Kaikoura

With only a few days to get to Christchurch for Ben to catch his flight we decided to squeeze in one more destination. We headed up to Kaikora to swim with dolphins so were disappointed to find it all booked up but managed to get onto a seal swim instead.

I haven’t swum with seals before so was happy to do it although I did think it might be a bit lame as it was half the price and there are tonnes of places round the world you can swim with dolphins but I’d never heard of seal swimming before. It turned out better than either of us could have hoped. We donned a wetsuit, mask/snorkel and flippers, jumped in and swam amongst them. They were really interested in you (more so than any dolphins I’ve swum with) and were obviously having a great time. They’d come right up to you then bolt off in a cloud of bubbles, twist round as their swimming or cruise slowly underneath to study you with their huge dark eyes. At one point one came right at my face with its mouth open showing a pretty sharp set of teeth. I flinched away just as it was about to get me and was a little unsettled until I saw them doing it to each other. It’s obviously part of the way they play so they really are treating you just like another playmate albeit a very slow clumsy one.

Everyone had a fantastic time and the two hours went in a snap. On the way back I asked the guy why more places didn’t have seal swims and he explained that almost all seal colonies have loads of sharks around feeding on them. In fact there are only 4 places in the world he knew off that can run these trips safely and two of them are in New Zealand. They’re not certain why there aren’t any sharks around kaikora but the main theory is because there are so many dolphins around as dolphins are capable of killing sharks if they feel threatened so the two generally stay away from each other.