can see the appeal, but I mean, it's not really on a major flight route to anywhere, unlike all of the others. You know, they are strong point-to-point destinations. Yeah, so Valletta was a bit of a surprise for me.
SPEAKER_01:And you're likely just to get your Aperol spritz thrown at you in Barcelona. So I'd be careful about your laptop when you're working in Barcelona, given, you know, the locals haven't been too happy about tourists being there. So maybe, yeah, just a bit more research before going there. And the founder and CEO of IWG, Mark Dixon, says that the reason we're seeing more workers than– well, we are seeing more workers than ever before extending trips– to work remotely or choosing to spend longer periods abroad as digital nomad. And that's thanks to what we've already sort of covered, which is obviously that there's more flexibility with hybrid working and also technology. I mean, it's come such a long way, apart from in Cairo when you were there. But he says this trend is definitely here to stay. And if you want to listen to a couple who are actually doing this, who are digital nomads, then head back one episode because I interviewed gay digital nomads, authors and travel writers Michael Jensen Brett Hartinger and they've been doing this for about seven years and they've lived in more than 30 countries and travelled to more than 60 and they give you some tips too about exactly how you can do it.
UNKNOWN:Music
SPEAKER_02:My guest this week is underwater photographer and professional deep sea diver, Todd Simeos, who's talking to us about the best dive sites around the world. And for those who don't dive, he's also keeping in mind the snorkelers amongst us.
SPEAKER_01:And I'll wait to hear more from Todd. How'd you find out about him, Belle?
SPEAKER_02:Well, he's the author of the book, Ultimate Dive Sites, which is out now with Hardy Grant. And he's also emceeing the Go Diving Show, which is happening on the 6th and the 7th of September at the Sydney Showgrounds. So if you're in Sydney, keep an eye out for him. He'll be the one on the main stage, and he'll also be talking about the book.
SPEAKER_01:And we've got a couple of copies of his book, Ultimate Dive Sites, to give away to two lucky listeners. So to win, just follow us on Instagram at The World Awaits Podcast and like the competition post. And now let's take a listen to
SPEAKER_02:the man himself, Todd Sineos. Hi, Todd. Welcome to The World Awaits. It's so lovely to have you here.
SPEAKER_00:Awesome. Thank you, Belinda. Thanks for having me. Very lucky.
SPEAKER_02:I'm so excited about today because it's all about you and your fabulous life and you are going to take us to some of the best dive sites around the world, including here in Australia. So let's kick off with just a little bio about you, where you're based, what the path is that led you to spend half of your life submerged in underwater as a photographer, as a deep sea diver and a pilot. So as it's said by others, this basically sounds like a resume for a Bond villain. So happy to get to the point.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Okay. Awesome. Where to start? Um, yeah, so I've been, I've been fortunate enough that I guess from a youngest age, you kind of had a clear idea of what I was into. So that kind of put me on a path of sort of diving from the youngest of ages. Um, I grew up in North Queensland. I'm actually in Cairns at the moment, visiting family, um, with my family. Uh, but right now, past 10 years, we've lived in Byron Bay. So, um, To go back in track, I had all of my 20s on Lord Howe Island as a dive instructor running dive businesses on Lord Howe Island. Then I had a very hard decision towards the end of that 10-year period of what do I do? Do I stay here forever or do I leave? I rolled the dice and left and got work in the super yacht industry, which was basically like expedition vessels for very wealthy clientele. I thought, um, that I had a pretty good, but I didn't realize I had fantastic. So I basically, um, my job was a private dive guide for super yachts. So I was in charge of mapping itineraries for, for diving, um, locations all over the world for guests that will come on board. And I did that for the best part of my thirties as well for another 10 years. So, um, and that has brought me into now my forties and basically doing a little bit of everything, which is continuing on with, um, diving, but in different many shapes and forms. Photography has always been the vehicle that has taken me around the world with diving. Continuing on with freelance photography, I've just branched into authoring. I've just released my first book, which is a big achievement for myself, I feel. Also, raising a small family. I'm doing a bit of everything at the moment.
