Swimming with dolphins

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This morning we asked at the hotel about where to get a good breakfast, and were told that actually the Dolphin Encounter café was the best place in town. Very convenient, as that’s where we were headed to swim with Dusky dolphins. Sure enough they had delicious food - Rich is getting into the habit of porridge for breakfast and the bacon here is thick and large, almost like ham slices.
Rich wasn’t about to get in the water but his plan was to stay on the boat and take pictures while Gary, Ben and I swam. The three of us changed into the wetsuits provided (poor Gary had to help a big old hairy guy squeeze into his). Ben noticed that his hood was “mushing his face out like a Play-Doh extruder toy” so he swapped it for a larger one. Then Rich joined us to view a quick video about the dolphins and what to expect. Some samples:
- “These are wild animals and you are here for their entertainment, not the other way around”
- “Please use the toilets on the boat and not your wetsuits, other people will be wearing them later”
- “To keep the dolphins’ attention, make noises or sing, swim in circles with them and dive”
- “There are buckets on the boat should you become seasick”

Once we got out on the water, one Dutch woman quickly made use of that last bit of advice, so staying away from her pink bucket became important. Luckily, none of us got queasy.
The swims were AMAZING. I will never forget the experience of having a dolphin swim in circles around me while I spun in place and kept eye contact. Gary had a mom and baby dolphin hanging around him. All of us met the Olympic challenge of staying away from the big clumsy woman who kept kicking and running into everyone. We got three swims, each one anywhere between 5 and 20 minutes. Rich and the other boat people were treated to a lovely concert of our toots, la-la-las, etc. as we tried to entice the dolphins nearer. They also got to enjoy the company of Alex, the hot guide with the tousled hair. All of this under gorgeous blue skies in view of the snow-clad mountains rising from the coast.
As we headed back to shore, dozens more dolphins paced us and practiced their bow-riding skills. Our guide Sarah let us know that we’d been swimming in 700 metres of water! Certainly the deepest water I’ve ever been in.
After a nice lunch back at the best café in town, we hit the road for the West Coast. It was a long drive but a beautiful one as hills turned to mountains and streams turned to gorges. We stopped in the Buller Gorge to walk across NZ’s longest swingbridge. Ben gingerly stepped across despite his fear of heights, then during a short forest walk Rich got the first sandfly bites of the trip. We also got to see a weka - a flightless native bird about a foot tall - poking around. Coming back across the river, Rich, Gary and I took the zipline - a cable from which we were suspended, letting gravity carry us back across the gorge. The ride was mild, but the landing was a bit scary as we came in fast toward a big net before a complicated series of taut cables quickly halted our momentum. The guy running the place was good on the upsell, getting us to buy a diskette of photos of our crossing.
We called ahead to that night’s B&B to ask for dinner recommendations and ended up at a great place called the Bayhouse, in Tauranga Bay near Westport. Again we saw the light fade on a beautiful bay while eating great food including Monteith’s Dark ice cream (it tasted like malted milk, we later found it was made from beer!) Then we found our way down pitch black gravel roads to the Bird’s Ferry Lodge where our host Andre had waited up to welcome us. Ben and Gary attempted the hot tub but were thwarted by the 4-inch-long bugs flitting about in the dark.
Off to sleep, for tomorrow we drive to the glaciers…

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Comments

[jenny]

wow!
what a fantastic experience those dolphins are!!! way to go uncle Mike-Rich, what's up dude? not a dolphin lover? hehehe

[musosf]

Rich isn't a watery kind of guy
Rich and open water do not agree...so swimming in water 1/2 mile deep is about the last thing he's about to do. But he was happy to hang out on deck chatting with the other landlubbers and taking lots of great pictures.