''I've been thinking about diving in the Antarctic probably since I was 18 or 19. It's an amazing opportunity,'' the University of Otago dive officer said yesterday, before a three-week trip to the Ross Ice Shelf.
There, she will supervise four diving scientists in a team researching the importance of sea ice micro-organisms as a food source for marine life, including seals and penguins, in the Ross Sea.
Ms Brunton (46), who is also the manager of Community College Dunedin, is heading to Christchurch today before flying tomorrow to the Antarctic with University of Otago marine science professor Stephen Wing (who will be diving), marine science students Kate Sparks and Rebecca McMullin, and American scientists and divers Sal Genovese, James Leichter and Dale Stokes.
With the support of Antarctic NZ and the United States Antarctic Programme, which is providing dive huts, field-tested gear, tank fills and technical support, the research group will be based at Scott Base and make up to 30 dives through ice holes in McMurdo Sound.
The -2degC water temperature will be quite a change for Ms Brunton, who recently returned from a personal trip to dive in the Galapagos and Cocos Islands, where the water averaged about 26degC.
There she found herself face to face with 12m-long whale sharks, but divers were more likely to be confronted with seals or translucent bright blue fish in the Antarctic, she said.
''I can't wait to see the crazy fish and stuff under there. People think the water is barren, but it's teeming with life and the visibility is amazing, with 100 to 200m visibility horizontally.''
While she will do some diving, as the group's dive supervisor her job would mostly be on the surface, managing the logistics and safety of each dive.
Safety was the overriding concern while diving through holes in the ice, and Ms Brunton, who has 30 years' diving experience, including as a former manager at Dive Otago, a dive instructor for 15 years and a trainer of dive instructors, had completed several ice dives in Lake Alta, in the Remarkables, in preparation.
