Amber Jones and Riley Elliott are storytellers and kind humans. Protectors of sharks and other wild, ocean-dwelling things. They move through their days with salty hair and grace; surfing world-class beachies with their mates, spearfishing for dinner, free-diving in impossibly turquoise waters, and sharing a powerful story of hope and conservation through their photography, science and film.
The couple live with doggo Kona in two tiny handmade houses, lodged high on the volcanic slopes of Mount Paku on the Coromandel Peninsula. Each morning, they wake up to the dreamy blues and greens of the Pacific, the jagged geography of the Alderman Islands, shimmering way out there on the horizon.
“Life in Tairua is definitely life in the slow lane,” says Amber. “We’ve got chickens, vegetable gardens, our dog, and we’re…