SPEAKER_02:I think it's a big achievement for anybody to write a book. Yours is It's such a great book. It's Ultimate Dive Sites by Hardy Grant. That's pretty much what we're going to focus on today. It's the best places to dive around the world. I'm going to say this before we kick into it because I have dived. Bizarrely, the first place I dived was in Turkey and the other people in the group with me didn't know how to swim. It was like, that's okay. It's got to be shallow. I don't know how that happens, but anyway. So you have those pivotal moments, as you say, and I was like, do I continue diving or do I stay as a snorkeler? And I'm quite a keen snorkeler. So I'm going to every now and then pull you up and say, incredible location. Can I snorkel and see what you're seeing when you're diving? So I think that brings more into the dive family by having a bit of a snorkel in there as well, too. Because everybody's got different skills, haven't they?
SPEAKER_00:100%. Yeah. Well, going back to writing the book, I found it very, to me, initially, it was very important to kind of cover all bases for the audience. And that meant addressing scuba divers primarily, maybe, but then also snorkeling and freediving. And we also touched on submersibles, which was a different sort of drastic genre in itself, the world of diving. But yeah, Yeah, you can't take anything away from snorkeling. I think we all start out snorkeling and we all decide if we want to go further or deeper. And if we don't want to, it's perfectly fine because, yeah, I think snorkeling, free diving, it's, yeah, it's a very special way of discovering the ocean.
SPEAKER_02:Well, we're just lucky that we've got your lens to take us down deeper where I can't, where I can't take my snorkel. So now I'm going to pick your brains about the best places to dive slash snorkel. And, um, and why you love that destination. So, I mean, as you said, you're currently in Cairns. You've been working on the Great Barrier Reef as well as seeing family this week. So let's start with your favorite Australian dive locations.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, let's jump into it. Okay, so domestically, probably we'll start with the Great Barrier Reef where we are right now. We all know the Great Barrier Reef. It's great for a reason, for many different reasons. But what I find so special about the Great Barrier Reef is its diversity in a sense of how large it is. And what that means is kind of like that this ecosystem changes drastically as you've traveled north or south. So starting all the way up close to Papua New Guinea, running all the way down to, let's say, Yipoon area, the Southern Great Barrier Reef raging all the way up to the Northern Great Barrier Reef. it changes dramatically. So where I am right now in Cairns and probably an area that I'm most familiar with is the far North grey bear reef. And that runs into like a group of, um, reefs called the ribbon reefs and also the coral sea. Uh, so, uh, I have a wonderful childhood that started out diving up here with family, holding onto my dad's shoulders as we snorkeled together on the reef when I was probably, I don't know, let's make this up, maybe five or six years old. Very young numbers, but yeah, I'm very partial to the Great Barrier Reef. I think it's incredibly special. And it's just like, we all know how well it is on a world stage, but I think as a As Australians, we kind of forget that this is really like an incredible asset and it's full of life and it changes dramatically the more you travel. So it's very, on that note, it's very hard to generalize as well about the Great Barrier Reef. We just talk about one thing, but my favorite region is the far northern Great Barrier Reef.
SPEAKER_02:And what are you going there to see in particular?
SPEAKER_00:As you move further north, the species become more tropical. That kind of means that you lose that southern influence. But we have everything here from beautiful corals to pelagic marine life as well. At the moment, we have minke whales, which are off the coast here in wintertime. That's very special. And then... Yeah. And then there's, it's kind of the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef is that anything can happen kind of vibe. So wonderful shark life, really good coral diving, healthy fish stocks as well. So yeah, and it's accessible to all divers as well, whether it be snorkeling, freediving or scuba diving.
SPEAKER_02:Brilliant. So that's a great one to start off with. Where else would you rate around Australia?
UNKNOWN:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, okay. We've got lots to choose from. Let's go directly across the coast to the west coast. Ningaloo is another famous national or probably world famous dive location that gets talked about a lot. That varies a bit from the Great Barrier Reef because it's accessibility. As you know, it's right there on the coast. You have this wonderful mixture of desert meets the reef life, whereas Ningaloo The Great Barrier Reef is further offshore here in North Queensland. But in your Exmouth sort of region or Coral Bay sort of region, you have the Ningaloo Reef, which is basically desert lagoon reef. So it's very accessible. You can snorkel straight off the beach. So accessibility is a huge kind draw card for the thinning glue but also what's probably more attractive to me is they tend to get larger megafauna that's more um more seen on in the minglu reef so we've got stuff like large mantas uh wow sharks in season that you probably know all about um humpback whales as well um large tiger sharks so dugongs it goes on so you probably got that sort of draw a card with a large megaphone and more so than the Great Barrier Reef. So yeah, it's attractive because of its accessibility and probably large stuff as well.
