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Published: February 6th 2008
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Oh my gosh this has got to be the most amazing day ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We got to the Dolphin centre for 8.30am and after being kitted with sexy wetsuits we watched a short briefing video on the Dolphins.
They tell you that you are entering their world so it's more about you entertaining them to get them close to you and interact, rather than them entertaining you - very true! They give you some tips on how you can try and get them interested such as singing underwater and trying to act 'Dolphin like' - all sounds very amusing in the classroom but will give it a go.
We're taken to the harbour and spilt into groups - lucky the group we are put in are all swimmers (people can pay to just go Dolphi watching and not swim) and as ours in a small boat we head in the opposite direction to the other 2 larger boats where apparently a big pod of dolphins has just been spotted.
There was a sea sickness warning put on this morning and we can soon see why - the sea is so rough and the boat is bouncing around like
a toy! But rather than feeling sick it's like a roller coaster and makes it more exciting instead.
About 20 minutes in we see the Dolphin pod - and there are about 50 dolphins swimming all together!
The boat pulls up close, beeps his horn to indicate the propellers have been turned off and then it's our turn to all dive in the water.
Me and Di dive in together, start humming and within seconds about 5 dolphins are all swimming and circling around us! The water is quite murky so you can't see very far but the Dolphins are swimming so close you could touch them (but your not allowed as they don't like it so would scare them off).
We are just amazed at first so don't really try to play, just sing to them. But after about 20 minutes the Dolphins got bored so swam away (they are really quick!).
We get back into the boat and they catch up to the pod so we can dive in with them again. After about 5 mins I can't see any so I start to sing 'Time of your life' by Green Day and
they must like this as about 3 Dolphins came and swam with me again! There was even an Hector Dolphin, which apparently are very rare to see in this area as it's mainly Dusky Dolphins - we were in luck!
This time I tried to play abit more but the suits are quite buoyont so you can't dive so well, so after 15 minutes the Dolphins got bored again and swam off.
We dove with them about 5 times in total and I was lucky enough to see them each time (must be the singing). Di was too (she was singing Littliest Hobbo which she said they liked, she did try 'Under the Sea' from the Little Mermaid but apparently they didn't like it and all swam off!).
Due to having a restriction times were boats are allowed in the area (to protect the dolphins from over exposure - which is really good as otherwise they would probably leave the area) we just sailed along with them for a bit watching and taking photo's where we could (they were really quick). It was fantastic to see them doing backflips and somersaults and knowing that they were doing
Giant Chess Board
It's free to play! this for fun - they were wild so not trained in anyway.
Then it was a very bumpy sail back to the harbour - the wind had really got up and one girl was even flown through the air at one point!
We got back to the centre to discover that the sea was so bad they had cancelled the afternoon sail (how lucky for us).
After warming up a bit it was back to the car and onto our final destination - Christchurch.
We arrived at about 4pm so had a wander around the city. We were planning on going to a Mauri night but are told they are not that good (we should have gone to one in the North Island - oh well) so decided to move onto plan B - Curry Night!
After looking at about 5/6 Indian restaurants (only the best will do - this is our first meal out in a month!) we decided on a place called Little India.
So after showing and buying some wine, we went to the restaurant (it was bring your own alcohol) and went all out - poppadums, onion bhaja's, tandoori mushrooms, garlic naan (stinky but very good) I had a very very hot Jalfreeze and Di a spicy Tikka Masalla.
It was that good we couldn't finish it so we asked for the rest to be put in takeaway boxes for tomorrow's dinner - 2 meals in 1 - bargain!
We went back to the hostel with very full belly's - feel sorry for our room mates - we stink!
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