To Ellis Emmett, the world is an adventure playground, above and below the water. He talks to Joanna Wayne about becoming Aotearoa’s answer to Jacques Cousteau. But for a man who’s ventured into some of the most exotic parts of the world, Ellis is still a country boy at heart.
Scott and Ellis visit South Africa to brave some of the most notorious shark-filled waters in the world. Disaster strikes on what should have been an easy shipwreck dive.
We catch up with Ellis about the South African dive experience.
“Getting the chance to dive amongst a school of 25 – 30 feeding oceanic black tip sharks was one of the highlights of South Africa” says Ellis.
Continuing their Caribbean island hopping, the Descending team comes face to face with the ocean’s largest carnivore in Dominica, and then goes deeper than they ever have before.
We chat to Ellis about their incredible experiences. “Getting the chance to descend below 1,000 ft beneath the ocean’s surface in a submarine was a once in a life time opportunity”.
“On our dive into the deep we not only did we get to see a little part of our planet that no other human being had ever seen before, but we also got the chance to witness fish species that had only just been discovered” he says.
Six homes with stunning gardens will be open to visitors on both Friday and Saturday. One is The Tree House, named for the two massive hardwood tree trunks, rising 9 meters from the lounge floor to support the backbone of the three storied super-structure.
Next on the agenda for Ellis is a sailing adventure series ‘Over the Horizon’ where he, along with director Andre Dupuis, plan to spend 5 years sailing the world, visiting places you can’t buy a ticket to and experiencing cultures that are relatively unknown.
Ellis and Andre recently returned from a 6,000 km sailing expedition into the Central Pacific, where they filmed a pilot for the new show. They encountered humpback whales, long lost shipwrecks, incredible aquatic cave systems and amazing cultures.
We island-hopped throughout the Caribbean in order to try to show off a number of dive flavours.
Each of the islands seem to excel at one type of diving or another. Big fish, wall dives, macro-dives, shipwrecks etc. So we made sure we kept on the move.
A lot of small aircraft flights and a lot of great skippers got us to where we needed to go.
Filming was also planned for Egypt, but although in 2010 the country was still a year away from a violent revolution, a tourism issue nonetheless forced a filming cancellation.
“The Sharm El Sheikh region of Egypt was within our grasp but became unattainable to us right at the last minute,” recalls producer Jeff Wilson: “I had literally just walked out the front door of the Cairo press and television centre having finally secured our permit and received a phone call stating that it had already been revoked. As it happened, a series of shark attacks in the region’s waters had prompted the government to pull the plug on our production.”
Kiwi Ellis Emmett loves a challenge. A self-described “hyperactive daredevil” born and raised in New Zealand, Emmett’s extensive travels have led him to team up with Canadian friends Scott Wilson and Andre Dupuis to film Travel Channel’s underwater adventure series, Descending. SKYWATCH caught up with Emmett to find out what makes him tick.
To celebrate the series premiere of Descending, the brand new diving show on Travel Channel, we’re giving you the chance to dive with sharks in this once-in-a-lifetime trip for two in South Africa.
From a picture of a puddle i your garden, to a tropical underwater snap from your latest holiday, upload your best water-themed picture for your chance to win. The winning entry will be selected by Descending presenters Ellis Emmett and Scott Wilson.
8. Do you have anything else to add?
“It was very important for us in Descending to not only dive the amazing sites around the world in far-off places, but for Ellis and I to dive our homelands and show off just what jewels we have in our own backyards.”
“Ellis was very successful in showing me the wonders underwater in New Zealand, and I wanted to return the favour by showing him some of Canada’s best. You don’t have to jet set to the other side of the world to have an adventure.” says Scott Wilson.
