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We left Christchurch around 8am in the morning and had a 4 hour bus journey to Kaikoura luckily it was along the coast line so it was a beautiful drive. We stopped twice on the way there as we spotted a Seal colony and a few Dusky Dolphins doing some tricks which were nice to see. The Kiwi bus arrived 12pm at the Top Spot hostel and we shared a room with 2 of our friends Frankie and Eamonn. We booked in for 2 nights as we had a lot to fit in!! We paid $60 and went straight out to a Seal Colony where we put wet suits and a snorkel on and swam with the Seals for an hour or so. It was freezing in the water but it was amazing we had around 10 seals in the water and they were very curious of us and playful, they were unbelievably good swimmers which wasn?t a surprise but seeing them in the wild made you appreciate how amazing they actually were. The funniest part of the day was on the way back to the van when Ria thought she was getting special treatment sitting in a rubber ring instead of walking through the rocks?she wasn?t, the guys running the trip flipped her upside down and she wasn?t amused!! Then Ben ran to catch the group up after talking too much to strangers and fell over the rock breaking a snorkel lucky they seen the funny side and didn?t make me pay for damages hehe!! We spent the rest of the day chilling, made some food and got an early night as the alarm clock went off at 4.30am because we needed to check into the Dolphin Encounter Centre by 5.30am?walking in the dark to the center was no fun at all!! We paid $120 each and got fitted out in our wet suit and watched a small video of how we should behave around the wild Dolphins. We got on the bus for 10mins and then we boarded our boat at around 6am and left to find the Dusky Dolphins, it was a little cold but the sunrise was amazing so we couldn?t complain. It didn?t take long to find the pod of Dolphins and there were around 400 of them out playing which made an awesome sight. The boat then gave us the signal to jump in the water and we snorkeled off and on for the next 3 hours and it was absolutely amazing!! We were singing to the dolphins which seemed a little funny at first but it really attracts them to you so you just start singing whatever comes into your mind first, the Dolphins reacted in different ways the most common was by swimming around you in circles and testing your ability to keep up with them and the most craziest was them just flipping straight over you which seems a little dangerous but apparently they have never hurt any swimmers!! The last part of the trip was taking photos and just seeing there behaviour from the boat with a warm hot chocolate and biscuits. We both agreed when we got back to the hostel that it was definitely one of the best things we?ve ever done!! Seeing them in the wild is so much better than seeing them captive!!  The day wasn?t finished there we were booked on the 1pm Whale watching trip again another $120 but it is the best place in the world to see all the wildlife as the depth of the water creates plenty of food. The boat we traveled on was excellent, it gave us information on water depth and what wildlife to expect in the area. We were actually looking for Sperm Whales and we were very lucky to see 2 Sperm Whales in the 3 hours we were out. The first whale we seen was ?Little Nicky? and the second was ?Tiaki?. They were both equally amazing and absolutely massive to the eye. They both stayed above the water for around 5 minutes constantly blowing there blow hole to get air and take a rest. The best part of seeing them was probably the end when they decided to go back down to the depths and their huge tail comes out the water it?s just amazing and beautiful to see!! We had a quiet evening as there?s not much to do in the area we just checked a Seal Colony out and had some food and left early the next morning to go to Picton. Kaikoura was simply amazing the wildlife blew us away Ben especially had been waiting to see this since booking the trip in Feb 2007 and it was well worth the wait xx
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