My second attempt to swim with dolphins was in a lovely town called Kaikoura. The name 'Kaikoura' translates to 'meal of crayfish’ in Maori. The crayfish industry still plays a role in the economy but these days Kaikoura has become a tourist destination because of the whales, dolphins and seals in the area. I had been told by lots of travelers that Kaikoura was a perfect place to go swimming with dolphins given that you could have up to 100 dolphins in a pod. Needless to say I was really excited!
We get to the Dolphin Encounters office and they set up everyone that wanted to swim with wet suits and explain to us everything we need to know about swimming with the Dusky dolphins. After that long process we headed out to the boats. When we got on the boat they proceed to inform us that bad weather was on its way and that we might have to turn around. Why they got us all set up and on the boats before telling us we might have to turn around who knows ohh wait I know...to take our money! GRRR Anyways back to the story.
So we carry on like normal in hope that the weather will pass. After maybe 20 mins in the boat to our surprise (sarcasm for those who didn’t get that) the weather turns for the worst. As I thought we would be turning around any minute now, we see this small boat going in circles in the ocean. We were in a big enough boat and the ride was ruff I couldn’t imagine being in that small boat. When the captain asked them if they needed any help they start explaining to us that they had lost a diver. The diver had gone in alone (number one diving rule you should always dive with someone) and after 15 mins in the water the weather turned bad and he had yet to surface.
We finally spotted the diver but the swells were so big that he would have never been able to get on the small boat. The crew helped him on to our boat and we turned around to head back to shore. In order to help the small boat avoid the big waves we trotted back slowly and they followed closely behind. I don’t want to think of what would have happened to them if we would have stayed behind because of the weather. Another great story to support my favourite saying...everything happens for a reason. As you can tell my second attempt to swim with dolphins failed but we did save a diver and we got a full refund! All and all a pretty good adventure :)
