Swimming with Dolphins=Amazing

On Sunday in Kaikoura, we did one of the coolest things ever. We swam with dolphins! Now, this wasn't your usual "swim with dolphins" operation. Here is what made it especially awesome (interspersed with pictures)...






















1. We were in the wild. The boat had to go find the pods of dolphins. They weren't in some pool at Sea World or the likes, and they weren't trained. They say on some days they can't find the dolphins (though it's rare), and on some days they're not interested in interacting with the humans. We got lucky on both accounts.



























2. These are called dusky dolphins. We also saw a swarm of baby crayfish and a large mud crab floating in the water while we were swimming, and we spotted a little blue penguin and an albatross from the boat.


























3. We got to snorkel with these dolphins not just once, but five times! The boat would pull up to a pod of dolphins, let us out, call us back in when the dolphins had moved on, and then go find another pod.

4. The pods of dolphins had hundreds (literally hundreds!) of dolphins in them. They estimated 200-300 in each pod!

5. When you weren't swimming with them, you could watch the dolphins jumping. They put on quite a show! Some seemed to find it especially fun to flip into the air and go slamming down into the water. I guess it's their version of a belly flop?

6. When you were swimming with the dolphins, it was amazing. Tons of them would swim right around you, under you, past you, etc. I could even hear their noises underwater-kind of like squeaks. Speaking of noises, they told us that dolphins are attracted to noises and that we should sing or something while snorkeling. This made the dolphins curious, and they would come right near you to check out the noise.  It seemed to work, though I sound like a complete idiot on the video below.

7. We didn't get seasick. I can't say the same for about five others on our boat; they were puking their guts out. But I took some seasickness pills before going, and I guess Zack just got lucky. The video below (at least at the start) might give you an idea of how much the boat rocked back and
forth; it does get better and show the dolphins jumping!

Zack and I rank this experience right up there with our crocodile cruise in Kakadu National Park. It was truly amazing, and I'd put it on your must-do list (if possible) while visiting New Zealand. By the way, if you're interested in more pictures or another video, I've started putting all my NZ pictures up on my Shutterfly site. My blog posts are just a small taste of our trip. Anyway, swimming with dolphins rocked!

Kicking it in Kaikoura

                                                           

After a delicious Saturday morning brunch in Christchurch, Jill and Brian (along with baby Louis) dropped us off at the Jucy office so we could pick up our campervan AKA our home sweet home for the next two weeks. We had a beautiful three hour drive to Kaikoura, where we pulled up to our beachside campsite and got temporarily stuck in the sand! With some help from nearby campers, we got out and parked in a more grassy location (still beachside) and saw dolphins in the distance as we ate a late lunch. Then we headed out again to hike around the peninsula.

There were seals everywhere! A mother and baby one are pictured here. We had to be kind of careful as we climbed over rocks and such; you never knew if a seal would be hiding out underneath or just around the corner.

The rock formations along the walk were awesome too-so interesting and unique. Can you spot all the seals?

Zack wanted me to pose for a picture with a seal. When I wouldn't get close enough for his liking, I told him to pose for a shot. He got pretty close and laid down to look like a seal. Well, the one he was close to didn't like this and actually started chasing him. I've never seen Zack get up and move so fast-ha!

Besides seals, there were these black birds with orange eyes/feet/beaks along the walk as well. We found out later that they are called oystercatchers, and they are very protective of their nests. As we walked anywhere in their vicinity, the birds swooped at our heads! So we took a lesson from the Melbourne bikers who have zip ties sticking out of their helmets to avoid swooping and held sticks above our heads when the "angry birds" were nearby!

After we survived our peninsula walk, we went into town and found out that crayfish was the must-try specialty dish. It's not cheap though, so Zack and I split a 1/2 crayfish and shared an order of local blue cod fish and chips. The crayfish tasted like lobster to me; it was a lot of effort to get the "meat" out. I didn't think it was that amazing, but I'm glad we gave it a try. After dinner, we drove back to our beachside campsite and watched Dolphin Tale (to prepare for the next day's activities-you'll see what I mean tomorrow!) on the DVD player in our campervan. We really liked the little seaside town of Kaikoura.