Day 252 – 10 April 2010: Now Mr Dolphin, would you just stay still for a moment while I take your picture

Despite having a little too much to drink last night, I manage to get up in time for my swimming with dolphins trip, for which I have to get to the ‘Dolphin Encounter’ office / shop for 5:30. I will be a dolphin swimmer with a hangover, though I suppose the sea water will perk me up.

Out on the boat, which is full of a party of university age girls from Denmark, we quickly come across a large pod of dusky dolphins. There must be at least 150 of them, and they don’t just jump out of the water in a merry dance, many of them do full 180° plus back flips and 360° somersaults. At about two metres, they are larger than hector dolphins, but not as large as bottlenoses, which I imagine are nowhere near as acrobatic these are. Why are they so displaying? It may be a form of flirting with the females, as scientists have discovered that males do a lot more of the acrobatics than females. It may just be play. It may be that they do it just because they can.

I have hired an underwater camera for the trip. We are kitted out in wetsuits, masks and snorkels and when we get close enough to the dolphins and they play around the boat it is our cue to join them. We are told that we need make noises and movements to get their attention while in the water if we want them to swim around us. I quickly get a group darting past me. I am desperately trying to get a good picture, but they are far too quick for the camera’s digital delay. I start swinging my arms and legs and shaking my booty to attract them. A few circle me briefly, but all this means as that I am spinning around in circles trying to get a picture while also making nonsense wibble wobble noises and shrieks. Finally, I put the camera on video setting, so that I can at least pull some stills from that.

The water is bracing and I am conscious that I am swimming in sea a couple of kilometres deep, so I am quite relieved when we are called back in. We dive in for 20 minutes or so a couple more times, but I have to admit that I preferred watching the dolphins from the comfort and relative warmth of the boat. While they do get close to you in the water, they don’t stop to shake fins or anything. In fact, you are officially not allowed to touch them, although you would have to be fish shaped to be able to do so I feel. And that would mean that they would probably want to eat you. From the boat, I can see endless dolphins leaping, flipping and spinning about and they often come right up close to it. I get the feeling that they are showing off to us at least as much as flirting with their females.

After the last swim, there are a lot of young Danish ladies getting changed out of the wet suits, so I have to find a corner somewhere in which to avert my eyes.

Back at the dockings, the boat, which is big enough to carry over thirty people, is lifted out onto a trailer towed by a tractor, as with in Abel Tasman. It saves mooring costs I suppose.

Tomorrow we will be catching the ferry to the North Island, so we drive up to Picton through Marlborough wine country. We had considered doing a wine tasting tour, but someone would have to drive, so we decide it would be unfair on whoever that would be. We stop to have lunch at Sea Views beach which we reach by driving down a steep dirt track. The beach is occupied by a bunch of fishermen with run down cars and beat up 4x4 vans. We had some concern that Olive wouldn’t be able to make it back up the track as she is resolutely not four wheel drive. However, I have faith in her and she makes it up without much protest.

Driving through Picton, it looks much as you might expect a working port town to look, but as we drive up the valley overlooking it, the scenery is much more attractive with views over the bay surrounded by forest laden hills and mountains.

We camp at Aussie Bay DoC campsite, which is another picturesque site by a lake.

Swimming in Dolphins in Kaikoura - pics and videos link

Day 251 – 09 April 2010: Whales over Kaikoura Canyon

We stayed at a hotel come campsite last night. Although we have use of a kitchen and showers, it is probably the worst place we have stayed at in New Zealand so far as it is a bit run down, not that this makes it bad compared to a lot of the places we have stayed at before we came to NZ. The ground is bumpy and sloped so is not very good for camping on and Mary hates it, so we decide to move to the Alpine Pacific Holiday Park. This is a bit further out of town, but the facilities are top notch, with a large modern and clean kitchen and a swimming pool and Jacuzzi outside.

