My sister came to visit us, so I took some time of to explore the south island with her. To kick off our trip, we made a dream come true and went swimming with wild dolphins. We left Wellington with the first ferry to Picton on Saturday morning together with Mary, Reece and Roderick.
As dolphin swimming was scheduled on Sunday, we looked for a hike around Picton and decided to do the first bit of the Queen Charlotte Track which leads up and down the hills along the Marlborough Sounds. We drove out to Te Mahia Bay and from there we walked up to the first viewing point on 416 m. Up there we enjoyed our lunch and hung out in the sun for a while, before we hiked back and all the way down to check out waterfall bay. For more info in the hike head over to the DOC.
We headed to the office E-Ko Tours in the harbor on Sunday morning. We got our wetsuits and a short introduction from the crew, before taking the boat out into the Queen Charlotte Sound. It didn’t take to long to find the first pod of dusky dolphins. But we couldn’t go in the water just yet. The guys from E-Ko Tours first assess the behavior of the dolphins to see if they are in the mood to interact with us. Partly not to disturb these wild animals feeding or nursing but also to make sure we meet some curious and relaxed ones willing to stick around for a bit when we jump into the freezing water. But these dolphins vanished as quickly as the appeared. As we found them the second time, the rode along the boat for while and everything seemed like they were in a playful mood. But when we all got ready to jump into the water the sneaky dolphins decided to bail again.
Searching them for the third time, we made it all the way out of the sound into the cook straights, turned around and headed back to Picton. Even though we still had about an hour to get there, we almost thought that we won’t encounter the dolphins again. Then all a sudden we saw at least a hundred birds dropping out of the sky, diving into the water. Those birds were Australian Gannets and they like to snatch fish out of the water, that dusky dolphins herded to the surface. This is the sign that dusky dolphins are in the water. And then we realized that the boat was surrounded by at least a few dozen dolphins.
Quickly we put on the masks, zipped up the wetsuits and jumped into the water to get closer. We spend a few minutes in the water and there were a few dolphins coming close. We got out followed the dolphins with the boat and went in for two more times. It was amazing! At times there were five or six dolphins circling around us and a curious juvenile accompanied by its mom couldn’t get enough of us weird singing humans. Yeah, we were singing loud and of pitch, as any kind of noises make dolphins curious to stick around. It was truly amazing and the guys from E-Ko Tours make it a great experience. Check out some pictures and a short video below. For more infos of a ticket to go swimming yourself, head over to E-Ko Tours Facebook or Website.
Nice one!