To garden or swim with fish
W
hen Norwegian Cille Fabert came to a career crossroads in London in 2002, she was putting her business and marketing degree to good use working in the British television media. But it was time for a change and Cille says after much deliberation it came down to two things, gardening or swimming with fish. It took a few more years of travelling the globe however before that dream, the one about swimming with fish was realised here in New Zealand. A keen scuba diver since the age of 10, she went to Spain to get her scuba diving instructors licence and then spent the next few years travelling the world teaching the skill in exotic places like the Maldives and the Caribbean, before discovering the clear blue waters of the Bay of Plenty. Here in the Bay of Plenty with its plentiful wild marine life, she finally started swimming with fish.
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Living the dream Today Cilla Fabert’s the owner, skipper, crew, boat fixer and marketer of the Guardian, a 40ft catamaran built as a viewing boat for The Americas Cup in the late 1980's. Guardian is now a surveyed dolphin boat and has been plying the Bay of Plenty waters for the last 20 years. Cille started working on the Guardian for Dolphin Seafaris in Tauranga in 2018 and loved it so much she bought the business and the boat a year later. During lockdown, she got her skipper's licence and started living the dream.
Swimming with Dolphins In the busy summer months, Cille takes Dolphin Seafaris ecotours out daily.