There’s a full boat of tourists for my whale watching trip. The whales come here because there is a canyon in the bay meaning the whales can descend up to 2.5km below the surface. The captain of boat has an underwater stethoscope to pick up whale song, though the various whale watching boats keep in contact with eachother if any of them spot a whale. Also, a helicopter hovering over a particular spot is also a give-away. The crew know all the whales in the bay by name. The one we find is a sperm whale of about 16m long, though from the boat you can only see half of it when it surfaces. It does this for about 20 minutes at a time before dropping into the depths to feed with a swish of its tail and then returning to the surface after another 25 minutes or so. The viewing would have been better in a helicopter as I am sure you can see more of the whale. Obviously, it is also a far more expensive option though. I would have thought the whale feels a bit hassled too, though I guess they must be used to it.

We also come across some dolphins in the bay, including a few hector dolphins, which are only found around New Zealand and are now endangered with about 27,000 left. At about 1.4m in length, they are some of the smallest dolphins on earth, but their appearance, with a pale mixture of greys with black fins, is one of neat elegance.

After the whale watching, I catch up with Caz and Mary, who have been out to watch sheep sheering at a farm. We drive just out of town to a car park by some cliffs and a rocky shore where seals and sea birds congregate. One seal lays oblivious on the rocks just by the edge of the car park, while people queue up to stand near it and have their picture taken.

I spend the evening sipping wine out of a box while resting in the Jacuzzi.

leaping dolphins

 

the Hector Dolphin

Day 250 – 08 April 2010: champion pub quizzers of Kaikoura

We drive past Blenheim, a town I suppose is named after the palace in England which was the birthplace and home of Winston Churchill. However, this Blenheim doesn’t look very palatial.

We stop for lunch at a nearby gravel beach, where the car park is occupied by some more immaculate 1950s cars.

When we get to Kaikoura, I book a whale watching trip for the next day. In the evening we go to a pub and enter the pub quiz which we win. Despite having consumed more than enough cider, I answered most of the questions with Caz helping out with some pop related questions and those that require actual intelligence rather than an ability to absorb lots of random and useless bits of information. The prize: more alcohol and by the time the pub quiz finishes, it is the last thing I need.

Day 249 – 07 April 2010: Murder Bay

The kayaking experience is a relaxing and scenic paddle around the bay. I was hoping for a bit more adrenaline, perhaps with a bit of surf, but the sea is calm today. Also, I am in a group of eight people occupying four two person kayaks. My kayaking partner is half of a lesbian couple of vaguely retirement age. She doesn’t have the energy for anything too strenuous, though she does have extremely hairy legs. This means that I have to expend more energy to make up for her periodic breaks in paddling. As I am at the back, I at least dictate which direction we go.

The tide here is very shallow. We had to walk a couple hundred metres to get to the sea, but we are told by our young female guide that the sea will cover the whole beach at high tide.

The highlight of the kayaking is a paddle by a colony of seal mothers and their pups resting on the rocks by an island in the bay and some swim in the shallows around the rocks. I am now used to the lazy / aggressive behaviour of sea lions, but seals are much more curious and engaging, though with pups they are a little more cautious than they otherwise might be.

The bay is called Golden Bay nowadays, but the kayaking guide Lena explains how it was initially dubbed Murderers Bay by Abel Tasman. When Tasman’s ship came into the bay, they saw some Maoris who waved at them. Abel Tasman wasn’t to know that by waving back, he was giving a positive response to the locals sign language for ‘do you want war?’. The landing party that Tasman sent to shore were treated as invaders and thus despatched by the Maoris, so Tasman himself never landed here, despite this area now being Abel Tasman National Park.

My kayak trip ends on a secluded beach where we have lunch before I am sped back to shore. The beach is now entirely covered by the sea, and the speed boat is lifted out of the water and hoisted onto a trailer on the back of a tractor while we are still on board. The tractor takes us back to the campsite.

After a few more hours the ladies come back from their walking trip and we set off towards Kaikoura on the east coast, where dolphins and whales occupy the bay. We stop to camp in between Nelson and Blenheim at another DoC campsite, this time coming across it by accident as it is dark by the time we find it. It’s more expensive than usual at $10 per head, but it’s worth it as it has showers and gas hobs to save us using up the gas in our camping hob.

