A dolphin encounter

5th November, 2009

There are two reasons that most people head here to Kaikoura and that's either to whale watch or to swim with dolphins. At first we were reluctant to indulge in either of these activities, not just because of the cost, but mainly from an environmental perspective. Not only that, we're not particularly strong swimmers (although that is coming on in leaps and bounds now with the amount of time we've been spending in the water!) plus I'd never actually snorkelled before. I felt more reassured after the green credentials of the company that runs the dolphin trips and understanding that the only way you get to see and swim with the dolphins is on the dolphin's terms; they do nothing to entice them, it's their choice if they come and swim with you.

So, deciding that I'd regret it if we didn't do it, we found ourselves with another 5am start to get up and out in time for our dolphin briefing. We were already very quiet and quite nervous on the drive to the centre, and then on seeing 30 odd people dressed in wet suits and snorkelling gear at that time in the morning, it all became a little more disconcerting. The guys at Encounter briefed us that as dolphins are intelligent creatures they like to be entertained and they like it if you sing underwater (by this point I was starting to laugh, although looking back it was probably a little nervous hysteria!)

Once out on the boat, we felt a little more at ease with the view of the sunrise to calm our nerves... well at least I was until the skipper blew the horn to let us know we could get in the water. 14 other people, including Frank, threw themselves into the water and I was left sitting there knowing it was now or never. I took the plunge and cor blimey! the water was cold and took my breath away, leaving me feeling very anxious and almost heading straight back to the boat, but knowing this was an experience of a lifetime I soon calmed down and got into the groove by singing a few Madonna songs* through my snorkel. In no time at all I had a couple of dolphins swim up to see what I was up to. It really is an incredible, almost surreal experience, they are such friendly, curious and playful animals that in the end we didn't want to get out of the water! What made it even better for me was seeing Frank's face. Knowing that he was even more apprehensive about the whole thing than I was, it was then great seeing him completely exhilarated by the experience, and in true late form, he was by far the last person back on the boat after the horn went to tell us to get back on! Well, you gotta get your value for money haven't you?!

Cx

* If you ever go swimming with dolphins, just for reference, I'm not sure that they were very keen on Madonna, they seemed to enjoy a bit of Wham and Mr Scruff more!