New Zealand - Swimming with dolphins
Trip Start
Feb 04, 2008
1
6
10
Trip End
Feb 04, 2009
Kaikoura,
New Zealand
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
We were really excited about swimming with the Dolphins, only to find out it was fully booked for the next 3 days, so we put ourselves on there waiting list, feeling a little deflated to say the least!
We only planned to spend 2 nights here but as we were on the waiting list we decided to stay on. As luck would have it, the Dolphin company phoned us on the 2nd day. There were availabilties on the 12.30pm swim, which we heard in Christchurch that it was the worst time to go as the Dolphins are nocturnal
Chavin it up with a VB
! But we took it anyways!It worked out to our advantage because the Dolphins were all over the place & really playful as the guides had come across a new group to the previous 09.30am trip!
As they are totally wild, we were given a few pointers on how to get there attention! These were, diving down with them & mimicking there movements, swimming in circles with them maintaining eye contact (Dizzy work) the last one was mimicking there noises, which was really funny, cos when you stuck your head out of the water all you could hear was everyone trying to make Dolphin noises!
We both had amazing experiences, especially right at the end when we were both last out of the water. We had 3 Dolphins following us right up to the boat!
When we were back on the boat we were told by the guides that a family of Orca (Killer whales) had been spotted, which is a v.rare occurance & probably a once in a lifetime experience. As you can imagine, everyone was excited!
Everyone was told to be on the lookout for them. After about 5mins of looking, Laura spotted a large fin in the distance, so we headed towards it! It turned out to be a family of killer whales, 2 adults & 2 calfs! They were just cruising along, coming up for air every few minutes
Kaikoura
. We got really close to them, truly an amazing sight!We also bumped into 2 girls from Kendal on the Dolphin trip! Small world eh! We later met up for a drink!
Our accomodation was wicked! There was a swimming pool plus 2 massive kitchens & clean towels!
On our last day we decided to take a walk up to the Seal colony that we had previously passed on the bus on the way into town! The walk was a bit longer than we thought! And, as we were both in flip flops, true hikers that we are, the walk took us over 2hrs!
It was worth it cos as soon as we arrived at the colony there was a massive big fat seal at the bottom of the steps that lead onto the rocks! The seal was snoring its big fat head off! Haha! We walked around the colony for about an hr! It was a wicked place, loads of mad sea life & lazy seals!
Being the lazy gits we are, we ended up hitching a lift back into town with an old couple from down south somewhere! We really enjoyed the small town vibe this place had!
