Swimming with dolphins
March 22nd started with a big "wow" as I rolled over to see this out my car window:
It looked like a perfect day and I happily trotted off to the White Island Tours office for my boat trip, where my bubble was promptly burst when I was told it was cancelled due to... weather conditions! I looked out the window at the clear blue sky and sunshine, and raised one eyebrow at the guy. It seemed that White Island, being 60km off the mainland, was subject to much different weather conditions and the winds near the island were around 30 knots! This made landing any vessel dangerous, and so the trip had been rescheduled for the next day. I really did want to go, so I signed up and wandered off to find something else to do for the day. One thing I knew I wanted to do before leaving New Zealand was swim with dolphins, but I wasn't planning on doing this in Whakatane because I was already doing a paid activity with White Island, and I try to spread them out since I don't do many of them. But I walked down the main street and one of the first shops I found was a dolphin swimming company... so I went in to see what it was all about, and they had a boat leaving in 45 minutes (the only one for the day)! Plus, I had a COUPON. How could I say no? Soon enough, it was time to don wetsuits, and choose masks, snorkels, and flippers. We went out the back door of the shop, walked half a block down and across the street, and we were at the boat docked at the river... now that's accessibility! Their regular boat was having maintenance done, so we would be cruising on what looked like a glorified dinghy, but turned out to be a sturdy seafaring vessel.
A photo taken by Wayne, a friend I'll tell you about shortly:
We were on the boat for about half an hour before the skipper found the dolphins -- although there are estimated to be about 25,000 Common Dolphins in the area, it's still the OCEAN and the ocean is BIG, so it's really a wonder that they can find them at all. But when we did find them, they numbered in the hundreds; there were several occasions when I looked out over the sparkling teal water to see up to a dozen dolphins surfacing simultaneously within my angle of view. They also raced effortlessly alongside the boat, just below the surface, sleek grey bodies shining as they arced up and down through the spray from the boat. The first group we encountered mostly consisted of mothers and babies, so we did not go in the water with them (it is illegal and probably dangerous too). The next group was promising until a feeding frenzy erupted: hundreds of Australasian Gannets competed with the dolphins for pilchards (sardines), circling nonchalantly and then suddenly folding their wings and dropping torpedo-like at 100km/h into the water, to emerge moments later with a glistening prize in their mouths. After enjoying this spectacle, we moved on and were given the all-clear to enter the water with the next pod who were approaching. We were told to sit on the edge of the boat while it was still moving, and when given the "Go, go, go!" call, jump in the water as the engine was shut off. The boat was still moving slowly as we did this, and it was a strange feeling to slide awkwardly into the water with flippers on as the boat opposed our motion. I suppose the dolphins are coming to ride the waves from the boat, and they would lose interest if we were not in the water before the waves dissipated. The method worked, and I immediately greeted with a half-dozen dolphins swimming swiftly around me. At times they were within arms-reach, then playfully dove down so deep that they disappeared from view, only to rocket to the surface moments later. The water was filled with their squeals and clicking sounds. We swam with three different pods, and with the last one, I had seven dolphins quite interested in me who stayed in proximity for about a minute before darting off again (a long time when dealing with such a fast-moving creature).
Here are the photos I took before we went in the water.
Catching a jump picture has a lot of luck involved.
They were usually swimming in pairs or threes.
This is the splash from a Gannet dive-bombing at 100km/h.
We were then given the opportunity to go to a nearby island (Whale Island, shown in viewpoint photo from the last NZ post) to swim with SEALS! I didn't even know you could do that! At most seal colonies there are signs up warning you not to get too close, as they can be aggressive and bite. But the skipper said that if you give them their space and let them come to you, there are no problems. When we arrived, five seals were lazily sunning themselves in a shallow rock pool, lifting a flipper here and there as if to dismiss any worries. We (the guide, myself, and one of the other swimmers -- the rest were afraid!) swam within 10 meters of them, and were then instructed to wait until they approached. Sure enough, one found us interesting enough to investigate. She swam around us and at one point swam straight towards me while I had my head under the water! The whiskered face veered to the side at the last second, leaving me breathless and in a cloud of tiny bubbles. The skipper then spotted the bull seal coming from around the bend to check up on his ladies, so we went back to the boat to ensure we didn't disturb them. Once there, the other seals came out into the bay and put on a real show: think of a game of seal "tag". They lept from the water to greet each other with the touch of a nose, then raced away to be subsequently chased.
Here is a video of us swimming that I snagged off of Wayne...
(the guide, Megan, has yellow flippers; I am to the left of her)
Whale Island up close.
On the way back to the mainland, I was chatting with the couple in the row of seats behind me. My car camping came up in conversation and I was saying how I had slept in that scenic viewpoint the last two nights because there weren't any cheap campgrounds around and I just needed a safe place to park my car. The people in the row behind them (Wayne and Helena) heard this and piped up, "You can come park in our driveway if you like!". I thought that sounded like a better idea, so I accepted and got them to mark their address on my map when we got back. I decided to go for a random little drive before heading over there, and then ended up chasing the sunset quite a distance to the west. The sky was lighting up like fire, but I was stuck in behind hills and had to keep going for awhile before I got to a good vantage point. By the time I got there, the colours were diminishing a bit, but I think it was still worthwhile.
As I drove back, I checked my phone and Wayne had left a message for me saying they would really like me to stay in the house that night and not in my car... aww. So these complete strangers set me up in their spare room and fed me while we had a good chat and compared dolphin photos. Then, I collapsed into bed... swimming is one of the only things that guarantees to tucker me out!
Up next... White Island, finally! And one of my favourite/best pictures from the entire trip... what could it be?
