swimming with the fish

First stop on the Kiwi bus is Kaikoura, famous for its marine wild-life. Kaikoura is this gorgeous pennisula jutting out into the pacific ocean. There are 2 deep ocean currents that converge here which push up lots of yummy food for fish so there is a lot of aquatic life here....whales, seals, dolphins and tons of fish. The pennisula that the town sits on is surrounded by the southern alps and it was the first time I saw snow capped mountains since leaving Nepal.....I was in heaven. It was seriously beautiful. The pennisula has a ocean/cliff walk similar to those in New England actually which was breathtaking. It was really the only place I'd ever been where you can look out to pristine ocean and turn around to be confronted with towering snow capped peaks. And the water here is beautifully clear. It is not the blueish/green shade of tropical water but more of an artic blue shade that is quite a sight to see.

When we were approaching town the driver passed around the activity sheet for the day. Most people signed up for whale watching, which I'd done in Boston before, so I decided to go for the dolphin swim instead. The water was a balmy 13C (or 55F) so we had to wear super thick wet suits for the swim. The guides told us that if we want to be entertained by the dolphins that it was our job to entertain them since they are curious animals just like humans and like a good show I suppose. So you are suppose to sing into your snorkel, spin, and dive to draw there attention to you. Diving was the best bet.

To be specific we saw the dusky dolphins. The ones that are famous for jumping out of the water. The shop showed us a video of some of them flipping out of the water and I figured that was a rare occurence that we probably wouldn't see. Boy was I wrong. Dolphins swim in pods...the pod we went to was a solid 400 dolphins and jump ALL of the time. From the simple jump out of water, to 360 degree spins, to multiple flips where they jump 5-10 feet out of the water. They get extremely active when they are excited, by things like whales (which we saw) and boats (which we were on). So they would chase the wake of the boat and get a "free" ride from the boat. Just like in Titanic the dolphins do race out in front of the boat and jump all the time right in front of you. It was amazing.

The swim itself blew all of this away. My singing wasn't drawing them in, but thanks to my diving experience, I just plunged under the water and instantly the dolphins raced to circle me. The like to swim around you in circles and you are suppose to swim with you....good luck trying to keep up with a dolphin when they get going though. But diving down would easily get a dozen dolphins interested in you and you alone. They brushed up against me, looked me in the eye, and hung out for a good while. When you surfaced from the "dive" you came up fast do to the buoyancy of the wet-suit and popped out of the water, some dolphins jumped out with you when you did this, but if they didn't you were given immaculate views of the mountains back on land. With no clouds in the sky it made for one of the most memorable experiences I've had thus far in my travels.