South Island - East Coast
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2007
1
36
59
Trip End
May 28, 2008
Kaikoura,
New Zealand
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
When I arrived the weather was bad with rain and high seas, so all the whale watching trips had been canceled. I struggled out of bed at 5am the next morning and headed out into the cold black morning hoping I would be lucky. Fortunately my dolphin swimming trip was on, so I got kitted out with a wet suit and snorkel. Our guides explained a few details about interacting with wild dolphins (don't touch them, but to get them interested dive down, swim in circles or make lots of noise!). Before long we were heading out to sea in search of resident dusky dolphins.
After about an hour at sea we had only seen a few dolphins, but then we found a large pod of dolphins swimming towards our boat. We got ready and when the boat had stopped moving we all slipped into the water and into the path of the dolphins. It was fantastic to have dolphins swimming all around me. The Dusky dolphins grow to around 1.8m which seems quite big to me, but relatively small for dolphins. There were also baby dolphins that were less than 0.5m long. The dolphins didn't stop to play though, so we got back on the boat and moved back around to the front of the pod and went swimming again.
This time I just swam as fast as I could with the pod. There were always dolphins on either side of me, and more dolphins swimming beneath me. There were a couple of hundred dolphins in the pod so everywhere I looked there were more of them. It was one of the most amazing things I have ever done! After a while I looked up to see our boat over 100m away, so decided I should probably head back. When I got back to the boat there were a few curious dolphins swimming around us. If I dived beneath the surface they seemed to come closer to investigate. It was great fun.
The dolphins started to lose interest so it was time to get back on the boat and move for one last swim with the pod. Unfortunately the water in this area had poor visibility, so I could only glimpse moving shadows in the water. But I was still happy from my second swim! We all headed back to the boat and warmed up with a hot shower & hot chocolate. I then stood on the bow of the boat watching acrobatic dolphins leap into the air, sometimes doing somersaults. It was a fantastic trip and easily my highlight of New Zealand.
After Kaikoura I headed north to Blenheim in the Marlborough wine district. I hired a bike for the afternoon and headed out to some of the local vineyards. First stop was Montana, which is quite famous in the UK. The Marlborough area is famous for its Sauvignon Blanc, and it was my favourite of the wines I tasted. I then called in at Mount Riley wines, only to be told they were closing in 15 minutes and there wasn't enough time for a tasting... I found this a bit strange as a couple who had been at Montana had got there a minute before me in their campervan and were being poured their first wine.... maybe it was my poor backpacking cyclist look that they didn't like. Anyway, I headed down the road to Lawson's Dry Hills, where a very nice lady forced me to try every wine in their range. Their Sauvignon Blanc was particularly good, but I haven't yet acquired the taste for their award winning Gewürztraminer.
