Friday 7th March
Had an amazing day trip to Kaikoura today, home of the crayfish, hence it's name (kai meaning to eat and Koura meaning crayfish). Kaikoura is situated about three hours out of Christchurch and it was an absolutely gorgeous day.
I had been recommended the trip by friends I had met on the north island so was really excited about swimming with dolphins. The boat trip itself is about 4 hours in total and during this time you spend about half an hour in the water with the dolphins and the rest of the time following the pod around the ocean.
We were lucky on our trip because as well as seeing a pod of 200 Dusky dolphins that we swam with we also saw several Hector dolphins, one of the smallest and rarest in the world which are only spotted on 5% of trips.
Actually swimming with the dolphins was an amazing experience although tiring at the same time as you had to swim out in your wet suit flippers and snorkel as quickly as possible and then try and keep up with them. The first time I didn't manage to catch them but after that I managed to get right in amongst them as them swam around and underneath me. You can become quite disorientated though as Jas found out when she managed to swim to the wrong boat after one swim.
By the time we got back to shore we realised that there was no bus for another 4 hours (not exactly the most frequent service) so instead decided to finish off the day with a walk to the seal colony to watch the seals sunbathing on the rocks metres away from you.I did get a bit close to one whilst having my picture taken which he didn't take to kindly too and hissed at me.
We then had fresh scallop sandwiches at a beachside cafe and watched the albatrosses before heading back to Christchurch.
Had an amazing day trip to Kaikoura today, home of the crayfish, hence it's name (kai meaning to eat and Koura meaning crayfish). Kaikoura is situated about three hours out of Christchurch and it was an absolutely gorgeous day.
I had been recommended the trip by friends I had met on the north island so was really excited about swimming with dolphins. The boat trip itself is about 4 hours in total and during this time you spend about half an hour in the water with the dolphins and the rest of the time following the pod around the ocean.
We were lucky on our trip because as well as seeing a pod of 200 Dusky dolphins that we swam with we also saw several Hector dolphins, one of the smallest and rarest in the world which are only spotted on 5% of trips.
Actually swimming with the dolphins was an amazing experience although tiring at the same time as you had to swim out in your wet suit flippers and snorkel as quickly as possible and then try and keep up with them. The first time I didn't manage to catch them but after that I managed to get right in amongst them as them swam around and underneath me. You can become quite disorientated though as Jas found out when she managed to swim to the wrong boat after one swim.
By the time we got back to shore we realised that there was no bus for another 4 hours (not exactly the most frequent service) so instead decided to finish off the day with a walk to the seal colony to watch the seals sunbathing on the rocks metres away from you.I did get a bit close to one whilst having my picture taken which he didn't take to kindly too and hissed at me.
We then had fresh scallop sandwiches at a beachside cafe and watched the albatrosses before heading back to Christchurch.
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