It looked like a perfect day and I happily trotted off to the White Island Tours office for my boat trip, where my bubble was promptly burst when I was told it was cancelled due to... weather conditions! I looked out the window at the clear blue sky and sunshine, and raised one eyebrow at the guy. It seemed that White Island, being 60km off the mainland, was subject to much different weather conditions and the winds near the island were around 30 knots! This made landing any vessel dangerous, and so the trip had been rescheduled for the next day. I really did want to go, so I signed up and wandered off to find something else to do for the day. One thing I knew I wanted to do before leaving New Zealand was swim with dolphins, but I wasn't planning on doing this in Whakatane because I was already doing a paid activity with White Island, and I try to spread them out since I don't do many of them. But I walked down the main street and one of the first shops I found was a dolphin swimming company... so I went in to see what it was all about, and they had a boat leaving in 45 minutes (the only one for the day)! Plus, I had a COUPON. How could I say no? Soon enough, it was time to don wetsuits, and choose masks, snorkels, and flippers. We went out the back door of the shop, walked half a block down and across the street, and we were at the boat docked at the river... now that's accessibility! Their regular boat was having maintenance done, so we would be cruising on what looked like a glorified dinghy, but turned out to be a sturdy seafaring vessel.
A photo taken by Wayne, a friend I'll tell you about shortly:
We were on the boat for about half an hour before the skipper found the dolphins -- although there are estimated to be about 25,000 Common Dolphins in the area, it's still the OCEAN and the ocean is BIG, so it's really a wonder that they can find them at all. But when we did find them, they numbered in the hundreds; there were several occasions when I looked out over the sparkling teal water to see up to a dozen dolphins surfacing simultaneously within my angle of view. They also raced effortlessly alongside the boat, just below the surface, sleek grey bodies shining as they arced up and down through the spray from the boat. The first group we encountered mostly consisted of mothers and babies, so we did not go in the water with them (it is illegal and probably dangerous too). The next group was promising until a feeding frenzy erupted: hundreds of Australasian Gannets competed with the dolphins for pilchards (sardines), circling nonchalantly and then suddenly folding their wings and dropping torpedo-like at 100km/h into the water, to emerge moments later with a glistening prize in their mouths. After enjoying this spectacle, we moved on and were given the all-clear to enter the water with the next pod who were approaching. We were told to sit on the edge of the boat while it was still moving, and when given the "Go, go, go!" call, jump in the water as the engine was shut off. The boat was still moving slowly as we did this, and it was a strange feeling to slide awkwardly into the water with flippers on as the boat opposed our motion. I suppose the dolphins are coming to ride the waves from the boat, and they would lose interest if we were not in the water before the waves dissipated. The method worked, and I immediately greeted with a half-dozen dolphins swimming swiftly around me. At times they were within arms-reach, then playfully dove down so deep that they disappeared from view, only to rocket to the surface moments later. The water was filled with their squeals and clicking sounds. We swam with three different pods, and with the last one, I had seven dolphins quite interested in me who stayed in proximity for about a minute before darting off again (a long time when dealing with such a fast-moving creature).
Here are the photos I took before we went in the water.
Catching a jump picture has a lot of luck involved.
They were usually swimming in pairs or threes.
This is the splash from a Gannet dive-bombing at 100km/h.
We were then given the opportunity to go to a nearby island (Whale Island, shown in viewpoint photo from the last NZ post) to swim with SEALS! I didn't even know you could do that! At most seal colonies there are signs up warning you not to get too close, as they can be aggressive and bite. But the skipper said that if you give them their space and let them come to you, there are no problems. When we arrived, five seals were lazily sunning themselves in a shallow rock pool, lifting a flipper here and there as if to dismiss any worries. We (the guide, myself, and one of the other swimmers -- the rest were afraid!) swam within 10 meters of them, and were then instructed to wait until they approached. Sure enough, one found us interesting enough to investigate. She swam around us and at one point swam straight towards me while I had my head under the water! The whiskered face veered to the side at the last second, leaving me breathless and in a cloud of tiny bubbles. The skipper then spotted the bull seal coming from around the bend to check up on his ladies, so we went back to the boat to ensure we didn't disturb them. Once there, the other seals came out into the bay and put on a real show: think of a game of seal "tag". They lept from the water to greet each other with the touch of a nose, then raced away to be subsequently chased.
Here is a video of us swimming that I snagged off of Wayne...
(the guide, Megan, has yellow flippers; I am to the left of her)
Click to viewWhale Island up close.
On the way back to the mainland, I was chatting with the couple in the row of seats behind me. My car camping came up in conversation and I was saying how I had slept in that scenic viewpoint the last two nights because there weren't any cheap campgrounds around and I just needed a safe place to park my car. The people in the row behind them (Wayne and Helena) heard this and piped up, "You can come park in our driveway if you like!". I thought that sounded like a better idea, so I accepted and got them to mark their address on my map when we got back. I decided to go for a random little drive before heading over there, and then ended up chasing the sunset quite a distance to the west. The sky was lighting up like fire, but I was stuck in behind hills and had to keep going for awhile before I got to a good vantage point. By the time I got there, the colours were diminishing a bit, but I think it was still worthwhile.
As I drove back, I checked my phone and Wayne had left a message for me saying they would really like me to stay in the house that night and not in my car... aww. So these complete strangers set me up in their spare room and fed me while we had a good chat and compared dolphin photos. Then, I collapsed into bed... swimming is one of the only things that guarantees to tucker me out!
Up next... White Island, finally! And one of my favourite/best pictures from the entire trip... what could it be?