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Published: December 11th 2010
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1 additional video(s) currently being processed It’s been the subject of many a science fiction book and Hollywood blockbuster so I am sure that you know how the story goes … alien creatures arrive in some strange vessel, put on unfamiliar equipment to enable them to survive in the new environment and then boldly make the leap of trust to make contact with the indigenous population. Usually, things take a turn for the worse, pretty quickly, and harmony becomes discord and leads on to warfare.
William and I came eye-to-eye (literally in my case) with alien creatures in their environment this morning when we were lucky enough to spend about half an hour swimming and diving with Dusky Dolphins. We were assured that the dolphins love this attention and get as much fun out of such interaction as the humans do. As they swam in circles around us, enticing us to try and outspin them (impossible!), and duck-dived right next to us, trying to get us to mimic them, it really seemed that this was their playtime.
Emily had had an attack of nerves the day before and the thought of encountering all the jellyfish she’d seen in the water was enough for her to choose the
option of staying on board as a watcher. Diana, unfortunately, had to stay on board too but did therefore have the opportunity to take some great photos and video footage. Hopefully Pete’s offer that she and Emily could be the ones to do the swimming in Australia (with sharks!) served as some compensation .
As it was, on the morning, Emily really regretted her decision (making this doubly hard for Diana) and looked pretty glum until the dolphins started leaping into the air. William did very well for his first-time in deep water and first proper go at snorkelling; but the swimming in the swell, the gloom beneath us (1800m deep) and, I suspect, becoming a little overwhelmed by being surrounded by fast-moving wild animals took its toll and he sat on deck speechless and exhausted afterwards. D caught some great footage, including a dolphin repeatedly somersaulting just yards behind oblivious P and W, as they swam back to the boat. Her and E’s view from the prow of the boat was of ‘dolphin-soup’ with a few snorkeler-croutons sprinkled on the surface.
Dolphin Encounter is a very professional outfit; with informative guides and videos, a slick transfer out to sea
and the dolphin pod, excellent cookies and hot chocolate on board (Emily did cheer up a bit at this point!) and high-quality snorkelling gear. Back at base, there was an excellent gift-shop and a lovely café with views over the sea, selling fantastic food. Again, some of our fellow passengers regretted their café consumption with one American mom turning green and spending the entire trip filling a bucket – yew!
We learned so much on this trip – the pod of dolphins was about 2000-large, and contained many nurseries within it (groups of mothers and tiny babies with older midwife dolphins in attendance), they sleep on the move but shut down half of their brain at a time and they are highly promiscuous (with five different couplings in one minute for a single female the record sighted by this crew). P became quite excited when he felt himself being butted in the groin, only to discover it was another snorkeler’s face-mask! Their natural predator is the Killer Whale, who visit Kaikoura every 5 or 6 weeks or so for a snack … but their biggest killer is man. Not only are they killed in Japan for ‘scientific research’ (20,000 a
year!) but they still die in fishing nets, suffocate due to ingesting plastic bags and other litter and can be poisoned by man-made effluent … if W and E learn only that they have a role to play in not harming the environment on this trip then that in itself will have made it worth it.
Some more photo opportunities presented themselves on our way back to the dock, as it was all too soon time to leave the dolphins for their lunchtime nap. The protection of these dolphins allows for only three trips a day, with a maximum of 45 swimmers at any one time, to maintain the dolphins’ ownership of their patch of the ocean. D and I felt that the way in which these very special waters around Kaikoura are protected and yet kept open for small groups of tourists could be a model for other parts of the world where we have felt that commercialism has ruined the very place that people have come to see.
A quick snack in the car park, and a drive around the peninsula in the sunshine (hooray!) and we set off for our coast-to-coast drive. 370km through beautiful river valleys
and remote mountains and plateaus took us over the Lewis Pass and down towards Greymouth. (IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE HERE – such was the length of today’s journey that Diana was granted special permission to drive and she actually did quite well … according to the children! Who knows one day I might let her write the blog!)
We took a short break to swim at Hamner Springs thermal reserve and highlights here included the 41 degree sulphurous pools, William being lured under a cascade of freezing cold water dropped out of a high barrel and Diana shredding her bikini bottoms and enduring a neck injury on the ‘Black Hole’ flume ride. W, E and P had convinced her that this was the easiest flume and then all sat at the bottom to listen to her screams all the way down from the top!
Once over Lewis Pass the weather turned for the worse and I am sure that W isn’t the first tourist to say on the road into Greymouth ‘Well, you know how it got its name…’. As the gloom deepened, the rain intensified and the wind picked up, we decided to ‘upgrade’ from our campsite for
the Spaceship© to a Standard Cabin … seven (!) beds in a breeze-block (OK-painted primrose) and tin-roof shack. We felt like extras in Cell-Block H but the £11 upgrade proved to be the bargain of the trip so far as a tropical squall struck the coast overnight. Out of the elements and with carpet (of sorts) on the floor, we all had a good night’s sleep ahead of our move up into glacier country tomorrow.
NB – Thank you to everyone who is posting comments and messages having read the blog, we really do appreciate the contact, apart from some strange bloke from India (time-share salesman
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Susan Wales
non-member comment
Your trip is getting better and better. Dolphins sound wonderful!