A short history of the world's fastest-growing water sport — and how it washed up on our shores.
A few seasons ago, something surreal started happening. Some of the biggest names in professional mermaiding — people with millions of followers, headline performers on the other side of the world — began getting sent here, to us, to dive our water.
Yingtao Lei — China's number one across both the competitions and the performance circuit, and known to his followers as Merman Cherry, in a country where mermaiding is genuinely enormous — has been in our magic dive spots. So has Brandee Anthony — the Vero Beach Mermaid — widely regarded as America's number one professional mermaid, resident mermaid at a luxury Florida resort, with over two million followers and a career that helped shape the modern mermaid certification programme itself.
When the best in the world fly across the planet to swim in your backyard, you pay attention. It was an honour hosting them. It was also a wake-up call: New Zealand is sitting on some of the most spectacular mermaid diving conditions on Earth, and almost nobody here knows this sport exists yet.
Wait — mermaiding is a sport?
It is, and a serious one. Mermaiding sits somewhere between freediving and dance: one breath, no tank, legs bound together in a monofin tail, moving through the water with your whole body like a dolphin. It looks effortless. It is not. That's rather the point.
Over the past decade it's become formally standardised worldwide, with certification ladders, instructor pathways, world championships drawing competitors from dozens of countries, and professional performers working aquariums, resorts, film sets, and brand campaigns.
And then there's China, where mermaiding didn't grow — it detonated. When formal mermaid courses launched there, they made up nearly a third of all new dive certifications within months. A hundred-plus certified mermaids performed a choreographed routine in a resort lagoon and set a Guinness World Record for the largest underwater mermaid show. Industry leaders there describe it, without exaggeration, as having taken off like wildfire.
Out of that entire scene — the millions of views, the packed aquarium shows, the national competitions — one performer sits at the top. That's Yingtao Lei. And when China's number one wanted wild water worth crossing an ocean for, he came here.
New Zealand? We're coming to this party fashionably late. But we're arriving with something nobody else has: water the rest of the world gets on a plane for.
How it found me
I've been a professional diver for 25 years, across 45 countries. I became New Zealand's first female Freediving Instructor Trainer — the top of the certification ladder — which means my actual job is teaching the teachers.
But honestly? When you're a diver with three daughters, mermaiding isn't a leap — it's a natural progression. That's where it began for me: the girls, the tails, our own water. That was number one. I wasn't looking for anything more than that. And then I found myself hosting some of the best mermaids in the world in our dive spots, watching what happened to the grown women I put in a tail for the first time — and I stopped laughing at it and started taking it very seriously.
Because here's what I saw, over and over: a woman in her forties who hasn't done anything just for herself in fifteen years puts on a tail, takes one slow breath, slips under — and comes up different. Softer and stronger at the same time. It's not about doing more. Heaven knows we're all doing enough. It's about being, for a moment. Weightless. Quiet. In touch with an inner diva who's been waiting patiently behind the to-do lists this whole time.
The camera happens to love that moment. That's why every experience we run comes with photos — not as a product, but as proof. Middle-aged and feeling beautiful is not a contradiction. It's the whole point.
Where this is heading
Mermaid Aotearoa is building the full ladder here in New Zealand — from first-time mermaids to underwater models and underwater dancers, right through to certified mermaid instructors, a level nobody else in the country is qualified to deliver.
This winter and spring we're taking it on the road: Auckland, Wellington, and Queenstown. Keep an eye out for some of your favourite luxury spots and accommodation — we'll announce venues as they're confirmed, right here first.
The world's best mermaids already know about New Zealand's water. Now it's your turn.
Sessions are running in the Bay of Islands this July — details on our bookings page. Or join the list and we'll tell you when we're coming to your city.