Kaikoura: We swim with seals and dolphins!!! – March 2007

Kaikoura: We swim with seals and dolphins!!!
Our first stop out of Christchurch was Kaikoura, on the northeast coast of the South Island. It was my favorite place on earth!!!! Why? Number 1, the seals. Number 2, the dolphins. Number 3, the whales.

New Zealand only has one native mammal, and that is the bat. Although there are a few introduced mammal species, the country is relatively lacking in cute, furry animals. There are lots of native bird species, but not being a bird-watcher, we didn’t see tons of them. Plus, a lot of them are nocturnal.

But what New Zealand does have is marine life galore!!! All sorts of marine animals, and what we were lucky enough to see in Kaikoura were the sperm whales, the dolphins, and the seals. Even on land, as we walked around the peninsula, we practically tripped over the seals. They sunned themselves on the rocks and some of them even laid out on the rocky borders of the peninsula’s parking lot! These ones didn’t mind if you approached to within a couple of feet, although of course, you have to be guarded and do it slowly so as to gauge their reaction. Some of them looked as if they were even putting on a show for us!

We also took a boat to sea in order to whale-watch. We saw three different sperm whales and their tales as they came to the surface for air and then dove under again. We only saw 10% of the whale’s body length, but even that, so close to the boat as it was, literally took my breath away. The utter enormity of the animal is hard to fathom, hard to come to grips with. It’s one thing knowing how big a whale is, but it’s another thing being right next to it. These animals are so big that a car can fit inside just one of their stomachs!

I was at first disappointed to learn that we had missed the appearance of killer whales hunting other marine mammals on the beach off Kaikoura, but when it was explained that the killer whales chase off the dolphins, I was glad that the killer whales were gone. For I was excited to see the dolphins. From our whale-watching tour, we came across a pod of hundreds of dolphins, many of them jumping and pirouetting in the air before our boat!

Better yet, on our tour the following day, we got in the water and swam with a pod of 400 dolphins! They were all around us, above and below and to the sides. They swam towards us, just narrowly missing us. It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience!

If that was incredible, swimming with seals was even more incredible. For the dolphins that day had not been interactive, although they were so close to us. The seals, however, seemed to love interacting with us. Although awkward on land, they were very graceful underwater and would look at us with their big eyes and invite us to dive down and play with them. I wasn’t very good at the diving part, but Stephane was, and each time he went down, the seals would follow him and swim around him in circles. They were very playful, and we could often reach out to touch them.

Our experience with the marine life in Kaikoura was AMAZING and quite possibly my favorite part of our whole trip!!! It was so awesome! I HAVE to get back here someday!!!!!