A Very Kiwi Venture: Thurs Nov 17 Dolphins--YIPPEEE

Today dawned bright and clear, and it was delightful to see the hills which were enshrouded in low clouds yesterday and the neat rows of grape vines of the vineyard. I made my way (early) to the Picton harbor to catch my boat to go swimming with the dolphins, Duskey Dolphins are what we were looking for. There is a certain area where they know they are typically found, and they will do a maximum of up to 3 swims if the dolphins don’t hang around very long. All in all, they are looking to provide you with an hour of swim time. I know you won’t be shocked that my experience with my wet suit (at least this time I was in my swim suit, I had a private changing room and nearly the right size of suit—why can’t they make them for tall people??? I was still waddling around like a penguin) was not a pleasant one, but I survived…and ignored the choking collar that pulled against my trachea every time I sat down…which was always. I was assured that it would be fine once I got into the water.

The instructions for the swimming were that we couldn’t touch the dolphins, and we needed to ‘sing’ in order to attract them…so we practiced through our snorkels singing at a very loud volume high and low. The dolphins like to come check out the weirdos in the tight suits who can’t carry a tune and certainly send mixed dolphin messages…I am sure they were laughing the entire time. We saw our first small pod of dolphins and trailed them a bit, but they were mostly interested in feeding, and not so much in playing. It was fun to watch as they surfaced and jumped out of the water every now and then, but after a while we left them to their breakfast and went in search for another pod. It didn’t take us long to find them, and out we went. I think all our ‘singing’ at the beginning was us just screaming from the cold shock of the water…at least it was that way for me. I was just trying to breathe calmly and not fill my snorkel with water and keep a tight hold of my GoPro. We had been warned that someone’s GoPro went to the bottom of the sound just yesterday, so all of us, and there were about half which had them gripped them a little tighter. I had mounted mine on the floaty device, and I am sure it would have been a good idea to test it out before I went in the open ocean to see if it really floated, but I wasn’t letting go of that thing for a minute…just in case. The first time out, I ended up at the back of the pack, and didn’t get to see much of the dolphins. It was a short outing, as they called us in so we could find another pod. We clambered back in and the operators told me that I would be the first one out the next time, and I was, and IT WAS MARVELOUS!!! The dolphins hung around us for about 45 minutes, during which time we were all singing and dodging kicking feet, but they liked us and were interested in us…I got some good video footage, which when edited, I will post. I do wish the visibility had been a little better, as you really couldn’t see them for any distance, but fortunately, they came right through our group and gave us a really good show! It didn’t take long for the wetsuits to warm up either, and all in all it was a fantastic experience.

Video with dolphins to come

After getting back on the boat, we took our wetsuits off and stood underneath a hose with warm fresh water to rinse off a bit, and then were able to change back into our warm clothes as there were changing areas in the bow of the boat. The crew had hot chocolate and cookies waiting for us as well. A note about the crew, the captain was very knowledgeable about the area and the wildlife and narrated to us throughout the trip as we searched for dolphins. Then we had two spotters/guides as well, who helped us find the animals as well as kept us together in our own swimming human pod as we were in the water. I was chatting with the captain a bit, and he convinced me to do the afternoon trip to see NZ birds on a bird sanctuary island in the afternoon.

I had about 90 minutes between trips, so I went hunting for a laundromat, as it was getting time to do a little laundry. I found one, tossed in two loads and wolfed down a salad in my car as they were spinning, then hurriedly folded them up and dashed off to the second trip. This time the boat ride took about 1 hour in each direction to Motuara island. On the way, we slowed to see a nesting ground of some spotted shags (cormorants) and I saw a mamma with some chicks in her nest. Then we continued on our way. We were lucky enough to see a king shag, which is a really rare bird, a black and white beauty hanging out on a rock. We then went to the island and saw a south island robin and a south island saddleback, along with a little blue penguin chick in a nest. We hiked to the top of the island, and by the time we got there, the rain had stopped and we had some incredible views of the sound. On the way back to Picton, we went through a little bay where some Hector dolphins (the smallest dolphins and rarest too, I believe) have been known to hang out. I saw them! They were fast little buggers and came like a torpedo towards our bow, under water, but I saw them, me and another guy…my polaroid sunglasses really made a difference. All in all it was a great day for viewing wildlife here in the Marlborough sounds. Tomorrow I am going to take a mail boat into Pelorous sound, which is supposed to be nice, and I am looking forward to it. Hopefully I will be able to see more wildlife then too.

Spotted shags, with chicks (last one)