As our first attempt to swim with dolphins in Akaroa didn’t work out so well; we decided to give it another go in Kaikoura where the pods can be found in the hundreds. Words can’t describe how amazing this place was. Imagine pods of 500 wild Dusky dolphins playing around on clear flat seas and a bright sunny day. We didn’t believe until we were face to face with dolphins everywhere. As soon as we left the boat groups of 1 to 10 dolphins would swim past. It was our job to entertain the dolphins in any way we could. We must have looked and sounded so ridiculous to the dolphins and the crew, squawking and squealing, Jason even sang some Christmas songs, but it worked and they came within inches of you. If you made eye contact and swam in circles they would swim around with you too, but the humans got dizzy after awhile and had to stop.
We don’t know who was more curious us or them. After our hour swim in 50 degree water we got the chance to view these dolphins from the surface. The Dusky dolphins are the most acrobatic of the cetaceans, repeatedly demonstrating jumps, flops, and impressive back flips. The record for a Dusky dolphin jumping consecutively is 47 times!
After swimming around we dried off and found some more wildlife at the seal colony in the harbor back on shore. We might try to swim with them next.
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