Gyula Plaganyi has encountered a few great white sharks in the past year. Still, he prefers to dive without a cage. More than most jobs, wild abalone harvesting calls for an acute awareness of yourself and your surrounds, and Plaganyi trusts his instincts. He takes keen notice of seals and how other animals are acting in the water, and uses their movement to sense if a shark is around. He also relies on his small crew, which accompanies him out on the water. His team keeps him safe and keeps loneliness at bay. Diving can be an isolating job, so the crew plays an important role in providing company and support. It’s cold from the moment they wake up in their tents, to when they dive into the middle of the ocean. Watch the video above to see the passion Plaganyi has for understanding himself, which keeps him safe in the water. This video is produced in partnership with Asahi Super Dry.

The waterfalls and fern-laden forests are stunning, but wading through the freezing, leech-infested winter waters must be a turn-off. Not for Chris Hood, one of the only jewellers in Australia who not only finds the gems, but also makes the jewellery they are set in. Hood has been making jewellery since he was 15 years old. Fascinated by gemstones, he looks for sapphires in the forests of north-east Tasmania by hand-mining in isolated areas. His precise planning helps him to work out where these deep-blue jewels are located. The beauty of finding a sapphire shining in the sunlight fuels his passion and helps him brave low temperatures in nothing but a wetsuit. We’re familiar with the concept of “paddock to plate”, and Hood says that, in a similar way, what he does is “mine to market”. Hood polishes the rough sapphires and sets them in silver and gold at his store in Hobart. Sometimes he even takes couples mining to find the perfect jewel for their bespoke creation, which is a particular source of pride. Watch the video above to see the passion Hood has for finding sapphires and turning them into jewellery. This video is produced in partnership with Asahi Super Dry.

Not many people call bees “gentle” and “delicate.” Chris Kowalski does. And he believes it. Kowalski rescues hives around Melbourne, and often handles them without a beekeeping suit. Bees play a vital role in our food systems, pollinating one-third of everything we eat. Kowalski is keenly aware of this. He keeps beehives in places such as churches, schools and hotels around Melbourne and builds beehives with recycled timber. It’s a completely sustainable cycle, that’s also a high-quality one: the honey and honeycomb he harvests ends up in restaurants such as Cumulus Inc. and high-end stores such as Spring Street Grocer. In this video, we see Kowalski’s passion for bees and how he applies it to the entire process, from building the hive to delivering the honey.

It’s not easy growing green tea. Some nights, Will Leckey sleeps in a swag next to his crop to check his sprinkler system is working properly. They’re usually the coldest nights of the year, as frost can ruin his whole crop. Leckey’s farm is in north-east Victoria, which is at the same latitude as the tea-growing region in Japan. Initally, growing green tea in Australia was a risky experiment. Leckey didn’t know if all the time and effort he ploughed into it would pay off, but he now produces a green tea of consistent quality each harvest under the Two Rivers Green Tea label. Watch the video above for the story behind Leckey’s farm and the pride he takes in his crops. This video is produced in partnership with Asahi Super Dry.

According to Nicola Scaife, hot air ballooning is quite simple. Easy for her to say – she’s currently the women’s world champion in the sport. Unlike planes with their endless instruments and gigantic engines, in a balloon, it’s just the pilot and the elements. While floating leisurely through the clouds is a passion of Scaife’s, the actual sport is an exercise in precision. It’s not a race to get somewhere first; you need to fly to an exact point in space, which requires looking at precise coordinates and altitude. Scaife sees ballooning bring so much joy to people when they experience it for the first time. Sharing this experience is what she’s passionate about. Watching the video, you can see why. This video is produced in partnership with Asahi Super Dry.