SPEAKER_02:That's interesting. You're saying, I mean, the small tropical fish, incredibly beautiful there, the giants over in WA. But I have to say, when we were doing a prep on this one, thank you for making me look up, we're going to go minuscule now, the difference between... leafy sea dragons and weedy sea dragons. And that gives you your third destination that you would have recommended as a place to dive or snorkel.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, good one. So in a part of the world that I was never sort of traditionally familiar with, but I've really enjoyed discovering it, is the southern waters, the southern temperate waters of South Australia. So there's a few locations. But the location that I feature in the book is Rapid Bay, which is on the Florian Peninsula, just south of Adelaide. And the reason I feature that location is because of the leafy sea dragons. So South Australia is actually... interesting enough has a lot of jetty diving there so a lot of shore diving so that's a really good point for accessibility um and underneath a lot of these structures you tend to have an incredible unique marine life and the leafy sea dragon is um is one of those species that i kind of always wanted to photograph and spend time with very elusive very camouflaged so um hard to come across and it's one of those sort of enjoyable dives for me where you just have to get in the water go very slow be very careful not you know disturbing the bottom topography and just try to have your eyes tuned into finding leafy sea dragons we're typically talking probably 10 centimeters a little bit more in length 15 centimeters no more sorry sorry 15 to 20 centimeters in length but they look like they have these wonderful appendages of like sort of a leafy structure which by no coincidence looks exactly the same as all the seaweed behind them so yeah Beautiful. Very tricky to pass. Yeah, the first few dives I did actually, yeah, I couldn't see any, but luckily I had a very good guide with me and he was like, right there, right there. I was like, I still can't see it, still can't see it. And then all of a sudden it moved a little bit differently to the way that that kelp was moving. And that's another thing, when you're looking for leafy sea dragons, the kelp has this lovely sort of hypnotizing sort of sway to it. Yeah. You get lost in the moment of staring at the ground, looking for leafy sea dragons, but also the swaying. Yeah, so... I'm getting carried away there, but the southern reefs are very special of South Australia. Obviously, as you branch further to other regions, you have bigger stuff like sea lions, great white sharks as well off Neptune, the Neptune Islands off Port Lincoln as well. I highly recommend discovering the southern waters of Australia. Understandably, the northern tropical waters have a lot more attention, but down south is absolutely spectacular.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, and I guess different times of the year also, you know, people are travelling to different parts of Australia as well. And I think South Australia is just so exciting. I love the idea that you can... But they do gather, like especially the sea dragons gather around the piers because they do that in Port Phillip Bay as well. And I think David Attenborough had stepped in at one point when there was talk of replacing one of the piers down on the Mornington to Nutella because it's such a, like literally you jump in the waters and there's just these beautiful little multicoloured weedy sea dragons, possibly easier to see. There's even the leafy ones. That sounds kind of tricky. And the fact that you're photographing them, you know, you've got to get the ultimate shot for them. Must make you a very patient man, I think, folks. more than me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think so. I think so.
