Getting friendly with the Dolphins in Kaikoura!

Beautiful Dusky Dolphins everywhere!
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The Ferry…or Le ferry?! So up we got and headed down to the InterIslander ferry port for our 7.30am check in. It was reminiscent of waiting at Plymouth to catch the channel ferry and then became much more so when we noticed that our boat had the name ‘Pride of Cherbourg’ painted out on it’s side! I couldn’t believe it as I’d been on this boat when I was younger back home and here it was on the other side of the planet and still going! And literally all they’d done was paint over the embossed writing and there were even still signs up in French! Bizarre!!! The crossing was a blur as when I heard them announce the Cook Strait conditions weren’t ‘favourable’ I swallowed a strong dose of travel sickness pills and then slept till we glided into the Marlborough Sound and into Picton…Mike tells me there were waves the size of houses – I just remember having a nice nap!!!

Up close with the seal colony
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So we drive of and said au revoir to our boat over then straight down the east coast to Kaikoura.

all around us, a pod of about 450 Dusky dolphins!

We planned to stay a few days as there is whalewatching here (Sperm Whales) and Dolphin swimming and we’d been told it was lovely…what we didn’t know immediately was that our visit happened to coincide with the NZ Longboarding Pro Surf competition at ‘Meatworks’ the local break…more to follow on that!

Mike and his new pal
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The first day we spent doing an epic 5 hour walk all over the peninsula then back via rocks at the base of the cliff at low tide through a seal colony. Sounds great and it was – we got to see lovely seals really close up but on the other hand they can deliver a nasty nip and we were advised to stay at least 10 m away – this was the tricky part as often they were right on the path and we had to make lots of scrambling detours. They also had a nasty habit of hiding themselves near crevices so you couldn’t see them until you were right on top of them! Still, it was an adventure and incredible to see them up close. We finally arrived back at the campsite feeling footsore and then had a spa (one of the perks of this campsite!) to ease our aches!

Checking out the Sperm Whales
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The next day we were up early for our Whalewatch. The seas weren’t looking good so I tentatively had half a pill to help with my seasickness but hopefully not send me off to sleep. We headed out in a lovely catamaran boat with seas that made all our stomachs lurch but finally spotted not one but 6 whales – 3 of which we saw really up close. They were HUGE! It was incredible to see them up so close. We also saw loads of albatrosses which kept swooping over and around the boat. A fantastic trip! In the afternoon we headed off to check out a few of the local surf breaks. We watched some excellent surfers at Meatworks but it was beyond us (huge waves crashing onto big boulders) so we headed South to a bay called Oaro where the waves were blown out but where we spotted a pod of dolphins just out to sea doing acrobatics so we hung out and had a cuppa and watched them for a while.

Thar she blows!
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The following day we were determined to find something surfable (for Mike at least even if it was too big for me!) so we headed off again – we saw the dolphins again but no surf then headed a bit further up and spotted a pod of dolphins just off the beach but really close in so were mesmerised by their antics for a while! Then we hit Kahutara beach where Mike went in for a bit. It was a bit too big tho’ so we ended up having a picnic sat on the beach after I got a few shots of Mike on the waves. We rounded off the day by fishing off the wharf – I caught a starfish to the surprise of me and every fisherman we spoke to!!! It was massive and I struggled to wind it in! Of course we chucked it back in.

Sun up in Kaikoura - another full day o activities!
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Today we headed off to watch the Longboarding competition…we’d only intended to stay a couple of hours but we were hooked! It was a real surf comp with tents and underwater photographers and good longboarders. We drove straight there at am and Mike made us pancakes for brekkie in the van by the beach – lovely and then we sat in our camp chairs and watched the longboarders – they were great! There was a nose riding heat which we really enjoyed and the over 50s were pretty cool – amazing how good they are even though they’re a bit older, though one of them managed to break his collarbone while being washed up the rocks at the shoreline, he saved his board by sacrificing his body and even won his heat!…in then end we tore ourselves away at 4ish to find the battery on the van had gone flat because we’d left the fridge on too long so Mike approached the MTV NZ celeb commentator and got it announced on the tanoy to get a jumpstart! All in all a great day though – I could have stayed but we had lots to do back at the van while we have power including this blog!

Longboarder ProAm Competition day!
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The next day we set of early to the Dolphin Encounters centre, we had breakfast overlooking a beach from the van, while enjoying the sun. We headed over to the centre and checked in. Within a few minutes we were measured up for the thickest wetsuits I’ve ever seen and sent onto a bus, where we were then whisked away to South Bay. We saw a great looking catamaran but were then sent to a smaller vessel, with a moderate sea sickness warning it wasn’t looking good! We set off and travelled along south along the coastline while the staff tracked the Dolphins. They were right on the money! We saw loads of dorsal fins all over the place. They stopped the boat and out we went armed only with our snorkels. We then proceeded to make as much noise as we could through our snorkels as this attracts them over. Within seconds they were all around us, a pod of about 450 Dusky dolphins! They were darting around us so quickly, jumping out of the water with acrobatic ease. The game to play with them is when one comes up to you, it may start to swim around you. The trick is to keep up while keeping eye contact, they will generally try to catch you out by randomly going the other way without warning, again you have to keep up! You can even do that to them and bang they will change direction with you! To look into the eyes of them is incredible, you can see the intelligence! Not to mention you feel so safe around them! We stayed in the water for a good while, I ended up being one of the last ones out, as I ended up making a friend who came back to play five times! I sadly climbed back aboard to head back. What a magical experience a must to anyone who visits New Zealand. Did we hold on to them and be carried around? No they are wild animals, it’s not Sea World, they will come to you if they want and only if they want. Fantastic. Sadly the boat ride back was less than magical for my dear wife and 2/3 of the people aboard, it meant more bickies and hot chocolate for me ha ha!!!!

Jackson Close - toes on the nose!
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Finally the time came to move on from Kaikoura and head south!