Whales, Dolphins and hot springs

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So since the last blog we left Geraldine and went back to Christchurch for 1 night just to go round town again as we liked the place! From there we went to Hamner springs on the alpine trail.. the drive in was amazing lots of snow capped mountains and bright blue rivers!
Hamner is famous for its hot springs, about 20 out door hot pools upto 40 degrees very nice to be in when it is cold outside and with snowy mountains in the background!! We stayed there for one night before heading to Kaikora... on the way out we stopped at an Alpaca farm which are very funny animals like a camp lama.. remind me a bit of darren!

On route to Kaikora mel spotted a rock with loads of seals on it, we stopped and were lucky enough to get within feet of them about 50 in all.... one looked up and did not like the look of us so started barking which set them all off, so we departed quickly.

The main thing we wanted to do in Kaikora was to see the resident sperm whales but when we got here we found we could also swim with wild dolphins with pods upto 500 sometimes... we decided to do the boat trip out to the dolphins and get a plane out to the whales as it was the same price and more chance of seeing them as they only spend 15 mins of the surface before they dive back down to the depths. Kaikora has an underwater canyon which attracts all the sea life as it is very rich in food for all the different animals! To get to the bottom the pressure is so great the whales collapse there lungs and use the oxygen in there blood stream!

So this morning we woke early and set off to the dolphin encouter store were we got changed into rather attractive wet suits complete with gloves, hoods and booties (they call them that for some reason!) and got on a little bus to the harbour. The boat ride out to the dolhpins took about 30 mins and was quite rough due to high winds the night before. When we got to the Dolphins it was amazing there was a pod of about 200 all jumping out round the boat.. we slid off the back of the boat, both of us loosing our breathe as the water was extremely cold (around 10 degrees). Right infront of us where several dolhpins swimming around. We were told to make squeaky noices to attract them to us. It was a really wierd feeling floating on the surface of the water looking down at wild dolphins arms length away! We got on and off the boat several times as the dolphins swam away we would catch up with then and then jump off again. We were swimming with them for about an hour, we then got on the boat and they filled our wetsuits with warm water which was nice but also felt a bit like you had wet yourself! They then followed the dolphins some more so we could watch them leaping out... we also got to see more seals and an albatros who fly a 1000 mile round trip to Kaikora just to feed, they are now an endangered species and if numbers keep going the way they are they will be extinct in around 10 years!

This afternoon we just chilled out as both tired and Chris was feeling a bit sea sick!

Not sure what our plans are for next few days but should be going over to the north island early next week!

Hope everyone who is going to Glastonbury has a good time! Let us know how is was!

Chris and Melissa Ann Cross (happy now mother!!!)

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Photos

Whale
Tail up as it dives back down

Dolphins
Looks close and all the little black lines are dolhpins