SPEAKER_02:Absolutely. But then going overseas, I don't think we're going back into the mega fauna here too. So if you had to pick, right, because we asked the hard questions here, if you had to pick your top three international dive sites, where would you be sending us?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, Belinda, it's a difficult question because I wrote a book on it and there's 50 locations in the book. So it's how do I pull out some favorites? Obviously, I have a lot of personal favorites there, but a few locations that I have returned to in the past 12 months actually is my favorite. touch on those is Palau and Micronesia. I have been numerous times, but I returned recently within the past two years or so to do some research on the book when we were putting it together and totally fell in love with it again. I think the first thing that I was wrapped with was the close proximity to Australia. They actually had direct flights from Brisbane only a few months ago. I'm not sure if they're still running. I think Qantas might have taken it over. You may know more on that than I do, but I loved it. I mean, it went from having to go through Guam and then overnight to immediately six hours direct from Brisbane. So that was amazing. Plough is incredibly special. It's led the way for many years in conservation, in marine conservation. And what you have is this ecosystem that's sort of been protected for generations, for like 20 years or so. And you can see the results, which is awesome. Plough diving is very, very varied, but at its roots, it's tropical coral diving. There is numerous shipwrecks throughout the island chain as well because of their large involvement in World War II. There's jellyfish lakes as well, which is very special. But the reason I love Palau so much is because they have these large sporting events. And surrounding the sporting events is basically like you have a few different species of sort of coral fish like your gropers. And they have large sporting events that sort of work around the new moon and the full moon. So that means every two weeks you have a sporting event basically. And it's just this huge aggregation of species coming together, the releasing of eggs, predators, everything. So you can dive the lead up to the spawning events. If you're lucky enough, you can see the spawning in action. And if you're even lucky, you can kind of see the anarchy of what happens when a lot of food is released in one small area as well. And that's always a lot of fun. I really enjoy kind of going to locations now. to kind of score sort of um or experience large um marine events whether it be migratory events or spawning events and stuff like that so yeah it makes it all the worthwhile if you're there at the right moment at the right time so that's plow i would highly recommend checking it out um what else uh i returned to tonga last year in the south pacific and that Yeah, that was another easy, quite relatively easy, accessible trip from Australia, just going through, I think there's direct flights from Sydney and Melbourne maybe, but there's also, you can go through New Zealand quite easily as well. But that surrounded the whale migration, which takes place in the winter months, the humpback whale migration. And there's arguably no better place in the world to experience some. Hoppock whales in extremely clear water, in sheltered waters as Tonga. So you have these amazing experiences. Basically, the female whales are nurturing calves there or they're giving birth to calves. It just sort of depends of where they are in their cycle. And there's incredible heat runs where males are competing for the attention of females as well. So It's spectacular sort of South Pacific living. It's incredibly clear water and it's huge megafauna being, or cetaceans being, these lovely humpback whales up close. And yeah, and it's snorkeling. It's actually no scuba diving allowed and no free diving in recent years has sort of been banned as well. They want divers just to stay calm, stay still on the surface of the water, which is fantastic because it's less interaction, less... less interrupting of the whale's behaviour and it's also more accessible to everybody.
SPEAKER_02:Tonga is an interesting one because it does allow you to snorkel near halves, which I think is something that Australia has actually stepped back from. Australia is far younger, the whale swim industry is a lot younger in Australia than it is in Tonga.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think definitely we come from the land of regulations in Australia. So there's a lot of rules here and in many cases rightfully so. The quick sort of answers or takeaways in that is that a lot of the whales in Australia are migratory. They're still on their way further north. So And if they are still and resting, it doesn't mean they're actually staying in that location for a long period of time. They're probably resting before they can continue to move on. So whereas in Vivao, in Tonga, you really just have a scenario where the whales have arrived at their resting place, they've arrived in their location, and they're staying put. The good thing about Tonga is it's a very sleepy part of the South Pacific, but they are sort of regulating at a good pace as well and that's where this has come in recently with the whole snorkeling only and no diving and you have the wonderful guidance of the Tongan locals who you always have to have a Tongan guide in the water and they take it very seriously in sort of having the right sort of interactions And you don't want to annoy or disappoint a large Tongan because they take it very seriously, which is awesome.
SPEAKER_02:What a great guardian to have. And your third international destination for diving and or snorkeling?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Let's stay in the South Pacific and go to Vanuatu, which is a very special location for me. I sort of My diving journey started quite early in Vanuatu. I did learn to dive in Australia, but the first overseas location that I went to work was when I turned 20. I went to Vanuatu and started diving on a shipwreck called the Coolidge, which is in Santo, the most northern island of Vanuatu. Once again, the South Pacific had heavy involvement in World War II, and there's a lot of shipwrecks there, but there's a very famous shipwreck called the President Coolidge. that shipwreck was coming into one of its channels in Santo and it actually hit one of its own mines and ran aground and basically beached itself on the coast there. Then everybody bar one person, I think the captain actually, and another sailor, I've just gone blank on that, but I think one or two people died in the accident. It then slid back, fell over to its port side and slid back into the water. So you have this incredible 200-meter ship, which I'll touch on in a second, resting in 20 meters of water all the way down to its stern in 70 meters of water. So it's no small claim at this one. It's scuba diving, but it's deep diving too, which is awesome and very unique. The amazing thing about the shipwreck is that actually during World War II, the U.S. ran out of, battleships and they started taking on their cruise liners and so they modified this cruise liner so what you have is the best of both worlds you have like a traditional cruise liner that's then been modified into a battleship so you have everything from sort of swimming pools to mosaics and what not to machine guns and cargo hulls and everything like that so that's and that's all accessible basically you walk off a good 20-30 meters off the beach and you have the bow of a ship In 20 meters, it runs down to 70 meters. That's 200 meters long. And I could talk about that forever. You can do many, many dives on that wreck and not see it all. So it's absolutely spectacular.
