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Published: June 25th 2008
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Hanmer Springs
Following another lengthly drive we arrived in Hanmer Springs, a small town in the Canterbury region of the South Island of New Zealand. The town is built around a popular hot spring which was discovered in the late 19th century. Many tourists flock to the area, particularly during the summer months, however when we arrived the area was bustling with tourists and the campsite was near to full with fellow campervans and caravans of various shapes and sizes.
On our arrival we took a drive through the town in order to get a feel for the place before checking into the campsite, where we caught up on our emails before tea and retreating to our campervan for a DVD and a drink before bed. Although Hanmer Springs offers a variety of activities, all we really wanted to do in the town was visit the hot springs.
Waking up in the morning to a very dull and dismal day, the last thing that we felt like doing was putting on our swimming gear and stepping out into the cold. After much encouragement, we made it and in fact that first step into the pool nearly scalded my toes!!
Once in the pool it was definitely worth braving the elements for and we really didn't want to leave. We spent around 3 and a half hours lounging in the various hot pools and sulphur pools. It was so surreal sitting outside in the pouring rain, surrounded by snow capped mountains, but relaxing in 40 degree natural pools. We got talking to a number of Kiwi's who were also on their holidays and spent some time reminiscing on our travels to date. Completely wrinkled we headed out of the pool and into town in search of some lunch before heading back in the van for a drive to Kaikoura.
Kaikoura
Arriving in Kaikoura around tea time we drove through the town locating the various points of interest for the following morning. Having spent the day talking about the meal that we want the most on our return, we decided to treat ourself to an Indian takeaway. We checked into our camping site and were served up the delicious flavours of the Indian takeaway.
Kaikoura is renouned for its dolphin and whale watching opportunities and this was the main reason for us stopping here. On Wednesday morning
we awoke early and headed down to the Dolphin Encounter Offices where we checked out the prices for swimming with the wild dolphins. Both whale and dolphin watching was going to work out expensive, and seen as we are on a budget, we had to pick only one. After visiting the two centres, we decided on swimming with the wild dolphins and booked the trip for later on in the afternoon. The whale trip didn't involve any swimming with them for obvious reasons.
In the meantime we decided to head to the internet to catch up on our blog and phone home. On returning back to van we noticed that it was rather cold and joked amongst ourselves about being off our heads wanting to swim in this weather. Unfortuntely when we arrived at the dolphin encounter office we were advised that the afternoon trip had been cancelled due to the unexpected high winds, making it unsafe to take the boat out. Slightly disappointed about missing out, however slightly relieved that we did not need to get changed into our swimming gear in this weather, we booked in for the following morning in the hope that the wind would
Gary
Getting ready to swim with the dolphins. die down.
For the rest of the afternoon we headed to the supermarket to stock up on some supplies before snuggling up in the back of the van with a few goodies and a cup of tea while watching a few more episodes of 'The Wire'.
While cooking our dinner in the communal Kitchen we got speaking to an older couple who had also booked an around the world ticket. We shared some of our experiences with them, comparing countries and adventures before realising the time and heading to bed.
We were up early the following day, relieved to find that they wind had dropped dramatically however there was a slight frost on the ground and covering the campervan. The trip was going ahead, however we were sure that it was going to be a cold one. Dolphin Encounter office was excellent and completely prepared for the weather, providing us with a two piece wetsuit, gloves, headwear and booties. We got changed into our wetsuits before watching a short video and heading out to the bus which took us a short distance to the boat.
On the way out to sea, we spotted many different wildlife,
including the Albatross and the New Zealand Seal. A few small pods of dolphins passed the boat, however we were assured that there was a larger pod slightly further south so we kept going in search of them. Before not too long we arrived at the huge pod of dolphins, there were hundreds of them swimming alongside the boat, eager to see how interesting we were. The sight of all these beautiful creatures was astounding, and neither me nor Gary had ever imagined that there would be so many.
There were two groups of swimmers, and luckily for us we were in the first group of swimmers. As we entered the water and got over the initial shock from the temperature (it was freezing), we were totally amazed by the number of dolphins swimming around us. I stayed away from the main group of people as the dolphins seemed more interested in what you were doing. I managed to get the attention of a few dolphins, catching their eye and swimming with them in circles. It was so surreal, these were beautiful wild animals, so gentle and curious.
I was swimming in circles and playing with this one
Gary's getting Old
His hands after the hot springs. dolphin in particular. After some time of frantically kicking my legs and trying to keep up with it, I managed to swallow some salt water and had to come back to the surface to recover. Amazingly the dolphin stopped circling and also came to the surface and looked at me as if to say "why did you stop?". It was a shame we never had an underwater digital camera as we could have got amazingly close pictures, although it'd probably have been a distraction.
During our swim, another huge pod of dolphins passed through us, making it impossible to see anything but dolphins. We were told not to touch the dolphins as they are wild and don't like to be touched, however as the pod passed it was extremely difficult not to touch the animals with your hand as they were so close to us.
Back on the boat, we changed quickly and took a seat up on deck in order to observe the other group playing with the dolphins. Following their swim, the dolphins caught a ride at the front of the boat, where we observed them for some time jumping out of the water and showing
off. We really were sad to leave these beautiful creatures and return back to shore.
Arriving back in Kaikoura we headed to the local fish and chip shop for a 'fish supper', which we enjoyed at the ocean front, slightly further along the coast.
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