Having done all we wanted in Hanmer Springs
(there wasn’t much) we headed north towards the coast to Kaikoura which was
about a 2 hour drive away. Rather foolishly I decided to ignore the signs that
said ‘via SH1’ – the main road, and opted for the ‘inland scenic route’ as they
were about the same distance.
Roughly 10 minutes into the drive I
realised it was a mistake as the road climbed into the (albeit very scenic)
hills round some wonderfully windy and narrow vomit inducing bends, then down
precarious descents into the valleys below – then repeated about a dozen times.
Fine if you are driving a little convertible or motorbike but Polly was
battling a little and we were getting tossed about salad dressing.
It added an extra hour to the journey, and
wasn’t really worth it – but we eventually got to Kaikoura at around 2pm and
headed straight to the lookout because I simply cannot resist them. It was
pretty amazing, and the sun was out so the place looked beautiful – a huge calm
bay with crystal turquoise waters and pleasure boats skimming across the
surface, if it wasn’t for the snow-capped alpine mountains towering over it all
it would have looked like tropical North Queensland!
We headed for the town centre to have a
poke about and see about a campsite for the evening. Kaikoura is a fairly small
town – but has a massive draw for tourism because of the unique conditions in
the bay. Right offshore, about 100 metres out the sea bed drops off from 50 or
so metres to over 700. This has lead to a wide variety of marine life being spotted
there on a regular basis, giving rise to a whole host of eco-tours for whale
watching, seal spotting and dolphin swimming. It felt a bit like an English
seaside town in the summertime as all the kids were off school and everyone was
eating fish and chips – so we joined them and pondered our attack.
We decided to book onto a dolphin tour the
next day – and pay a rather extortionate amount of money (well, in relation to
our already battered budget anyway) to actually swim with the little fellas.
We’d reviewed the company and tour at great length and, although there were a
few times where people hadn’t even seen dolphins, let alone swam with them their
success rate was over 80% the phrase
“best experience in New Zealand” popped up repeatedly so we went for it.
That afternoon we chilled out with a few
beers back at the campsite. We picked one about 7km south of town which was
cheaper and had spots overlooking the beach, about 30 metres from the sea (an
easy choice as the rest were right on the highway in town). The highlight of
the campsite however was the kids play area which had a flying fox (always fun)
and small sailboat swing suspended from a tree for Cooksey and her broken wing.
We both had a bit of a restless night in
anticipation of D-Day (dolphin day) – both through excitement and fear of how
bloody cold the water was going to be! We’d both dipped a toe the previous
afternoon as the sun went down and almost lost them to the shock of it. We were
up almost in time for a change and made our way there with a few minutes to
spare. They check you in and then you are lead backstage to pickup your winter
wetsuit, gloves, boots, hood, mask and flippers. Poor Lisa could barely carry
it all with her dodgy shoulder but fortunately some old dear from Blighty
helped her out, instantly playing Mum.
After a brief safety video we were shuffled
onto a minibus and headed for our boat. Two or three times both during the
video, and when leaving the port the staff had said that there was no guarantee
of being able to spot or even swim with them – but our hopes were raised when
they then said there was a pod that’d been spotted only about 20 minutes away
that we were heading for. Everyone on the boat seemed nervous and excited and
it wasn’t long before we had our first spotting – a pod of about 30 dusky
dolphins. Feverishly we donned our masks, fins, gloves and hoods and waited by
the back of the boat for the dolphins to show some signs of interest. And we
waited… and waited… and waited, but to no avail – they were not being playful
enough for us to go in apparently, and the operators are very strict about when
you are allowed to get in the water with them. 
At this point they asked for a volunteer to
jump in solo and see if the dolphins would be interested once they saw one
person diving under the water and making noise to attract their attention. When
no one else was keen I stuck my hand up – so they sat me on the edge with me
feet in the water, and again I had to wait for the call. After 5 or 10 minutes
of waiting, again – no dolphin activity so we had to abandon this pod and go in
search of more… we were gutted, and already thinking this wasn’t going to be
our day!
We cruised about for another 20 minutes or
so before seeing another pod – and once again, they got me to sit on the edge
of the boat with my feet dangled into the icy cold water below. This time
however, I got the go ahead – the captain sounds a horn which is the signal to
jump in. I braced myself and dived down as far as I could (which wasn’t all
that far as the dry suits are super boyant) and made as much noise through my
snorkel, simultaneously swallowing a stomach full of sea water in the process.
The cold was a shock to the system and I soon re-surfaced, only to see a couple
of fins just in front of me so I stuck my head back down and three dolphins
whizzed past just under my feet – looking right at me! They were gone before I
even had a chance to dive down – and despite another 5 minutes or so in the
water, plus another location with me being used as chum, the dolphins would not
come out to play.
At this point, you could pretty much tell from the tone of the crews announcements and the fact they kept reiterating that they can't control the dolphins, that we wouldn’t all be getting to swim with them. I was gutted, and Lisa even more so – she’d been looking forward to this experience since before our trip, and especially since she had her tumble and was ruled out of the extreme sports stuff. Sure enough, after another pod of stuck up dolphins refuse to frolic with us the guide announced we were heading back – to a collective sigh of disappointment from the boat.
What can you do? It was such a shame, the
weather had been awesome all morning and it seemed conditions were perfect for
it but alas, it wasn’t to be. On the bus back they told us we’d have 80% of the
booking fee refunded which was some scant consolation but we felt a bit
dejected, as we didn’t really have the time to stay another day and risk
another trip.
Once we got back we went to see the fur
seal colony just around the corner to cheer ourselves up – they live there all
year round and hang out on the rocks just near, or actually sometimes inside
the carpark so it was cool to hang out there watching them and planning our
next move.
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