SPEAKER_02:Who knew that they ran out of warships? Quite an end, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, when drastic times call for drastic measures, I guess.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, absolutely. I love that you've mixed the destinations with the size of of, um, animals that you're seeing. And then also, um, great wreck diving sites as well. So I wanted to ask you, you know, because you're, you know, you're primarily, um, you know, your underwater photography is, is astonishing. And, um, and if anyone's following, wants to follow it along, I would encourage them to go to your website, which we'll put a link in the show notes, because I love how you write the story behind the shot as well. Like your, would it be right in saying your orca shots are pretty much your signature? shots from the arctic i mean they you know and and you're talking about uh so on your website you're talking about the gale force arctic winds the minus 15 degrees temperatures the last day of sunlight before the polar night starts i mean be still my beating heart this is you know this is this is phenomenal so i want to ask you where is the next place that you're traveling to for work
SPEAKER_00:You've just nailed it perfectly. Actually, in November, I'm returning to the Arctic, which is very special. I had a moment in time where my profession for a long period was basically taking private clientele to experience what I thought would be and what they thought would be like the highlights of their diving career which always always lend to the question of what's at the top of my list or what's at the top of like what do I want to experience more than anything so yeah many years ago kind of I realized that I really want to be in the water with orcas and I really want to sort of like just get the best from that experience which It led me down a wonderful journey of returning to northern Norway, to the Arctic, for many years in a row. I had a bit of a break there for recent years, but I'm returning for the first time in probably five years, actually, this November, which is fantastic because we're going to do it very differently from past experiences. This time we have a private sailboat, so we're basically just going to be trying to get lost in the fjords of Norway, which is very easy to do. yeah and it's just absolutely for me it's it's just it's my my pinnacle i think being in the water with orcas um is mind-blowing you get a very quick sense of their intelligence in the water more so than any other species i've ever come across before um the interactions are amazing the whole environment itself as you touched on is it's freezing it's cold But there's a real magic about it too because it's very fairytale-like because here you are within the Arctic Circle, which means that in that month of November, December, when we tend to go, the sun's in its last moments. So you have like a sunset period, which is kind of last. I think the days are like five, six hours long at that time of year. But the sun never really rises too much above the horizon. So you have like a lovely... pastel light environment all day long. That's if it's not stormy and rough and out of control. But yeah, the whole experience is mind-blowing and I'm really excited to return back to Norway. And it's kind of, in a way, as I touched on before, that it did shape my life and I'm really excited to return to somewhere that was so pivotal and changed my life in many wonderful ways.
SPEAKER_02:Just astonishing. You never feel like I guess, you know, they're so big, you never feel, well, you would feel dwarfed by just their size, as you say, their intelligence as well. Do you ever feel scared?
SPEAKER_00:Not scared. Dwarfed, yes. I think straight away you tend to get taken back by the large size of orcas. Sometimes in your head you might think, oh, they look like a dolphin or that kind of size, but they're much, much bigger than a dolphin, particularly the males. The males have this wonderful large dorsal fin, which is almost like a sail. It's a very sharp, triangular, tall dorsal fin. Scared? No. It's more of just an appreciation of their intelligence. I think straight away, I realized that I'm not supposed to be in the water. They realize that I'm useless. I'm just this big rubber thing. rubber man in the water straight away, whereas they're moving elegantly and hunting elegantly and whatnot. And I'm just kind of like doing my best to keep up. No, I feel very safe straight away, which is a comforting feeling.