There’s more wildlife at this campsite, with a black possum around the trees. I also spot a kiwi bird....or is it a Weka again? It’s too dark to tell.

Day 248 – 06 April 2010: Pancake Rocks, Abel Tasman and my cunning culinary plan

I get up early to explore the surrounding wilderness. Firstly, there are the grounds of an old hotel now demolished, which is now full of raised timber. Secondly, we all go for a walk through some derelict mining tunnels immersed in the forest. The rock faces are now coloured decoratively by moss on the outer edges and internally by minerals deposited by the seeping water.

On the coastal road towards Greymouth, we follow an immaculate seventies Chrysler Continental, which is in turn following a similarly aged but spotless Cadillac. Kiwis do like their old cars. Another oddity on the road later on is a modestly statured two floor wooden cottage built on the back of a truck. Perhaps caravanning wouldn’t seem so uncool if they were all like this. It brings to mind the old woman in a shoe nursery rhyme.

We stop on the coast at Pancake Rocks, aka Punaiki. The rocks are so called because the rocks tower up with the appearance of stacked layers and geologists are unsure of their origin. This is also the site of spectacular blow holes, but we are too early for high tide to catch them at their peak.

From here, we drive up to Abel Tasman National Park, the moniker coming from the Dutch Explorer who was the leader of the first European expedition to discover New Zealand. We stop at Marahau, a seaside village a half hour drive from Motueka, the main town on the south side of Abel Tasman.

We camp at the commercial site. We are told that all the tourist related operations here are all owned by one family. I would guess the family would make a very good living from all the tours and activities available here, but the house near the campsite with a post box marked with the family’s name is a modest bungalow with a pick-up parked behind it.

I book a half day sea kayak tour for tomorrow at the campsite office, and a water taxi will speed me back across the bay. The girls book a water taxi and walking tour.

Tonight I am cooking, using the campsite cooking facilities. While Mary has done all her cooking stints outdoors, often in the cold and rain, we have agreed that we will stay in more comfortable accommodation than the DoC campsites every three days, which conveniently coincides with my cooking turns.

Day 247 – 05 April 2010: the contradictory situation of the kiwi

While the girls go on their helicopter ride onto the glacier followed by a walk down it, I go on a quad bike ride over a rocky glacial plain. I am the only paying member of the group (NZ $150), the other two being the guide and girl from Cheshire who works at the company’s booking office.

When I went quad biking in Turkey, I ended up being told off by the teenage guide for driving too aggressively, which was surprising considering that the man in the office where we picked up the quad bikes advice was to avoid going by the police station if any of us didn’t have a driving licence. On this trip however I am encourage to go fast, as we are going through streams and, off the official track area into woodland, muddy terrain. At one point, we come across a long patch of thick mud, where even my guide gets stuck. When I manage to navigate my bike through without a hitch, I feel quite smug.

In conversation, I tell him that I have been overland across Europe, Asia and Australia before getting here, and that I think New Zealand is the most beautiful country of all. ‘We know’, he says. ‘Shame about the people who live here though’, I respond in jest. New Zealanders are actually a very friendly bunch. Except for the ones who aren’t. But as the New Zealander I talked to at the Morris Minor campsite we stayed at the night before going to Milford Sound said, there are arseholes everywhere. Unlike one or two countries I have been to, nobody here has threatened to kill me. Yet.

The girls come back thrilled with their helicopter experience and, more so, the walk over the glacier and through its ice caves and crevices.

After our respective adventures, we move along up the west coast, stopping to camp at the DoC site near Hokitika. This is an old mining area, and some fellow campers are fossicking for gold in the nearby stream. They are friendly enough, but when we ask if they have found anything, the response is poker faced silence.

In the evening, there are some more of what I had thought were Kiwis (the birds) wandering around us. They look like a good meal, and are flightless easy prey too, so it is not a surprise to learn that they are endangered in this hunting friendly land, despite them being the national bird. However, I am told that what I see are probably Wekas / woodhens, a similar looking bird with a smaller beak.

whether there be gold, I'm not sayin'