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Published: February 26th 2011
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The drive up to Kaikoura on State Highway 1 was absolutely gorgeous!! Every turn you took there was something new to see even on the long straight roads where barely another car passed you. The hawks or falcons that were around were just magnificent and cruised along beside the road for ages though the minute Mark got the camera out they would drop down behind some trees or land on the ground!! When we turned onto the coast the scenery was beautiful. The road was very windy so I had to keep my eyes on the road but we stopped every now and then just to look at the beaches and bays. We stopped at one point as we had been told that often seals were basking on this particular beach but we found none there that day. So we continues on until we reached the town and checked into a little place run by a Chinese couple and their daughter, right next to a little river. We later found that this was inhabited by a small family of ducks including some ducklings. They didn’t really bother us until Mark fed them some bread one day and they then spent most
of their time by the van!!
Kaikoura is a small coastal town that is built up around its closeness with marine wildlife. It has a unique ecosystem apparently - something about hot waters and cold waters mixing - well the upshot is they have some fabulous wildlife around here.
We had been told about a Seal colony about 30 KM North of Kaikoura at Ohau Point and about a small stream where the pups play in the winter. As its currently summer we weren’t holding out much hope of seeing any - how wrong we were. We arrived at the lookout point and must have been greeted by about 60 seals out on the rocks. It wasn’t until we had been there for a little while when we looked a little closer and saw the ‘nursery’ that was just off to the left had side with about 60 plus pups playing on the rocks. Mark managed to climb down a little closer and got really close to one of the female seals close to the base of the rocks, when a little seal pup ventured out from between the rocks to get a closer look!!
We then headed
up the coast to the stream that has the seal pups but as the water level was low no pups could have got up there in summer, but it was a nice walk and waterfall even without the pups. On the way back we stopped at a little picnic area for lunch and saw a dolphin out at sea and some seals on the rocks - Mark got a little too close and it shouted at him!!
The following day Mark set about trying to catch some of the apparently abundant wildlife by fishing on the beach and I tried to help. It didn’t really do much good as all I got was very wet legs and a little chilly - but no fish to speak of.
So I tried a different approach - I have always wanted to swim with dolphins and on the advice of someone who lives in NZ and had done this particular trip I opted to go on one of the tours here rather than in the North Island. The only real problem was that I had to be at the dolphin encounter centre by 5.30 AM! Anyone who knows me knows I’m
not a morning person! I am so glad I got up!! It was amazing!! Absolutely freezing - 17 degrees in the water and the wetsuit didn’t really help keep out the cold!! The first time they dropped us off the back of the boat there were about 20 dolphins around and a few swam quite close to me and I was pleased to of at least seen some and been in the water with them. After about 15-20 minutes in the water they called us back to the boat. As one of the first back on I was asked to sit at the ledge on the back. Sitting just above the propellers facing into the wake, it took all my effort to keep my legs and flippers out of the wake so they didn’t come flying off!! This was a hell of an experience in itself! They then found a MASSIVE pod of dolphins. As we were at the back we didn’t see anything until they turned the boat around and then there were just dolphins everywhere! They were coming so close to the boat we couldn’t wait to get in the water again - despite the cold. Once in
I was just surrounded by dolphins. They will swim around you and surface next to you, as well as circle around you. When they do this you are meant to circle with them - I was able to do this for about 4 or 5 circles before getting dizzy and having to go the other way - they don’t follow you if you do that though!! A few of the dolphins kept coming back as they had really distinctive markings such as one only had half a right flipper. It didn’t matter where you looked under the water there was always at least 3 dolphins around. We were called back on board after about 45 minutes, got changed then spent the next half hour watching the aerial display by the pod of about 500 dolphins that were around us. It was just awesome!! Despite the cold and the slight sea sickness I recommend this to everyone who likes dolphins - or even if you don’t its an amazing experience to be this close to wild animals, and if you don’t fancy the swim you can just go and watch. Dad and Sandra did a whale watching trip and were really
disappointed as they spent 45 minutes in rough seas to see one whale for about 10 minutes and then 45 minutes back in rough seas to shore. Mark had gone fishing again but the fish still weren’t biting!!
So after quite an eventful few days we set off for a little peace and quiet at Hanmer Springs.
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