From franz josef we drove to kaikoura which took around 6 hours. We had some good fish and chips in a local shop and played cards in the evening.
The next morning we were up early to go on a dolphin encounter trip. Unfortunately it was too cloudy and foggy for the trip to take place so it was cancelled and we had to go back in the afternoon to see if the weather was good enough. We went round the bay to a stinky seal colony while we waited! There were loads of seals! Baby ones as well, right by the car park! They growled at us when we got too close and apparently they can give quite a nasty bite too!
We had some lunch and went back to the dolphin place. The weather was still cloudy but had cleared up a bit. We got our wetsuits on nut there was no guarantee we would be able to find the dolphins. We had the thickest wetsuits I've ever seen with gloves, socks and a hood too! The water was 8 degrees c!
We set out in the boat and came across a sperm whale! It was enormous! You're not allowed to swim with them cos their sonars can actually make your sinuses explode which would kill you!! We saw it go down to the depths on the ocean though with a swish of it's enormous tail!
We drove for around 45 minutes and the dusky dolphins were spotted! 300 of them!!! We were expecting to see a few but not 300!! They were everywhere!! Darting all over the place and jumping around! They're so playful! Tiny little things but so cute! We got into the water with them and it was freezing! The water really took your breath away! The dolphins were amazing! We had snorkels and had to sing to them through them to get them interested! They cane at us from all angles! Jumping over us, darting at us from below, circling us! Just incredible! They seemed to be as interested in us as we were in them! They were so fast! We tried circling with them but they were too fast! It was amazing being in their environment and them being genuinely interested in us! We had around 20 minutes invtge water but my toes and fingers were numb by then so I couldn't have stayed in any longer! We got to watch them playing whilst we got warm and they're so much fun to watch! They just look like they're enjoying themselves the whole time! Unfortunately we had to leave them behind and go back to the mainland! We saw the sperm whale on the way back again too!