Still Amazed, Many Hours Later

The dolphin swim this morning was brilliant.

Yes, I know you’re amazed that I actually managed to wake up and get to the Dolphin Encounter office by 5.20am. I am too, although the bar across the street from my hostel helped to ensure I’d be awake by having loud patrons and a live band until the wee hours of the morning, meaning I only got about 1 1/2 hours sleep total. Even though we didn’t see the sunrise–it was very cloudy–the guide told us that 5.30 is the best time to do the dolphin swim because a) the seas are much calmer and b) the dolphins are just coming in from a night of feeding out in the ocean, so they are feeling rather full and sociable as they come back towards shore, so they are a bit more playful than at other times of day.

The sea was really dead calm as we left the Kaikoura peninsula. Not only did I manage to not get seasick (the 2 Dramamines I took worked surprisingly well even though we were in the smallest boat in the Dolphin Encounter fleet and the guide joked at the beginning that they pick the healthiest and hardiest looking to go on it), but I got to swim in a pod that was estimated to be 500 dolphins strong.

Dolphins are just majestic. There’s really no other way to describe the creatures. It’s such a brilliant feeling to be sharing the water with them, and believe me, it gets no less amazing on the second try. We had a great time out on the water, and got to swim with them 5 different times. This is because they drop us out at the head of the pack, wait until the dolphins have swum by, and then pick us up and drop us at the front of the pack again. I can’t even estimate how long we spent in the water, but it was well over half an hour. At one point I got so carried away with following the dolphins that I ended up a good 5 minute swim from the boat when they blew the whistle–boy was I puffed when I finally made it back!

The best part of the whole swim was just before I got out of the water on the second to last swim. The whistle had already blown to come back into the boat, and I was swimming back to it when a dolphin swam up to me and began circling me. I paddled in circles as fast as I could. He kept up his circling for over 2 minutes before I got dizzy/my mask started filling up with water, so I had to surface and he was gone. I’ve posted the video that I got of a few seconds of circling below–sorry about the ending being a bit disorientating, but I’ll get it edited at some point when I have more time! And yes, that is me squealing in the background. We were told that making any sorts of noises attracts the dolphins, and it seemed to work!

Also, check out my pictures of the dolphins here. Unfortunately, I’m still behind on pictures, so the loads I have of Christchurch and the beautiful harbour at Akaroa still aren’t there. I just thought you guys would be more interested in dolphins!This afternoon–after a short nap–I walked around the Kaikoura peninsula. This is about a 3-hour walk that goes from Kaikoura town to the seal colony at the tip of the peninsula and then around the clifftops. I did the walk in about 4 hours because I spent a lot of time at the seal colony watching birds and 2 lazy seals that barely had the energy to open their eyes (about how I feel now). It was a great warmup walk for the Queen Charlotte Track, which I will be starting on Monday, and the scenery was great, especially since the clouds finally lifted and revealed the blue sky.

After the walk, I fell asleep in my bed and woke up at 6.20; I then realized that I was missing the free soup being served downstairs. Unfortunately, when I got downstairs and was ladling out some soup for myself, something startled me and made me pour some of the scalding hot soup on the hand holding the bowl; that startled me even more and I managed to pour half of the bowl onto my hand. Surprisingly, in dropping the bowl, yelling swear words, and bringing the entire kitchen to silence, I didn’t break the bowl or spill any soup on myself. But anyway, Mom, Dad, Nanna, Poppa–don’t worry, I immediately put it under cool running water for at least 10 minutes and kept it submerged in a cold bowl of water while I ate the offending soup. It hasn’t blistered–it’s just red and tingly–so it looks like it’s just a first-degree burn. Score another one for Kristin the klutz.

By the way, happy Australia Day to all. I was probably the most un-Australian possible today, given that I spent the day in NZ, but happy Australia Day anyway.