Swimming with dolphins

POSTED BY IZZY

  

Yes, that’s right, swimming, in the sea, with dolphins. Oh yeah!

We were booked in for the 9 o’clock boat trip out but the day was looking very foggy outside. Never a good sign. So mum and I got into our wetsuits – dad didn’t want to swim and somebody had to stay with mads who was too little to swim – and bootie things. The woman gave us some snorkels, but not to use to breathe underwater, but to bash together to attract the dolphins.

So, off we went, out into the beautiful ocean.

We were back in 20 minutes: Fog.

Pretty annoying, it even looked for a minute that we might not be able to go at all. But they said that the fog should burn off in a few hours. They invited us back at 12 o’clock and that was fine by us, only that it meant that we had to pack up the campervan before the dolphins rather than after.

You probably don’t know, but the swimming with dolphins experience was infact, our last newzealandish (I know is not a real word) experience. We were packing to catch a flight out to Fiji for four days!

Anyway, we packed up the campervan, had some “fush ‘n chups” and then went back to the centre. We went through the whole palaver of the wetsuits again, and it didn’t help that there were a lot more people so it was more squashed and it took longer to get into the wetsuits.

So finally, off we went, out into the beautiful ocean… and this time we were in the water within 20 minutes. The dolphins were really easy to find, it only took about 15 minutes, until we found a pod. It started off with only a couple but by the time we got out, there were a good dozen.

It’s a strange feeling, being in the water with those weird booties on because they want to float so you’ve got to kick your legs under the water to stop yourself flipping upside down. But it’s even more strange when you get out and they’re all full of water.

Now, on to the good stuff. The dolphins. The particular species that we were swimming with were called the Hectors dolphin and were sadly endangered. There are only 7,500 left in the world and only around 1,500 in New Zealand. 

They’re quite small, around 1.2 metres, and that’s only the adults. The babies are even smaller, around this sort of size:

Actually swimming with them was awesome. Sometimes they came right up to you, and sometimes they jumped up really high in the air. We weren’t allowed to touch them because their skin is as delicate as the skin under your eye. And the bacteria under our fingernails might be enough to kill them.

Another once in a lifetime experience.