Shark Cage Diving!

Yes, this is a picture taken by my own hand! Ever since I was a small boy, sharks have fascinated me. One of my oldest bucket list items was cage diving with white sharks, of which you see the best result now.

Before you start worrying, this is the worst example of how the shark actually behaved! So let me elaborate on how this came to occur... I took this picture at Stewart Island, the third largest island of New Zealand, home to the newest known large population of white sharks. The sharks are not fed by the tour, but lured with a small piece of fish. We still needed to wait an hour for the shark to turn up, but when it did, we were lucky enough to be accompanied by this 5 m long male white shark.

The shark came from below and tried to take a bite of the fish, but the tour operator pulled it out of the water before it was close enough. The shark then felt back into the water, with its head towards the cage. I was standing just at the point where the nose (and mouth!) of the shark fell in the cage, which gave me the opportunity to make this wonderful picture! Loved it, would do it again any day! Most awesome thing I did in NZ!