SPEAKER_02:It just sounds absolutely fascinating. So now I will ask you your dream destination that you have not been to yet. I mean, you spend a lot of time in the Antarctic, sorry, in the Arctic. Is there a place that you... that's always been there that you it's going to be the pinnacle of what you can never tell it until you get there and under the water but yeah
SPEAKER_00:sure
SPEAKER_02:what's the place you're definitely
SPEAKER_00:yeah that's a good question i think i think the dream locations for me these days are places that i've tried to get to but repetitively have been stopped going to stopped from being able to go there maybe it's weather or travel plans have changed or whatever because then it becomes a a personal mission of like, am I ever going to get to this place or am I ever going to experience this? And in your mind the whole time you still keep painting a picture of how good it must be because you just can't get there. And probably the first one that comes up is the Baja Peninsula of Mexico. Mexico is actually an incredible driving destination that I've featured quite a bit in my book because you have two coastlines. You have the Caribbean side and also the Pacific side. There's a lot of amazing diving on both coasts. On the Pacific side, there's the Sea of Cortez as well, but the Baja Peninsula actually has a few locations there. In recent years, it's gained a little bit more traction because they have a sardine run, which is a migration of a food source that comes up and down along the coasts. And with that comes a large thrive of predators. And in particular, in this case, it's striped marlin and sailfish. So you have, it's like fast diving. You're jumping in and out of boats. You're following birds, which are following bait balls. You're in this amazing sort of landscape of Southern Mexico. So yeah, it's somewhere that I've been trying to get to. I think I've had three trips that have kind of happened. just not happen for me, which is okay because I know that I'm going to get there. But to experience the Magladenna Bay is the area I'm talking about in particular, Mag Bay they call it, Magladenna. To experience the sort of striped marlin and selfish of Mag Bay would be fantastic and I'm sure I'll get there eventually.
SPEAKER_02:That's your Shangri-La. Okay, brilliant. And And I'm going to take you to the end. Then the question that we ask all of our guests, and I cannot even guess what you're going to tell me for this one. What is your most bizarre travel experience?
SPEAKER_00:Far out. Bizarre. Okay. Well, yeah, I'm not sure if it's bizarre. It's probably more shocking and memorable. When I was 19, I was left at sea for decades. a very long period, probably, probably over 12 hours, um, in, in, uh, on a diving, diving, uh, trip, um, in Borneo, um, off, um, an island called Sipadan. So I was only 19, which was my saving grace in, in, in reflection, because I think I was young enough to see it as a wild adventure more so than, oh my God, I'm not going to make it kind of experience. Um, But yeah, basically we did, without going into too much detail, there's a really good story in the book, which goes into great detail about the story. But did a morning dive and got picked up on sunset. So jumped in the water at dawn and got picked up at sunset. And that involved us doing a drift dive, which was, we jumped in the water and typically on a drift dive, back in the day when lures were probably a bit more laxed, you'd say, okay, after one hour, we're going to resurface and the boat might be following your bubbles. That might be the typical relaxed version of how a drift dive works. So after one hour, we'll see you on the surface. So after one hour, we surfaced with no boat in sight. The boat drifted in another direction. We drifted in another direction. Very quickly, the island that we were diving next to, or within... on the horizon disappeared because we were just got sucked out to sea. And, um, as I said, it was probably, I was young enough to see it as a big adventure. And also the other interesting point was it was only me and two others, um, a young dive, sorry, my, my dad's best friend. So, uh, a Malaysian gentleman. Um, so he didn't dive very regularly. So straight away, I felt a responsibility to look after him. and also a young Malaysian Borneo dive guide who would have been younger than me and was freaking out from the moment, from the get-go. So my saving grace was I was kind of thrown into a position of responsibility and looking after everybody. And yeah, we got picked up on dust by local fishermen who had heard that we were missing and were looking for a reward. That's my crazy story. I'm not sure if that's what you're asking for. But yeah, very eventful, very memorable. And I'm lucky that happened 20 years ago and not recently because I probably would have felt a lot different about it if it happened recently.
SPEAKER_02:Well, at 19, you're pretty much bulletproof anyway.
SPEAKER_00:That's it. That's it. I think at 19, you're like far out. I've got a good story to tell from this one. More so than like, am I ever going to see my kids again?
