Kaikoura and the Dolphins

After I left Keira, I spent a couple of days driving round the north coast. I stopped in Havelock, which is a sleepy little town with a cool secret; it has loads of glow-worms. The owner of the hostel took us to see them after it had got dark, and there were thousands of them; like fairy lights in the trees. If anyone wants to see the gloworms but doesn't want to pay to see them in Waitomo, you should go here, its just as good.

On the way back to Christchurch I stopped in Kaikoura, and decided to stay for a bit. Kaikoura is pretty special. I'm not sure why, to look at its not stunning like Wanaka or Queenstown, but there's something about the place. I stayed here for around 10 days, I needed a break from being on the road after rushing round with Keira. I found a hostel which gave me free accomodation in return for a couple of hours work, well I say work, it was more a tiny bit of cleaning (how easy is it to clean already clean rooms), and then sitting round gossiping with a cup of tea. I worked with 3 other people: Dave, Amy & Kath who all knew each other. Amy & Kath are from Huddersfield, and most nights we would sit outside chatting over a glass of wine. It was good in that I actually spent time getting to know them, not just meeting them for one or two days like everyone else.

Every afternoon I had free, so I would walk into town along the coast. The sea was a different colour every day, usually a stunning shade of blue. And then there is the wildlife, just walking along the coast to the beautiful limestone rock formations I saw lots of different types of birds, not just seagulls. On the rocks are huge fur seals which you can get pretty close to. The marine life in Kaikoura is world class, something to do with a massive ocean trench just off shore, and the resulting mix of cold and warm currents provide a perfect feeding ground for Sperm whales, pods of Hector and Dusky dolphins and the seals.

One of the most magical moments of my travels is when Steve (the guy I worked for) took 4 of us out in his motor boat in the evening. We watched the sun set behind the mountains, it was beautiful. The seals were lazing around in the water, and we saw one jump out like a dolphin. There were crazy suicidal fish, hundreds of them jumping out of the water, the sea birds were loving it. And then, a pod of cute little Hector dolphins surrounded us and started playing with the boat, racing us in the water. It was a great evening.

I went out on a boat 2 other times, well you just have to in Kaikoura. I did an Albatross sight-seeing trip, which was excellent, the albatross are massive birds, the largest seabird in fact, and we saw loads of different types including the Royal albatross & wandering albatross. We fed them shark's liver from the boat so they came up really close, and they look so magnificent soaring along.

Kaikoura is famous for dolphins, and one trip allows you to swim with them. It wasn't how I expected at all, I guess I thought it would be a bit magical and surreal. But when I was actually in the water with these huge creatures - the Dusky dolphins are about twice the size of the cute Hectors and bigger than me - I completely freaked out. I think the fact that it was also chuffing cold & visibility is about half of what I'm used to, I panicked, hyper-ventilating and swallowing loads of water through my snorkel.

When swimming with the dolphins, you get back on the boat 4 or 5 times to follow the duskies around, they can swim a lot faster than us! The 2nd time was just as bad as the first, I couldn't get used to snorkelling out in the ocean, even though I have done loads before, I was still panicking and longing for my BCD and regualtor (diving equipment) so I could just sink underwater.

The 3rd time in the water I got my head together and used the diving trick of staying still & breathing deeply to calm myself down. From my position, face down in the water, I could see several dolphins swimming past. They still looked massive, but I have to admit they are beautiful and intelligent creatures. I started to enjoy myself.

Back in the boat after the swimming sessions, we sailed over to where some Orcas (killer whales) had been sighted. Now I thought dolphins were big, these guys were enormous. They are the dolphins main natural predator and we were lucky to see them as they only pass by about once a month. We didn't see them get any dolphins, but I was glad I wasn't in the water then, they were about the same size as our boat!

After the Orcas, we went back to watch the dolphins. Although they are free to do what they like and aren't fed or encouraged or anything, they put on an amazing show for us. There were about 200 surrounding the boat, and they kept jumping out of the water and somersaulting! They looked like they were having so much fun.