Day 57 - Swimming with Dolphins and Seals (Tue 4th Jan)

This morning was our earliest start yet! After a crappy sleep due to no air conditioning in our room, we had to wake up at 04:30. What a day we had planned, a morning swimming with Dolphins followed by an afternoon swimming with Seals. Chaggie had previously prepared their clothes to quickly change into without waking the American room-mates. After packing what we needed for the day we got in the car and headed to 'Encounter Kaikoura' in the middle of town. It was still dark and cold outside so walking wasn't an option, even though it could only have taken us about 10 minutes. When you've got a car, why waste it.

Taking us about 2 minutes to get there, we realised we perhaps should have walked with 20 minutes to spend till 'Encounter Kaikoura' opens. Our check in time was 05:30 so after a short nap in the car we got through quickly and were given our wet suits and snorkelling gear. Chaggie were pretty damn excited to be swimming with Dolphins at this point! We had a briefing after getting changed where we were told what we could do to attract the Dusky Dolphins to us. They can come in big groups but are not always in the mood for playing, we had to respect that they are in their natural environment. Three ways we learnt that might be able to help attract their fun side included: 1. Dive down if you can (your wet suit provides buoyancy so it can be difficult diving). 2. The Dusky Dolphins like to circle around you, keep eye contact as they go around. 3. Making noises through your snorkel will also attract the Dolphins, this will also entertain those watching from the boat as well.

After our briefing we were eager to jump on the bus to the Dolphin Encounter boats on the peninsula. Chaggie were lucky with being put in the smaller group out of 3. We had a smaller boat but it meant less competition in playing with the Dolphins and the more chance in seeing them more often.


It took us about 30 minutes to find our first group of Dusky Dolphins, at 06:30ish they tend to be energetic after a busy night of feeding. We put on our snorkels and got in at the sound of the siren. It didn't take long to come across one face to face at arms distance, in fact it wasn't just one, there were lots of them. It was such an amazing experience and a privilege to get up close to these creatures in their natural environment.

Chaggie found themselves doing an amazing job at making as many crazy sounds as we could through our snorkels, it did in fact attract the Dolphins watching them come out from no where. Chaggie seemed to be the only ones in the group who used what we had learnt to get as many of them around us. Chino dived down with them as much as he could, getting so close to them. At one point there were 5 of them circling around as you try and keep eye contact with all of them. Once the first group of Dolphins swam away after about half an hour of time with them, we got back into the boat and headed off to find a new group. Once again we were lucky to quickly find one and got straight back in.

All in all we had about an hour in the water with them, an unforgettable morning. Our day hadn't finished here though, we got back to 'Encounter Kaikoura' and changed out of our wet suits. Chaggie went straight back to the Dolphin Lodge and showered. We were still tired from our early start so we went back to sleep till 12:00. The Americans had checked out by this point so we had the room to ourselves.

This afternoon we had noodles for lunch and met our new room-mates, 3 lads from Christchurch on a fishing trip. It got to 13:30 and we walked to town and paid for our Seal Swim for later on. It wasn't till 14:00 so we had some time to spare, we chilled out on the beach and coincidently ran into Phillipa, Andreas, Christopher and Paige who were just stopping off in Kaikoura for lunch on their way back home from Motueka. We were with them till 14:00 where we went back to the Seal Swim centre and once again, put on a wet suit and snorkelling gear. We jumped on another bus which took us to another boat and were just as excited to swim with Seals.

We got to a small Island just off shore, home to a breeding colony of Seals, most of them lazing about on rocks. We got in the water and stayed around the same bay, hoping for them to join us. Overall only 2 seals jumped in with us, we have no control in how many join due to it being their natural environment so it's up to them. With only two of them and 7 of us though, Chino and Staggie found a lot of time where we did get up close to one. The only difference with the Seals to the Dolphins was that the Dolphins came to us, whereas we found ourselves having to chase after and keep up with the Seals in order to get close. Chaggie did a good job in the end though managing to come away with a good experience and fond memories. Chino just managed to get less than a foot away from one of the Seals before getting back on the boat, amazing animals and a lot of good memories we're sure to never forget.

This evening we had time to watch the Ashes online in an internet room. We watched it to the end before heading back to the Dolphin Lodge for dinner at 20:00. This evening we chilled out with Heather staying up till 00:00.

Chaggie x