I arrived in Kaikora yesterday, which is a really cute little town about 200km North of Christchurch on the Pacific ocean. This will be my last stop before I head back to the North Island. I'm staying in this bizarre hostel that me and my friends have been calling "grandma's house" because it kind of reminds me of living 100 years ago, or perhaps staying at Norman Bates' hotel. Very Hitchock. The hostel is complete with hundreds of farside cartoons and a collection of about 500 VHS tapes.
The big thing to do in Kaikora is dolphin swimming, or anything else related to sea life because there is so much of it here. In Maori, Kai means food, and kora means crayfish, and there are apparently tons of crayfish here (I hear they go for 100 bucks a plate at restaurants). The reason for all the sea life is because of the Kaikora canyon which is right off the coast and is about 1600 meters deep where a warm tropical current and a colder current meet. This makes the water rich with plankton, dolphins, whales, seals etc. Kaikora is also one of the best places to see the Albatros which is the more graceful version of a seagull and has the largest wingspan in the world.
Anyway, this morning I got up at 4:30am to go for an early morning dolphin swim. I watched the sunrise on the Pacific ocean which was beautiful, and because it was a full moon last night, the sun and moon were in the sky at the same time this morning.
I got to jump into the ocean 4 times this morning to swim with the dolphins, which was one of the most special experiences of my life. They swim right past you, underneath you, beside you, and if you can entertain them, they will stick around. The dolphins are completely wild but interested in people and what we are doing I suppose, since the early morning is there time to play and socialise (they feed at night). All 4 times I was in the water, dolphins got as close to about 6 inches from me, and you should have heard me. The skippers on the boat said that because dolphins are very vocal they are attracted to sounds. I was singing and screeching and making all the most dolphin like sounds I could! When they swim by you, they turn on their side to look at you, and if you catch their eye, they will circle around you to play. You can play back by swimming around them in a circle too. Its like playing tag. I did this a lot and it was amazing! Being underwater and swimming around making eye contact with wild dolphins while you swim together--just unbelievable!!!
We saw hundreds of dolphins, all so playful and incredible. I obviously counldn't take pictures because I don't have an underwater camera (and who would want to fuss around with a camera while you're hanging with dolphins?) but some other people did, so I'm going to try and get some just to show you what it's like under the water. I did get a few shots when we were heading back to shore though. (I didn't use the zoom, this is how close they were!)
On another note, I'm really glad I don't get sea sick. SO many people were puking in buckets on the boat. Sick! My digestive system might be a mess, but I have a stomach of steel! (Only Kili has defeated it).
I said goodbye to the last of my friends this morning and now I'm on my own for the last 9 days of NZ. I'm gonna stick around here for a few days to relax and then it's off on the ferry to head back to Wellington. Ta Ta!
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