Stray team assemble! First stop: kaikora.

So after 4 plane rides I finally make it to Christchurch, New Zealand! After a sleepy night I'm the hostel I head back to the airport to get the stray bus. And soon enough the big orange bus pulls in and I quickly get chatting to a Canadian and Belgian girl. And I find out that we are a very multicultural bus with Dutch, French, German, and Irish! But I am the only Brit :p!

Our first stop is kaikora, famous for whale watching, dolphins and cray fishing. Our first afternoon was chilled as we went to a look out then to a seal pod to find some sleeping in the sun. Then it was back to the hostel to chill and have dinner together. The rest of the bus is really nice and we all get on well :).

However, after another early night, the fun really began as we were going to swim with dolphins!!! So we were up before sun rise and trudged over to the centre. We were then kitted out in some fetching swim suits and headed out to sea. And guess who saw them first?! Moi!!! So we quickly head over and before I know it I am in the water. And it was fffffreezing! Literally took my breath away! But within seconds I was surrounded by dolphins! There must have been around 100 swimming around us. We were told to make as much dolphin like noise as possible so we all sounded rather funny!

We swam for around 45 mins the I had to get out as I was so cold. And a bit seasick. Luckily the crew, josh and Ed, were lovely and gave me a blanket and ginger biscuits and I felt a lot better. Poor steph didn't fair as well though...

But that was 100% the most incredible experience of my life! I can't believe how many dolphins were there just swimming around. Hundreds of wild dusky dolphins!!! Bring on the next place Stray!