Do not be alarmed if you see an oyster or flamingo at Moana Pool over the next three days - it will just be a part of the national synchronised swimming championships.
About 80 competitors from as far away as Auckland are in Dunedin for the meet, and will be performing such moves as the oyster, flamingo, water wheel and tub.
Former Dunedin woman Jo Burns (nee Carroll), who now lives in Havelock North, will be judging the competitors.
The 38-year-old grew up in Dunedin and attended Queen's High School as a teenager, before going on to earn a bachelor of education degree at the University of Otago.
She spent ''a lot'' of time at Moana Pool when she lived here and represented Otago and New Zealand in synchronised swimming.
However, when university commitments took over, she decided to branch out and get into coaching and judging.
''It meant I could stay in the sport but not have the commitment of training all the time. I've probably been judging for about 15 years,'' she said.
Burns, who teaches at Havelock North Primary School, left Dunedin in 2001 and has not been back to visit for five years.
Since leaving, she has worked her way up through the judging ranks and is now the only A-ranked judge in New Zealand and Australia.
Judging has taken her around the world, including Germany, France and the United States and she has also judged at the Commonwealth Games and world championships.
She is highly rated and, just two weeks ago, found out she was on the judging panel for next year's Rio Olympics.
Burns said she was ''really excited'' about the opportunity and was planning to judge some other international events before hand to make sure she was prepared.
''It's pretty hard, because it's quite a subjective sport,'' she said.
''But you have to forget all that and look at all the technical aspects of it and really think what the athletes are achieving in the water and whether that fits on the marking scale.
''It's quite a big job, because you have got to reward the athletes for what they do well, but you have to put it into perspective with the whole range of athletes [competing].''
Burns is looking forward to seeing how our best swimmers are progressing at Moana Pool over the next three days, and said the sport was only getting better in New Zealand.
The biggest contingent of swimmers is from Invercargill (38), while North Harbour (32) has also sent a large team.
Tauranga, Christchurch, and New Caledonia have also sent swimmers. Brianna Westgate (8) is the sole Dunedin competitor.
Competition starts at 9am today with the figures competition, before the open technical solo at 3pm.
