Kaikoura
We decided to make Kaikoura our first stop on the South Island. It sounded like a sweet little town and apparently we might see some seals. That was no lie. As we approached the town, I spotted a seal on the rocks below. On closer inspection we discovered an entire colony of the blighters. There were males and females, big ones and small, all blubbering about on their big bellies making their strange sound. I didn't really look at them as being sweet, partly because two were getting into quite a serious argument and partly because you are told not to get too close as they are pretty aggressive and very fast. It was incredible to see them in their natural habitat, just going about their daily business.
Kaikoura has the most stunning surroundings. The main street winds along next to the sea with an immediate backdrop of huge, snowcapped mountains. To give you an idea of how enticing this view was, it compelled us to head out for a fifty minute run the next morning to appreciate it.
Kaikoura is known as the place to go on a whale watching tour. However, with the budget in mind we decided we couldn't do everything and felt we should save our money for swimming with dolphins. Instead we headed off on a walk that also took in a few look out points, supposedly good for spotting different wildlife. Anticipating a scenic but shortish walk we only had one bottle of water between us. By the time we had trekked up, down and round several hills, in the boiling heat, been confronted by sheep, cows and I think there may even have been some goats, we were weak – real weak. And desperately in ANYTHING in exchange for water? That was us. Of course, we did eventually get back to the campsite and get some water and the good news is we even spotted a whale from one of the look outs. Well, it was pretty far away, but we were almost certain it was – we've even got a photo.
After a couple of days we loaded up the van and headed for a little town called Akaroa...
Akaroa
Ah, the lovely Akaroa. Akaroa is a quaint little town with a French heritage so most of the shops, restaurants and accommodation have French names. We were staying in a campsite on a hill high above the town, but a steep path of steps meant you could walk to and from it.
The main reason we came to Akaroa was to swim with dolphins. It is home to the Hector dolphin and can boast the highest density of this endangered breed.
We had booked ourselves onto the first trip of the day so it was very early on a grey and windy morning that we set off in the bus. We were running slightly late and I had forgotten one of my important van duties (I always prepped the inside before driving while Matt did the outside jobs) – locking the fridge. So as we made our descent into the village we peeled round a corner and the fridge door swung open. A few things toppled out, including the houmous pot which parted company with the lid, spilling its contents onto the carpet floor. It was before 6am, we were in a hurry, I cried – the less said about this the better!
The campsite owner had told us we should park behind the fire station. As we drew up we saw some parking spaces out the front of it, but Matt was insistent we'd been told to go behind. So, despite the fact we had to open a huge metal gate, there were no other cars there other than the fire engine and there were no appointed spaces, we parked the van at the back and headed for the dock.
We met up with our group and group leader, donned our fetching wet suits (extra thick in some vain attempt to offer protection against the freezing water) and climbed aboard the boat. There were only eight of us in our boat and we immediately made friends with an Irish couple, Nicola and Shane. The water was very choppy but apparently this is a good thing as the dolphins feel braver and are more likely to swim close to you as they know they can get away quickly. Matt spotted the dolphins first (he was very proud) so the boat was stopped and we waited to see if the dolphins would approach us, which is a sign they are happy for us to be around.
The dolphins started to swim around the boat so after being told to expect a “religious moment” upon entry we started to hop into the water. This was no lie, the water was freezing. It didn't even make me want to scream, in fact it made us mute for the first minute – our think our bodies went into shock. But it wasn't long before the dolphins started to appear and the water was forgotten. Now for those of you that think that swimming with dolphins involves dolphins gently bobbing around you and inquisitively nosing about your person whilst you stroke them (like I did) you are wrong. It is a much more raw experience. They were surfing the choppy waves as they approached us and they swim right past you, very close, but at quite a speed. I was left in no doubt that these are wild animals, and yet they had no reason to continuously swim around and past us, again and again, other than the inquisitiveness and trust they showed in us. This is what made it one of the most incredible experiences I have had. Normally there are about three to five dolphins swimming with a group but, probably due to the roughness of the sea, there were about fifteen of them with us that day.
We took it in turns to bang two pebbles together. This is a sound that the dolphins recognise and respond to and it is incredible. I found myself a very small way off from the group and as I knocked the pebbles together the dolphins were everywhere around me, under, circling, so close they were virtually rubbing my shoulder. It is really hard to even get across how amazing it was.
After about 40 minutes in the water the dolphins slowly began to swim away and we began to realise how numb we were! So we boarded to boat to head back (it was ludicrously choppy by this point – the rest of the trips that day were actually cancelled so we were lucky).
After collecting our certificate and bidding farewell to Nicola and Shane (who we were to meet up with later in our travels) we made our way back to the bus. There was still nobody around and also no angry notes on the windscreen – so far so good. I opened the gate as Matt drove the van and then it happened: a very angry fireman stormed up to me, as I cowered by the gate, and demanded to know what the hell we thought we were doing parking in a fire station. In that second it dawned on me how absurd it was that we'd done this, clearly we should have used the appointed spaces out the front, what were we thinking?! As I stumbled and mumbled some kind of poor explanation and apology Matt approached and an identical scene unfolded. Safe to say, we had learnt our lesson as we left with our heads hanging.
We finished our time in Akaroa with a delicious dinner in a wonderful pub garden, a few too many proseccos (I think we were a bit caught up in the moment after the dolphins) and a hilarious French waiter. Then it was off to the glaciers...
