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After a picturesque southeasterly drive we arrived on the coast and the town of Kaikoura. With mountains and the sea so close it's understandable why we had heard auh great things about this place. We decided on dusky lodge as our hostel of choice going by our trusty bbh booklet. On arrival it seemed rather large but again swung by some freebies, namely breakfast a sauna and spa pool, we checked in. We wasted no time in checking out the town and endured in some local fish and chips after making the most of some sea/mountain photo opportunities. It was the time to make the most of the hostels equipment and jumped in the spa pool then in the sauna. After this we had a look through the leaders in reception and were weighing our options on which tour to do either the whale watching or dolphin encounter. After much consideration and a strong recommendation by the lady on reception we decided on the dolphin encounter. Which we would soon find to be one of our best decisions. Another wary start on the horizon we relaxed in the living area with a game of battleships then called it a night. Although it was an early morning start we were both very excited about the opportunity to swim with the local dusky dolphins and make the most of our under water camera. We arrived at the centre late as usual got all our gear sorted, a quick briefing and we were wet suited up and on the boat. Great views back into the shore line with the mountains behind amazed us and with albatross flying over with wingspans of upto 3 meters we couldn't believe what an experience it was already turning out to be. It didn't take long to see our first seals and dolphins playing in the sea. We soon got the call saying we would be stopping so we got our snorkels sorted and jumped in off the back of the boat. I don't think either were expecting quite so many dolphins, approximately 300 surrounded us creating a memory i'm sure neither of us will forget for a long long time. They allowed us to get in and out on about 4 different occasions which was great as the dolphins would only play for about 15 minutes then move on. We both it very amusing that you had to sing through your snorkel to attract the dolphins and we certainly made the most of that. There were a few people suffering from sea sickness so they wasted no time getting us on the way back to shore after we had dried and changed out of our wet suites. As we headed back in a pod of dolphins joined the front of the boat showing off there swimming ability and performing flips out of the water. Unfortunately it couldn't last forever and we back on land. After such and exciting day we were both very hungry and too tired to cook so we sampled some more of the local fish and headed back to the hostel absolutely shattered and had a nap. We spent the rest of the day chilling out and watching pirates of the Caribbean, which has to be one of the longest films, and planning the next days adventures. We settled on a plan to go and see a waterfall we had been told about by Faye, who Ian knew from home that we bumped into back in picton, where she told us of seal pups playing at the bottom of the waterfall. We then thought we would head to hanmer springs after which is where a lot of people go as a getaway in new Zealand consisting of lots of hot pools. So it seemed another long day was ahead and off to bed we went. We got up and head up north to see the seal pups. We parked up and after a short walk saw one on a rock just relaxing next to the foot path. Possibly one of the cutest things we'd seen! A short walk on was the waterfall and we were lucky enough to see around 5/6 pups in the pool at the base having loads of fun jumping out the water and playing with each other. Another moment where we just stood there and said 'that's unbelievable' very grateful to have been told about that little hidden gem. We walked back to Percy and headed down south...next stop hanmer springs.
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