SPEAKER_02:Well, yeah, I'm glad. Well, I'm probably happy that your mum found out later on as well. It was so great to have you, to hear all of your incredible stories. I cannot urge people strongly enough to go to your website and look at some of the results of your many, many years spent underwater. The photography, your photography is absolutely beautiful. and completely inspiring as well. So thank you for joining us on The World Awakes.
SPEAKER_00:Thank you, Belinda. It was lovely. Thanks so much for having me.
SPEAKER_01:That was underwater photographer Todd Simeos sharing with Belle his favourite dive locations in Australia and around the world. Todd's book Ultimate Dive Sites is out now and he's speaking at the Go Diving Show at the Sydney Showgrounds on the 6th and 7th of September and you can see more inspirational ocean photography at his website which is simeos.com and we'll put a link to that in the show notes.
SPEAKER_02:Our tip this week is about how you can save hundreds or even thousands of dollars when you travel. And let's face it, who doesn't want to do that? So Southern Cross Travel Insurance's most recent Future of Travel report shows that 76% of Aussies claim that travel insurance is a high priority when booking international travel, but only 41% had the same sentiment when it comes to booking a domestic getaway.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and I've been guilty of that for sure. So Southern Cross Travel Insurance Chief Customer Officer Jess Strange says there's a lot of commentary out there that domestic travel insurance doesn't stack up and many Aussies don't believe they actually need it when they're travelling domestically because they're covered under Medicare and we also all assume nothing's going to happen when you're travelling domestically, right? But many travellers don't take into account the amount of money they actually might lose if the trip's cancelled and due to also unexpected medical situations. So I guess as you get older, that's one to watch.
SPEAKER_02:They had a couple of case studies. They said in one instance, a customer who had to cancel a trip for the family of four due to a bad case of gastro, quite to say it must have been a bad case, was able to claim back more than$28,000 worth of expenses. I mean, that had some big ticket items in that. That was a trip on the Indian Pacific Railway, a cruise on Margaret River, and a visit to Rottnest Island. So, you know, this is a big spending holiday. And they only got it back because they'd taken out a domestic travel insurance policy.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, my God. Can you imagine having gastro on an airplane toilet? How small those toilets are? And how would you... And imagine, like, having... The embarrassment associated with running to a tiny toilet and coming in and out with the smell that you'd be leaving behind. Well, I was actually
SPEAKER_02:thinking of having gastro on the train and then having gastro on the cruise and having gastro, actually having gastro anywhere would be phenomenal. I think there's always somebody on long-haul flights with gastro. I've just got a sneaking suspicion. Judging from my constipation.
SPEAKER_01:Sorry, bad. There's nothing worse. I mean, on a plane, there's nothing worse. But anyway, so Southern Cross says, given the high costs of domestic flights and accommodation in Australia, the average cost of domestic planes can sometimes exceed the average planes cost for international trips. And the moral of the story, it's just not worth taking the risk to end up hundreds or thousands of dollars out of pocket, even when you're traveling domestically.
SPEAKER_02:And they say, many people might not know, another tip, everybody, is that purchasing domestic travel insurance policies essentially reduces your rental vehicle excess to zero or almost zero. So you don't have to take out that, you know, the insurance that they're lobbying on, which can add, you know,$20,$30 a day to your car. However, you are still liable for an excess, which is the maximum amount you would have to pay in the event of damage or theft. And domestic cover also covers cancellations outside your control, such as falling ill before you head off to ski in Perisher for a week. And to date, in 2025, it has paid out more than$43,000 in rental car excess claims for customers.
SPEAKER_01:So maybe reconsider insurance when you travel domestically, unless you have gastro. Next week, I'm chatting to Chelsea Ross, the founder of Bali-based Goddess Retreats, dedicated to empowering women through travel. Chelsea launched the world's first luxury surf and yoga retreat exclusively for women, and she gives us some insider tips into the best places in Bali for a women-only getaway and explains how the industry has changed and why after a women's only retreat, you'll see it as the only way to travel.
SPEAKER_02:And we would love it if you followed us on socials. You'll find us at The World Awaits podcast on Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. And feel free to drop us a line at Hello at The World Awaits. Or if you're enjoying this episode, give us a rating or a review. That's a wrap for The World Awaits this week. Click to subscribe anywhere you listen to your favourite pods. Thanks for listening. See you next week.
