Swimming with the Dolphins in Kaikoura

Scenic drive to Kaikoura

 We arrived in Kaikoura after a stunning three hour drive through vineyards and along the coast from Nelson. We arrived in town in the later afternoon, and spent the day exploring the little town and taking in the beautiful scenery of the area.We then went for a drive a few minutes down the coast to a seal colony, where we saw a few lethargic seals that we at first thought were dead. Turns out they were just sleeping. Kaikoura is famous for its seafood, especially crayfish, which we decided to try for dinner. We ended up going to a restaurant called The Green Dolphin, and after discovering that crayfish cost around $100 each, we settled on the catch of the day instead, which happened to be the most delicious monkfish I have ever tasted.

Kaikoura at sunset

The seal that woke up for a picture

Anniversary dinner at the Green Dolphin

Panfried Lemon Monkfish with Hollandaise

Large pod of Dusky Dolphins

Getting used to the underwater camera

The dolphins weren't camera-shy.

The next day we got up early and headed to Dolphin Encounter, which is the company that we decided to use for our swim with the local Dusky dolphins. We were fitted in full wetsuits, including hoods, and then set out on a bus to the pier where our boat awaited. After that, it was a 25 minutes boat ride to where the dolphins had been spotted that morning. The Dusky dolphins are very gregarious, living together in groups called pods, which in the Kaikoura region can consist of individuals numbering anywhere from 100 to over 1000 in each pod. These are wild dolphins-- they're not fed or lured into the area nor are they trained to do tricks. Being able to swim and interact with them is entirely up to the dolphins, so we felt very lucky that we encountered a pod containing about 200 dolphins. They were very curious and weren't shy about coming right up to our noses to check us out. I took the guide's advice and dove down into the water to get the dolphins even more curious. When I did so, a few of them would play around me flipping over and showing off. Senushi and I really enjoyed the dolphin encounter and would highly recommend that you do it if you decide to visit New Zealand. We rented an underwater digital camera (it was pretty difficult to use), so a lot of these photos are taken below the water.