Retrospective Travel Journal, Day #8
2009-02-05, Thursday
The day for our dolphin swim has finally arrived! Ella is a darling and has offered to drive us there, so we get up at 4:30 am to get in the car and go to Kaikoura for the first dolphin encounter of the day – the only one with places left when we called a couple of days back… *yawn*
While Ella drives and A is half asleep in the backseat, I try to capture the morning beauty outside. It’s early enough for the elves to dance – it’s what we say in Sweden when the fog is still present on the fields – and as the light increases, we occasionally have to drive through stretches of the swirling dancers.
As the sun rises, the beauty of the NZ landscape becomes apparent:
After some confusion as to where we are to meet on top of being a tad late, we suddenly find ourselves in wetsuits, on a boat, heading out to hopefully find ourselves some dolphins to swim with!
Lucky us! A helicopter is out this morning, helping our captain locate a huge school of dolphins not far off. Yay! Sooner than we know, we can see the sleek bodies of the dusky dolphins breaking the surface not far from the boat:
Time to get wet! The visibility is really bad this day and as I lie there with my eyes searching for shapes in the green murk, the feeling is surreal to say the least. Suddenly a flash of gray races past really close, right under me! In a few seconds I’m surrounded by dolphins in twos and threes, wondering what weird, almost immobile shape has invaded their home. We’ve learnt three ways to catch their interest, so I keep my arms to my sides and start making funny noices in my snorkel; once I have eye contact with a dolphin I start swimming round and round – the dolphin racing with me in a matter of seconds. I have NO chance of keeping up with the streamlined duskies as they speed around me, playing along, and they seem to tire of my weak attempts at spinning in about four laps, and leave me to catch my breath on the surface. I try for the third thing we’ve been told they really like, which is diving straight down amongst them, but with the 5+5 wetsuit I stand little chance of making it further down than a metre or two before bobbing up to the surface again, and so I continue making my sounds and spinning with them instead. It’s an amazing feeling to play with these magnificent animals and to be able to visit their space in the world for just a short while. This trip is worth every cent! The fact that we must look and sound ridiculous to the people still on the boat is easy to ignore.
After about 50 minutes in the water, it’s time to get back on the boat to try and get some shots from above the surface instead of below. They happily play for us, and I really miss my tele lens, that I left at home due to its weight.
As we speed away from the dolphins, one of the duskies decides it’s time we see some backflips, and so promptly does about five of those in a row behind us. It’s unfortunately too far away to get a decent shot, and so I save the memory on my internal memory card instead. Apparently the duskies are a real repetative race, and will almost always repeat a jump they’ve performed. The photographers of the world thank you, duskies!
Suddenly a shape takes up position in the air alongside the boat, and glides next to us for a while. The albatross is truly a gracious bird, and huge to boot! When it decides it’s time to leave us for other adventures, MAJESTIC is the word that sticks to my mind. An awesome sight.
Once back on dry land, we meet up with Ella and head to Kaikoura’s main street (might as well have said “only street”) to have lunch at a café. Some lasagna later, we get back in the car to go looking for the fur seal colony on the south side of the bay, ice cold beer in tow. Unfortunately the seals have taken up position on a rock quite far out in the water:
…so instead we watch a colony of birds as we sip our beers:
The bay is just beautiful:
No wonder the beer tastes better over here!
We also spot some weird-looking rocks:
And as I turn my head before getting back in the car, my inner photographer spots these wonderful lines and colours, quickly to be caught by the outer one:
On the road back home, it seems we’re not the only ones to have brought beer:
Ella suggests we should take our time on the way back to go see her friends’ house that they’ve been working on (building) over the last seven years, and so we stop by Sanna and Ellis in Cheviot. The house is awesome! First of all it’s huge. Second of all, it’s all in wood. Third, they’ve made wonderful use of the space inside as well as out. Check the pics out:
The view is amazing:
Ella finds the swing:
Ella and I also make good use of their trampoline:
As Ella gets off the trampoline to put on her shoes and pick up her mobile that she put next to them on the ground, she realizes the phone is gone. We all spend some time looking, until we notice… the dog’s got it! A funny chase commences:
Finally Ella gets hold of the phone and it’s time for some beer in the sun on the veranda with Sanna and Ellis. The time unfortunately passes too quickly, and we soon have to be on our way back to Coalgate to be able to go on that horse ride we’ve missed out on so far (last chance!). Sanna, Ellis, it was great to meet you both!
One uneventful car ride later, we find ourselves on horses, walking up a nearby hill. Oscar takes A there, and I get to befriend Somersault:
The hills look magnificent in the rays from the setting sun:
Considering this is A’s fourth time on a horse he’s doing really well, soon feeling confident enought to gallop on his own the full length of the field:
Sheba joins us as well:
The sun starts setting behind the treeline:
Somersault:
Before we go back, I ask Ella to take her horse for a gallop along the ridge in the sunset. I love this shot:
After taking care of the horses and letting them back out to their friends, we go back inside for our last dinner at Ellas and on the south island. Tomorrow morning the plane leaves for Auckland. Thanks for a splendid time Ella! We’re so glad we could stay with you and would love to come back soon!
Back in five. Or tomorrow. 