We headed back in, got ready and dashed round to the bus station to catch our early morning bus to Kaikoura. Following our rude awakening we slept pretty much the whole way, waking only as we pulled into the pretty town by the sea, surrounded by hills. Stunning.
Our hostel was awesome - Far Side cards were enlarged and all over every room, making me giggle all day. We borrowed a couple of bikes from the hostel and took a ride along the front to the peninsula.
We walked to see some more seals having a swim, and then went for a walk up the hill and along the cliff edge to admire the view.
The next morning was time for our big adventure. We were going swimming with the dolphins!
We walked down the HQ and were soon kitted out once more in the sexy attire that are wetsuits. We watched a video on the do's and don't of swimming with dolphins - ie:
- Do slip quietly and carefully into the water,
- Do not jump like a loony into the water or you'll scare them off (the video of this was particularly amusing)
- Do look where you're swimming or you may swim into the boat.
They told us what to do if we were in distress, but also warned that the way that some people swim makes it look like they are in distress (again the video of this was rather funny!)
Fully cautioned and prepared, we headed off to the boats and out on to the water, and before we knew it the Dolphins had been sighted and the claxon was sounded for us to get in the water.
Whilst I am a strong swimmer, i'm not a strong snorkeller, and with the haste and excitement of getting into the water with dolphins I tend to panic, so it took me a wee while to enjoy myself, as I was trying to remember how to breathe, considering my nose now felt suffocated! I finally got the hang of it, and then tried to remember the 3 ways to "entertain" the dolphins so they will come and have a closer look at you
- Swim in circles, keeping eye contact - believe me they can swim quicker in circles than I can
- Make a noise through the snorkel - I think I sounded a bit like Anne from Little Britain, but one guy was singing!
- Dive around and be as Dolphin like as possible. Considering I have trouble breathing with a snorkel, I didn't think adding water down the top off it by diving under would do me any good at all!
So I did my best, swimming in circles and sounding like an idiot, and the dusky dolphins flocked around. At one point I had 8 swimming around me in circles - the most amazing thing. We swam around for a while, and then as soon as they had come they disappeared.
We got back in the boat and set off to follow them, and then we realised why they had all scarpered so quickly.
5 Orca Whales were swimming along the coastline. It was so so so exciting to see these beautiful creatures in the wild, I was like a kid at Christmas!
They dived and surfaced, and at one point one swam right up to and under our boat. We followed them for a while, and then they dived too deep for us to see, so we went back to finding dolphins to watch.
These ones were really playful, and we watched them jumping out of the water, skimming along on their tails, or flopping back sideways into the water. Spectacular!
By the time we got back to Kaikoura I was on top of the world. Time for a DB beer with lunch ( - with my initials I had to at least try it) and then back on the bus to Christchurch for our last few days in NZ.
We stayed with Louise and Paul, Helen's cousins, and generally chilled out. This is the view from their balcony so it certainly wasn't difficult!
And so the sun set on our time in NZ. It's been the most amazing 2 months, and I was really sad to be leaving. We've made some awesome friends, who I know we'll stay in contact with, and I really fell in love with the beautiful scenery here. Who knows - if I stay any longer I might start saying Fush and Chups and wearing Jandals! - better get going!
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