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02/02/2010
Having joined the Kiwi Experience bus at Christchurch we made our way north to Kaikoura driving pretty much the whole way in one go, stopping only for a short toilet break. We arrived in Kaikoura at around 11:30am and was booked into do a whale watching trip at 12:45 so rushed to the hostel (Top Spot) and managed to get upgraded to a double room ensuite for free as the hostel was full, which was sweet. The hostel was ok, pretty simple and small, but homely and nicely run by a little japanese lady. Before checking in to the whale watching place we had to nip to the Dolphin Encounter shop to pay for our Dolphin swim which was to take place tomorrow at 5:30am :-S
Having paid for that we made it to the whale watching for a video briefing before being loaded onto a bus for the short journey to the southern end of the kaikoura penninsula. Arriving at the harbour we boarded our boat that was hopefully going to take us out to see Sperm Whales and any other delights that are lurking in the waters just a few kilometres off shore.
After about 10 min boat ride and some cool slide shows and presentations from the guide we spotted our first Sperm Whale. It was absolutely incredible. The shear size is overwhelming. They are the 4th largest whale and the largest of toothed whales, reaching up to 18 metres in length. We all rushed from our seats to the top deck to get a view of the prehistoric beast. Its the fastest I've seen Steph move in a long time. This one was a young male, around 14 metres in length and hung around on the surface for a good 5 minutes before starting his deep dive. We ended up seeing 4 in total which was amazing and made us feel very lucky. It was amazing. They were everywhere. When we were looking at one another one would appear in the distance.
Having spotted so many whales the captain decided to take us in closer to shore to look for dolphins and seals. We managed to pull up alongside a pod of around 400 dusky dolphins. There creations were amazing. They love to show off and are one of the most active breed of dolphins, doing flips and jumps all over the place. The most impressive thing was just the shear number of them. There wasn't a clear space of water anywhere. We stayed alongside the pod for a good while, taking lots of photos and letting the dolphins show us their best moves before heading back to shore. On the way back the captain spotted a Wandering Albatross - the largest seabird in the world with a wingspan of up to 3 metres. Back at the harbour we jumped off the boat and taken back to the base. From there we wandered back to the hostel for a nap after our long day. The evening was spent relaxing and chatting to a few people on the bus and a few rounds of cards, before getting an early night for the dolphin swim in the morning.
We had to check in for our dolphin swim at 5.30am, get kitted up in a super thick wetsuits with hoods, snorkel, mask and flippers. We had a briefing about what to do and expect when we get in the water and then set off towards the pier to the Dolphin Encounter boat. We had about a 25 minute boat ride until we found any dolphins, but once we did it was amazing. we all sat on the lowered ledge on the back of the boat and as soon as the captain gave us the signal, jumped in. All squeaking, screaching and jerking about - not only because the water was absolutley freezing but because thats what we were told to do in the briefing (act like a dolphin, make high pitched noises and try and swim like a dolphin). I chose to attempt a few songs through the snorkel, because of the early hour my mind wasnt quite working so my songs were 'we wish you a merry Christmas and jungle bells) Alex actually sounded quite tune-ful even though he was singing through a snorkel. The experience was amazing. There were hundereds of dolphins everywhere you looked. They would swim towards you at such a pace, then turn off right at the last minute. Doing flips and jumps all around us. The pod moved quite fast, so when the had enough of playing in one spot and moved onto the next we jumped back on the boat to catch up with them. We were pretty impressed with the conservation conscienceness of the Dolphin Encounter company, as they would only allow 13 swimmers in the water at any one time, and they didnt bait or coax the dolphins in with anything, their attitude was 'we are in there environment we have to respect that and let the dolphins interact with us as much or as little as they like'. We felt so lucky to have been able to swim with a pod of over 400 dolphins when there were so few of us in the water.
Once we had finished in teh water we had to get changed into our warm clothes and it was tie for hot chocolate and biscuits, while we made our way back to the dock. I started to feel a little seasick at this point so had to lie down, while Alex took photos of the dolphins as they chased our boat a for the last time. As soon as we got back to the Dolphin Encounter centre our Kiwi bus was there to pick us up, and we were headed for Nelson - via Picton so that the people doing the North Island could get on the Ferry and the drivers could swap busses.
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